Chapter Thirty-Seven

Only a few weeks had passed since John and Natalie had gotten engaged, but it seemed like all anyone was talking about was plans for their wedding. John had gone to the local jewelry store and picked out a simple three stone engagement ring the day after proposing and presented it to Natalie the following morning over breakfast. And since then, all of Natalie's days off work had been spent being dragged into bridal shops, florists and bakeries by Vicki and Jessica and John noticed that each time he came home there were more and more flyers and samples taking up the living room. But, being a typical guy he just stayed out of it and continued to assure Natalie that whatever she chose would be fine with him. And he meant it too, as he wanted Natalie to have the wedding of her dreams.

The Community center/ Woman's shelter had successfully opened, and Natalie loved her new job. It was tough at times, and often emotional having to see so many battered women and children, but she took pleasure in knowing how much she was helping them. However, as much as she loved it, it was hard work.

That Friday was especially tough as they had five more women show up, one of which needed medical attention. Natalie's morning had been spent dealing with that, and it was nearly noon before she managed to get back to her desk. She was just starting to get organized and into some of the paper work when the phone on her desk rang.

"My I please speak to Natalie Buchanan?" An elegant voice politely asked once Natalie had picked up the phone.

"This Natalie, how may I help you?"

"Good Afternoon Ms. Buchanan, this is Cynthia Price, the wedding planner that has been hired to help with your wedding. I am so sorry you were unable to make the meeting yesterday."

"Oh, hi," Natalie replied still slightly distracted as she thumbed through the files that had amounted on her desk.

"I'm calling because I have looked into all the things your mother and sister suggested at lunch yesterday and wanted to make sure you wanted me to go ahead with them."

Natalie remembered Jessica mentioning something about meeting with the wedding planner, but things had become hectic at the center and she had unable to get away and told them to just go on without her. "Uh huh."

"Okay, well I spoke to your grandmother this morning about the Palace, and she said that they could easily accommodate the fifteen piece string orchestra as long as your guest list stays at 300 people, and doesn't go any higher then that. And while we are on the topic of the reception, the menu had been confirmed and includes the first course of oysters and caviar, the second course of the salad, and the main course of the filet mignon covered in a green peppercorn sauce."

'Fifteen piece string Orchestra? 300 people? Caviar? Green sauce?' The wedding planner now had Natalie's full attention as she dropped the file and opened her mouth to speak, but the other woman rushed on.

"Now, your sister mentioned something about your fiancé being a little more down to earth, so if he's uncomfortable with the horse drawn carriage, it's not too late to look into something more conventional like a white convertible. And finally, the love doves. Would you like them released outside the church after the ceremony or from the terrace at the Palace during the reception?"

Suddenly feeling as is she was trapped in some sort of nightmare, Natalie couldn't take it anymore. "No, No, No!" she snapped unable to control her self.

"You no longer want the doves?" The other woman asked oblivious to Natalie's frustration.

Taking a few deep breaths, Natalie forced herself to remain calm. "Ms. Price, I know how much hard work you have gone too, but unfortunately I will no longer be needing your services. I can assure you that I will make sure you are sent a check to cover all your effort and I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you." Without allowing the other woman to get another word in, Natalie hung up the phone suddenly feeling a lot better then she had in weeks. Closing all her files and pushing them to the side of her desk, Natalie stood up and grabbed her purse.

In all her work at the center she had let things go too far and it was finally clear what she needed to do.

John glanced up from the file he was examining when Natalie burst through his door. Seeing the look of sheer determination on her face, John inwardly groaned knowing firsthand how dangerous that look could be.

"What's up?" The words were barely out of his mouth when Natalie burst out,

"I want to elope."

"What?"

"Let's just take off to Vegas," but as she remembered her last trip to Nevada Natalie paused for a second and then shook her head, "no not Vegas, but AC. Lets just drive down to AC and get married on the boardwalk."

"Natalie, we've already started to plan everything…"

"It doesn't matter because I just fired our wedding planner."

"We had a wedding planner?" John asked unable to keep the surprise out of his voice.

"Yeah, it was news to me too. But she's gone now so we are free to go and elope."

John would have burst out laughing at the absurdity of the conversation if Natalie hadn't looked so serious and determined. "Natalie's we can't do that. We have the Church and the Palace booked and the invitations have gone out…"

"So? Blair and Todd have called off weddings on the day of."

"Do we really want to be compared to them?" he asked dryly.

Suddenly Natalie plopped down on his couch looking defeated, "Why are we doing this John? Why are we planning this big wedding?"

A little bit concerned as to where this was going, John stood up and went over to sit beside her. "Because we want to get married…"

"But it's not us. Both of us only go to church for Christmas and other weddings. You hate wearing a tuxedo or a tie, and I hate getting all dolled up with updo's. We both hate champagne, we're both not huge fans of the Palace and neither of us eat caviar or those canapé things. And I hate orchestra music, and we don't know 300 people, and the idea of a horse drawn carriage is insane, and doves? Do we really want doves?" Natalie's voice was rising in panic. "So, why are we doing this?"

Though slightly confused what doves and horses had to do with it, John just smiled at her. She did have a point, as none of that stuff was them, but he knew eloping wasn't the solution. "It's our wedding Natalie, your parents, my mom, Mike, Jess; they all want to be there. We can't take that away from them."

Natalie went silent for a few seconds as she thought about what he was saying. Finally she nodded, "I know, but it is our wedding… the thing we have planned isn't us at all."

"Then we maybe we should start over and plan something that's a little more like us. You said you fired the wedding planner right? Well, that's a start." John said as he pulled her into a reassuring embrace. "It's all going to work out fine, Natalie, and before we know it we'll be married."

Natalie sighed. "You're right. I'm sorry, I've just been so stressed out about the shelter I let my mom and Jess get too involved but that's stopping. As of right now it's going to be what we want."

"Good…" John began but stopped when he noticed Natalie's face suddenly light up. "What?" he asked hesitantly, unsure of what it would be this time.

"Rodi's!" she happily exclaimed.

"Rodi's?" he repeated, a little unsure of what she meant.

"Let's get married at Rodi's."

John looked at her in disbelief. "You want to get married in a bar?"

"Why not? Rodi's is the one place in Llanview that's not only special to us, but is us. How many times have we eaten there? Played pool there? Fought there?" she said lightly. "Rodi's is where we became friends, it's where we had our first kiss, our first date, got engaged…"

"You know I am fine with anything, but are you sure about this Natalie? I mean most women have this whole dream wedding planned out from the time they are 13, and I wouldn't want to take that away from you."

Natalie laughed. "John, I was never the type of girl who planned out a wedding, I was more the one who said 'I am never getting married.' I had the big church wedding and it was nice but it wasn't me. Plus, it means we can push the wedding up too and get married at the end of the month rather then at the end of summer!"

More then a little relieved as this was more his style then the Palace, John smiled. "Rodi's sounds great."

Suddenly feeling as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders, Natalie placed a quick kiss on his lips then jumped to her feet. "I'm going to go talk to Mac now and see what day he has open. Then I have to go and break the news to my mom and Jess that their wedding plans are going to be put on hold until Jessica decides to get married."

Enjoying her apparent excitement, John stood up and whispered "I can't wait to marry you," before drawing her in for a passionate kiss.