"Blair bear, you look absolutely stunning," Harold Waldorf stood beaming on the steps of the New York Public Library.
When Blair had started to drag Dan around to potential wedding locations, both of them had continuously come back to the idea of being married at the library. It was the first stop on their tour of venues and ended up being the only stop they needed to go to (although Blair dragged him to every place she could think of just in case) as the fell in love immediately with being surrounded by books. It was especially fitting, of course, as their reconnection had began at the book signing and both of their careers had to do with books.
Blair grabbed at her skirt, pulling it off of the ground, with the help of Serena following close behind her, and tried to walk carefully up the steps. "You would say that even if I looked like complete shit," Blair said, giving her father a quick smirk. Her dad had tears glistening in his eyes as she came face to face with him. "If you cry, I'll start crying and you do not want to see my anger if I ruin my make up."
"Probably not," Harold agreed, laughing as he engulfed his only daughter into his arms. "I won't say anything more but you really do look absolutely gorgeous. Exactly how a bride should look."
Blair pulled back to give her father a smug smile and turned on the step to face her bridesmaids. "One, two, three… where's Jenny?"
"She's the car with your mom and Cyrus," Serena said, resting her hand on her friend's shoulder. "Don't worry, they will be here in a second. I'm sure we managed to blow through a light that they got stuck behind."
Blair took a deep breath, counting to ten and then releasing. "I'm trying to be zen but it would be much easier if everyone was where they were supposed to be already."
Serena shot a look behind Blair's back to her father who placed his hand on Blair's other shoulder, squeezing gently. "Blair," he said, glancing down at his watch, "the ceremony is not supposed to start for another couple of minutes. You are early, my dear."
Blair turned her head to look at her dad's watch and let out a sigh of relief, "I haven't gotten to look at a clock since we left Serena's house. You know what traffic is like, Daddy. I never know if I'm sitting in New York traffic for a few minutes or an hour."
"Well, it looks like you've made good time," Harold told her before pointing down the steps. "And so did your mother and Cyrus."
"Blair, darling, the driver didn't know the city at all. Cyrus told him to take one turn and he completely ignored him," Eleanor said, briskly walking up the stairs with her husband and Jenny struggling to keep up. "I told him that if I missed my daughter's wedding, he would remember this day for the rest of his life as the worst day on the job."
Blair and Serena shared a look, both of them struggling to keep a straight face. If Blair had been stressed back at Serena's, she had gone into complete fight mode and was, for the most part, cool, calm and collected ever since she had gotten into the back of the car that drove her here. "I'm sure he was very scared of you in that dress," Blair said, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, she was a sight to be seen," Cyrus said, catching his breath. "She almost had him blow through a red light just so we would get here a minute earlier."
"I think he's calling his boss now and trying to get someone else to do weddings for the rest of his life," Jenny piped in. "I thought you were scary, Blair, and then I saw your mom in action."
"Now you know where I get it from. We Waldorf women know what we want and when we want it and God help anyone who stands in our way."
"Here, here," Harold said, glancing down at his watch again. "Speaking of what you want and when you want it, Blair, I think we should be heading in."
Blair gave a curt nod before turning around and starting up the stairs. Serena quickly caught up to her, linking her hand with Blair's, "Are you ready, B?"
Blair squeezed Serena's hand, "I think I'm as ready as I can be."
Blair took a deep breath and closed her eyes, listening to the first sounds of the wedding march as Penelope started to walk down the aisle to area of the room that was circled off in chairs. Blair opened them slowly, watching as Kati turned her head to give Blair a quick smile of encouragement before following Penelope down the aisle.
"You know you can turn back," Jenny said, holding her bouquet to her chest as she turned to look at Blair. "I'm sure you can find someone much better than my brother to marry," she said with a quick wink.
"Probably," Blair teased, "but I'm sure it would be hard to find a sister in law with your wit."
Jenny smiled, reaching out to pat Blair's shoulder before turning back, waiting until Isabelle was six rows before her and started to proceed down the aisle. The last one standing there, besides Rufus and Cyrus, was Serena.
Serena stood next to Blair, "I'll see you down there." She gave Blair a quick hug before taking a few quick steps to reach her spot in the procession.
Rufus linked his arm with Blair while Cyrus did the same on the other side. Blair's hands were gripping her bouquet. Blair nodded slightly before taking her first step down the aisle. Blair was acutely aware of the eyes on her but kept her eyes locked on Dan who was grinning at her from down the aisle. She could feel her cheeks slightly flush as she shyly looked down, focusing on the flowers in her hands, before looking back up at Dan and smiling.
They stopped at the end, Blair turning first to Cyrus who gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before turning to her dad, who's eyes were filling with tears. Blair bit her lower lip, trying to stop herself from mirroring his tears. "I love you, Blair," he said softly, before kissing her cheek and releasing her arm.
Blair took the final steps to the center by herself, handing her flowers to Serena who was standing close by. She turned to Dan, who reached out and Blair grabbed his hand. They tuned together to face the officiant, a judge who had been friends with Blair's parents for all her life.
"We are gathered here today to celebrate-"
She couldn't concentrate on the words he was saying as she kept looking over at Dan, feeling a warmth of pride and joy that the day had finally come that they were getting married. She felt as though a couple of years ago, if she had been faced with the opportunity or chance to date Dan again, she would have messed it up. It had just worked out that she had that book signing at Dan's bookshop just in the moment in her life where she was willing to open up to someone who wasn't Chuck and wasn't someone who was going to break her heart.
"Dan and Blair have chosen to write their own vows," she heard the judge say and brought herself back into reality. "The rings please," the judge said, nodding to Nate and Serena. Dan, if you could," the judge said, waving his hand in the direction of the microphone in front of them.
Dan reached in his pocket, pulling out a small piece of paper before dropping Blair's hand to unfold the paper. "When Blair suggested that we wrote our own vows, I have to admit that I was very nervous but when I brought pen to paper, I realized that there were a lot of things that I wanted Blair to know and that I wanted to promise her." His voice was steady as his eyes moved down from the paper to Blair. "Blair, I am overcome both with excitement and nerves standing in front of you and vowing to try to make you happy for the rest of our days but I want to do just that. I am looking forward to a lifetime of waking up next to you and falling asleep besides you. I promise that I will make the most of every moment we get to have together, to try and find the joys in all of our days and relish both the quiet moments as well as the adventures we will have. I promise that I will trust in the life we have together, grow with you, and challenge you in the same way you challenge me to be a better person. I admire you and the strength you show in your life and vow to be the man every day that you fell in love with. You have filled me with a love that I struggle to find words for, and I promise that every day, I will love you with my whole heart for anything less would not be worthy of a woman like you."
Blair could feel her eyes starting to well up and quickly tried to blink away the tears. She watched as he folded the paper back up and handed it to her, as they had decided earlier to literally exchange the vows that they had written for each other. Blair ran her finger over the edge of the paper before slipping it into the pocket of her dress (the pockets had been a main selling point of the dress when she had been looking at them earlier in the year). Holding out her hand, she watched his as he moved the ring down her finger.
She took a minute to compose herself, trying to steady her heart with a few deep breaths. She then turned to Serena who had been holding Blair's vows in her flowers and took the small folded paper from her best friend. Blair took a few seconds to look down and carefully unfold the paper, taking great care to not rip the page that had been folded and unfolded so many times in the past few days.
"I don't want to hear yours," Blair said, sitting cross legged on their bed. Dan looked confused as he had just agreed to practice their vows. "You'll be fine up there, Dan. You'll be composed and cool and yourself. I just need you to hear mine so I can focus on getting the words out instead of your reaction."
"You know, Blair, I think you are confusing me for a much more cool, calm and collected version of myself."
Blair scrunched up her face, "You know you'll be fine."
Dan shrugged, "I think we'll see how it goes."
Blair reached over from her spot on the bed to her bedside table, slowly sliding open the drawer and grabbing inside her notebook. She opened the cover and a small, folded up sheet fell out of it and into her lap. Unfolding the piece of paper, she took a deep breath.
"Dan Humphrey," Blair exhaled, imagining them in their bedroom instead of in front of her closest friends and family members, "to paraphrase a better writer than myself, my love for you is selfish. I cannot survive without you. I used to think that the notion of soulmates was something I would never encounter, doubting it's every existence, but with the way that I ache to be around you when you are not there proves, to me, that I had it all wrong. I truly believe that you came into my life and filled in the holes that I hadn't realized were even there."
Dan reached out for Blair, grabbing her legs and pulling her body closer to his on the bed. "You know you've always been complete, right?"
Blair glared at him, "Dan, I am in the middle of vowing my soul to you. Have some respect please."
Dan smirked, making the motion of zipping his lips and then motioning for her to continue.
"Thank you. As I was saying… filled in the holes that I hadn't realized were even there and for that, I promise to entrust you completely with my heart and not hold back. I promise that I will choose fight instead of flight when things get tough and that I will weather the storms with you by my side. I promise to appreciate the little and big things you do. I vow to be generous with my love and careful with my words. I promise to always want the best for you and to put us before me. I am so lucky that you came into my life at the exact moment when I needed you and, more importantly, when I was ready to accept the love you give to me so selflessly. I vow that I will spend the rest of my life trying to give that back to you because there's no one in this world that I think could make me as happy as you do."
"Wow," Dan said, wiping his eyes.
"Are they okay?" Blair asked nervously.
Dan cupped her face with his hand, "They're beautiful." He leaned in to kiss her before she turned her head away. "What?"
"We have to save some things for the ceremony," she said.
Blair felt a tear drop from her face to the piece of paper and looked up from it to Dan, whose eyes were also glistening with tears. She folded the piece of paper without looking at it, knowing the folds by heart, before handing it to him, their hands lingering together for a moment before he slipped it into his pocket. Blair turned to Serena for the ring and slid it slowly down Dan's finger.
"With the powers vested in me by the state of New York, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride."
Blair and Dan were both beaming at each other as they each stepped closer to the other. Dan bent down slowly, his hand resting on Blair's neck and Blair moved her hand to the side of his face as they leaned into each other. Blair leaned into him, putting pressure on her toes, as they kissed. Dan moved his other hand to her lower back and dipped her.
