2016

"I don't think it is possible that anything else could go wrong," an exasperated Gabriella declared to her mother and the mother of the groom on December 15th.

She was wrong.

December 17th was the big day. December had always been their month and so, shortly following their engagement Christmas Eve the year before, they'd made a quick decision – Gabriella and Troy wanted a December wedding. There had been some tough decisions along the way, but on the whole, the planning came together smoothly. The wedding was taking place in Colorado, at Keystone Resort – the very location where Troy and Gabriella had first met back on New Years Eve of 2006. They knew that it was a major expense for people at an already expensive time of year, however they didn't particularly care. They gave an entire nine months notice to their guests, giving people the opportunity to plan and if necessary budget accordingly.

Planning a wedding remotely had been tough – on only one occasion prior to the wedding had both Troy and Gabriella been at Keystone together, and she and Taylor had visited together for a long weekend on a separate occasion to work out some other plans. However on the whole they had things fairly well organised. Despite the planning and organisation, as things inevitably would occur around the holidays and in the lead up to big occasions like weddings – things started to go wrong.

In September it had been Taylor McKessie-Thomas announcing that she and her husband James were expecting – and the side effect that the dress that was already purchased and in her closet ready for her matron of honour duties would most likely not accommodate even the smallest of baby bumps that she was likely to have come December.

In October it had been Troy battling with a new managing editor about the leave he'd pre-arranged with his previous managing editor for December and January – with a whole month off for the wedding, and then he and Gabriella's Christmas and New Years honeymoon. Fortunately, they came to an agreement, however it had caused sudden anxiety and stress that Gabriella didn't need.

In November, it was the news that the hair and makeup stylist who Gabriella had arranged to come to Keystone from Denver had come down with mononucleosis, and that they were expecting she would still be out of commission at the time of the wedding.

However all the little mishaps along the way simply could not compare to December.

"Hi Gabriella, this is Candice!" the bubbly voice of the event planner who was their primary contact at Keystone Resort came over Gabriella's cell phone early one morning. Her voice sounded almost a little too cheery.

"Hi Candice, I wasn't expecting to hear from you for another week. Is there something you didn't cover in our phone meeting last week?"

"Uh, no no. I don't suppose you've been looking at the weather much the last couple of days?"

Gabriella frowned. "Not really, to be honest, I've been really busy trying to get ahead in my caseload."

"Well, there's been some really bad storms coming through the area. Uh... I'm just going to say it, there's no other way to do it. The Lodge has sustained some damage during the storm. Only to one area - and it will affect your rehearsal dinner plans. So we're going to have to have a conversation about figuring out an alternative." Candice paused. "Have you considered an outdoor rehearsal dinner?"

"In December, in Colorado?" Gabriella said in disbelief.

Candice laughed nervously. "You're right, silly idea. We are tight for space though... you guys are from New York, you probably eat pretty late, right?"

...

A week before the wedding and a few days away from when they were due to fly to Colorado, Troy was out for a night with the boys – friends from high school and college had come to New York for an epic Bachelor party, since he wasn't able to bridge the distance to them. She was happy for him to go out, and she trusted Troy implicitly. However she didn't necessarily trust all of his friends - with good reason.

Gabriella was awoken by her phone trilling. She blearily glanced at the digital alarm clock, reading 3:16am, and picked up her cell phone to see Troy's picture.

"Hello?" she said groggily.

"Oh my God, babe! Did I wake you up? I love you!" Troy's slur of a voice came through the phone.

She sighed, and rubbed at her eyes. "Troy. Are you just ringing to tell me you love me? Because I know that. And you can show that by letting me sleep."

"Uhhh nooo. We uh... there's been an incident."

She knew that tone in his voice. It sounded the tone in his voice the day when they'd been home over summer during college, and she'd stood terrified behind him while he had to tell his father that he'd accidentally driven Jack's car into a tree. What he didn't tell Jack was that Gabriella had been a little handsy at the time of the accident, following on from a frisky trip to the cinema.

"An incident?" she said warily.

"Yeah. Uh... Jason was arrested."

...

When they arrived in Colorado a few days before the wedding was when all the little details began to fall apart – their flower arrangement was delayed in arriving due to a mix-up in the ordering; a last minute check of the menu for the wedding revealed that the wrong appetisers had been noted down, and that due to lack of availability of produce, it was too late to change the menu; the night before the wedding it was uncovered that the seating chart, which had been blown up for both the entrance into the reception area as well as printed into the little commemorative wedding booklets, had multiple spelling errors, the bakery had accidentally put a little blonde haired bride on top of the cake.

By the night of the rehearsal dinner, Gabriella was a wreck. She clenched her teeth and smiled through the evening, but Troy knew that she was more upset than she was letting on. A small word in the ear from his mother confirmed this. And then as he sat alone late at night in his room – separate to Gabriella, for the night before the wedding – he saw her late night Facebook status update of, "Tomorrow I become Mrs. Bolton. If we're lucky and the chapel doesn't set on fire."

He shook his head, pulled on a pair of sweatpants, a t-shirt and an old Cal sweatshirt, and padded down the corridor and up a floor to where her room was on the level just above. He knocked softly on her door, waiting a moment until her voice called through softly, and questioningly, "Hello?"

"Babe, it's me."

"Go away!" she cried. "Haven't we had enough bad luck? We can't see each other!"

"It's only 11:45pm. Let me in," Troy urged her.

He waited, and surely enough a moment later, the door opened. She was wrapped in a white fluffy dressing gown, and one look at her told him that she was stressed, and had probably been crying.

"Babe," he sighed, and took her by the hands, taking her over to the bed. She sat down next to him, tucking her freshly manicured feet up under her.

"I'm sorry, you shouldn't be dealing with this tonight. Your mom shouldn't have said anything."

"She didn't need to say anything, I knew you weren't yourself at the rehearsal dinner. And little snarky Facebook updates don't help."

"I just... I know I was being naive thinking that I could have a perfect wedding. I thought that between me and Tay and our overbearing mothers that maybe, just maybe, we would be that couple who have the perfect magical event with nothing going wrong."

"Gabriella, nothing catastrophic has gone wrong. So what, there's an appetiser with nuts. I don't eat it. Whatever. There's only two things that really matter tomorrow, and unless you're not telling me something, then both of those things are on track to go perfectly."

"What are those two things?"

"Well... I know I'm going to be there. Are you?"

Gabriella smiled, and nodded. "Yes. I will be there."

"Then that's all that really matters. Yeah?"

She took a deep breath. "Okay."

Troy was right.

When December 17th came and she walked down the aisle with her mother by her side, eyes locked on Troy as he beamed at her, anxiously awaiting the moment that they said their 'I do's' and their future began together – none of the details mattered.

It didn't matter that the boutonnieres for the groomsmen froze because they were put into the back of a fridge that was turned up far too high. It didn't matter that she had to take her shoes off halfway through the photos because her feet were already killing her to the point of being unable to walk. It didn't matter that the camcorder that Jason had to take video messages from guests ran out of battery halfway through the reception.

All that mattered was each other.

…

Ten years to the day since they'd met, Troy and Gabriella Bolton were in the streets of Berlin, Germany. The weather was cold, but it had held out and there was no snow. They'd flown to London, then onto Paris for Christmas, and then arrived in Germany on the 30th. The city of Berlin was one massive party on New Years Eve, and in particular, there was a stretch over a mile long that featured live music stages and party tents and refreshment stands along the way.

As the clock struck midnight, the fireworks began to fill the sky with sparks of light and the young couple turned into each other to exchange a soft, tender kiss.

"Happy New Year, Mrs Bolton," Troy murmured by her ear. She could just barely hear him over the sound of the crowd around them, and yet at the same time, it was like it was just the two of them alone.

She blushed – her new not even yet official name made her tingle. "Happy New Year to you, husband," she responded.

"So how does this Christmas and New Years rank against all the other ones we've spent together over the last ten years?" Troy asked.

She considered this, and then responded with three words that summed it all up.

"Best December ever."