"Are you ready, Lu?" Lucky asked quietly, not bothering to glance over at his little sister. He could feel her tense body next to his, constantly smoothing the invisible wrinkles from her pristine white gown.
She nodded timidly at first before forcing her movements to be more confident. Glancing just past the edge of the heavy wooden door, she spotted her groom waiting nervously at the front of the chapel. "I've never been more ready," she whispered, smiling genuinely as the melodic organ music filled the intimate space. Step after step, she made her way down the plush carpet toward Dillon, never breaking his intense gaze. By the time they reached the altar, her entire body was giddy with anticipation. As she slipped her arm from Lucky's and placed her hand in Dillon's, she couldn't imagine why she had ever waited so long.
"Beloved friends and family, we are gathered here today to unite Dillon and Lesley Lu in eternal love in the eyes of God," the priest greeted them. "Never the traditionalists, they have asked me to share a few words from The Irrational Season, a novel by Madeline L'Engle."
"But ultimately there comes a moment when a decision must be made," he continued. "Ultimately two people who love each other must ask themselves how much they hope for as their love grows and deepens, and how much risk they are willing to take…It is indeed a fearful gamble…Because it is the nature of love to create, a marriage itself is something which has to be created, so that, together we become a new creature."
"On this day," he announced, "Dillon and Lulu have chosen to do just that. With vows of unending love and devotion, two individuals will become one. To illustrate this love, Dillon and Lulu have searched their hearts for truly original words to express just how they feel."
"Thinking back, there are probably a million little moments that explain why I fell in love with Dillon in the first place," Lulu began. "From the compassionate boy who let me followed me across the world to help my father to the kindred man who held my hand through the single hardest moment of my life, he has meant everything to me."
"When I sat down to think about my vows, to isolate the single moment when we fell in love, I was at a loss for words," she went on. "How do you summarize the love of a life time? In short, you can't. However, what I could come up with was one of the many times when I knew for certain that he was it for me. It's a fleeting moment, insignificant to most really. When I asked him about it a few days ago, he didn't even remember that day. But those kinds of moments aren't about anyone else, they're about you."
"It was a frigidly cold day in late February, one of those late winter afternoons where the icy wind chills straight to the bone," she described. "Having already had quite a rough day, I had contemplated blowing off my afternoon music theory seminar, a class that sent me walking across a breezy bridge over the ever-busy highway. Between the weather and the drama that is life, it would have been so easy to just skip the class, but a friend convinced me that we should go. At the last minute, I relented and found myself making the trek across the bridge to PCU's music building."
"As we headed past the tennis courts, kids swirled around me, on their way to wherever life took them – work study in the administration building, lunch in the dining hall or class in the science lab. Amongst that mass of people, I could hear a single voice above all others calling out my name. Turning around, I saw a vision that will forever remain cemented into my mind. Standing out in a way completely unique to Dillon, he was jogging against the natural flow of traffic with his signature distressed tees and messy blonde locks tucked sloppily beneath a black stocking cap."
"By the time he reached me," Lulu said, staring into his eyes, "I was giddy with anticipation to just be near him. I met him halfway, literally running into his arms like a clichéd romantic comedy. With a quick spin around, he set me firmly on the ground and smiled a crooked smile that only I could ever understand. Still silent, neither of us speaking a word, he slipped his hand into mine and walked me to class. It was such a small gesture, a very quiet moment, but it spoke volumes."
"When we arrived at the music building, I finally found the words I had been so desperately searching for. I asked what made him come that day, something he had never done before. He simply shrugged and replied that he knew. That unspoken bond has always transcended everything I had ever known, and in that moment, I understood that there really was something to this connection we had always clung to."
Tears welled in Dillon's eyes as he gazed down at her. Holding her hand tightly, he brushed his thumb over her palm, hoping against hope that his words would hold an ounce of the devotion hers had. "There were times when I never thought that we would make it here," he admitted slowly. "I was actually in love with someone else when you came into my life. I thought I was happy until you came crashing in, and then, you turned my world upside down in the best possible way. You were this force to be reckoned with, and you proved you would stop at nothing to get what you wanted."
"You have known my darkest days, and still, you are in love with me," he continued. "Every single day, I am amazed by you – your ability to love me limitlessly, your strength and your grace. I love that in you, I have found it all: a beginning and an end; a best friend and a soulmate; my biggest fan and my best teammate; a teacher and a student."
"On this, our wedding day, I want to share a few lines from a poem that epitomizes everything I want to say to you, Lu," he recited. "I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times…in life after life, in age after age, forever. My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs that you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms, in life after life, in age after age, forever."
"This poem is entitled Unending Love," he concluded. "There are no two words in the English language that could better express just how I felt for you then…feel for you now…will feel for you always."
"And now, Lulu and Dillon will exchange traditional vows as they exchange rings," the priest said. "These rings symbolize their love and faithfulness for each other. As each places it on the other's finger, Dillon and Lulu will commit their heart and soul to one another. These rings will forever serve as a reminder of the vows they have spoken today."
"I, Lesley Lu, take you Dillon to be my husband, my partner in life and my one true love. I will cherish our union and love you more each day than I did the day before. I will trust you and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you, loving you faithfully through good times and bad, regardless of the obstacles we may face together. I give you my hand, my heart, and my love, from this day forward for as long as we both shall live."
"I, Dillon, take you, Lesley Lu, to be my friend, my lover, the mother of my children and my wife. I will be yours in times of plenty and in times of want, in times of sickness and in times of health, in times of joy and in times of sorrow, in times of failure and in times of triumph. I promise to cherish and respect you, to care and protect you, to comfort and encourage you, and stay with you, for all eternity."
"And now, to wish them well in their future," the priest announced, "your four witnesses have chosen a Carl Sandburg poem to share with you."
"I love you for what you are, but I love you yet more for what you are going to be," Nikolas stated first. "I love you not so much for your realities as for your ideals."
"I pray for your desires that they may be great, rather than for your satisfactions, which may be so hazardously little," Elizabeth continued. "A satisfied flower is one whose petals are about to fall."
"The most beautiful rose is one hardly more than a bud where in the pangs and ecstasies of desire are working for a larger and finer growth," Emily recited. "Not always shall you be what you are now."
"You are going forward toward something great," Lucky finished. "I am on the way with you and therefore I love you."
"May your days and years to come be filled with the kind of integrity and joy that will enable you to live through those times ahead which may be tough," the priest told them kindly, "and may your affection for each other grow, thus enriching and strengthening all of us."
"May the love of Dillon and Lesley Lu be strong," he closed, "that no misunderstanding loosen the bond and no passing of the years have the power to dim the light that now glows in them. May they early gain wisdom to discern the true values of life, and may no circumstances take from them the wholesome peace and inward satisfaction which only love can give."
"For as much as you have consented together in holy wedlock, and have witnessed the same before God and these friends, and have pledged your faith to each other, and have declared the same by joining hands and by giving and receiving rings," he ended. "By the power vested in me by the state of Nevada, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride."
Wrapping her arms around his neck, Lulu pulled Dillon down to her so that their lips came crashing together. Dipping her back slightly, he could feel her body melt into his as she gave up all inhibition. As they came back up, a silly grin was plastered across both of their faces. Turning to face their witnesses, Lulu waited anxiously as the priest introduced them. "Lucky and Emily, Nikolas and Elizabeth, please help me in welcoming Mr. Dillon Quartermaine and Ms. Lesley Lu Spencer-Quartermaine."
Jumping up and down giddily, she looked at Lucky. "I'm married!" she nearly screamed, dropping her husband's hand to hug her brother. Then, rushing out of his arms, she headed for her other brother.
"What about me?" Dillon asked in mock agony.
"You have me for the rest of my life," she brushed him off jokingly. "I'm celebrating over here. Quit ruining my moment!"
Reaching for her hand, he spun her toward him. "Our moment."