Hey guy's I know it's been a few weeks, but I have another one shot for you. Someone asked me (I can't remember who, or find the request, sorry) to write one about Jay and Erin renewing their vows since they never had a real wedding. I know this is not what you had in mind, but this is where my head went for some weird reason. Enjoy!
Macy sat on her parent's bed, watching as her mother hung up clean laundry in her closet. iPad in lap, the four year old was distracted from her letter tracing app when she thought of a question for her mother.
"Mommy, what did you wear when you and daddy got married? I never got to see your dress before."
"That's because I didn't wear a dress." Erin turned to her and answered.
Macy's face instantly screwed in confusion. They always wore a big white dress in the movies. "Why not?"
"We didn't have a big fancy wedding where I needed a dress. It wasn't like that." Erin tried to explain, but the look on her daughters face told her she wasn't getting it.
"But mommy, you're supposed to feel special, like a beautiful princess when you get married. I'm sad that you didn't get to."
Taking a seat in front of her daughter on the bed, Erin kissed Macy's forehead, and tucked a light brow curl behind her ear. "I didn't need a dress to feel special. Your daddy makes me feel beautiful every day."
"Well do you have any pictures from the day you got married?"
"Nope. No pictures, baby."
"Oh." Macy answered. Erin could tell she was still confused. Her Aunt Kim and Uncle Adam had a wedding, and she saw Hank and Camille's wedding picture every time she went to her grandpa Hank's house, along with Justin's and Olive's. In her young mind, she couldn't understand why her mommy and daddy didn't have the same thing.
Erin came up with an idea just to entertain her daughter. "What if we make a dress, and then take a picture with daddy to hang up on the wall?" The way her daughters blue eyes lit up, and her dimpled smile popped, made whatever crazy plan Erin had just gotten herself into totally worth it.
"What are we gonna make a dress from?" Macy asked looking around the room.
Erin thought for a moment, before removing the comforter from the bed and taking off the white bed sheet. "This." She held up the sheet up and Macy giggled.
"Perfect!" The four year old laughed.
"Halter, one shoulder, strapless?" Erin held the sheet up to her body different ways letting Macy decide how she liked it.
"I like the one shoulder."
Macy held the sheet in place while Erin tied it on like a toga.
"I'll be right back! You're missing something, mommy." The child jumped off the bed and scurried to her own bedroom. She returned a minute later with a plastic, silver, princess crown with colorful jewels on it in hand. "Perfect!" Macy exclaimed excitedly as Erin turned to look in the mirror.
"You're right, it looks great," Erin lied. She was wearing a ridiculous bed sheet toga and a plastic crown, but if Macy was happy, so was she.
"I still think one thing is missing though. The white thingy that's supposed to go on your head."
"What?" Erin asked attempting to get her daughter to elaborate more.
"You know the white thingy!" Macy did hand jesters to her head trying to communicate what she was thinking of.
"Oh, you mean a veil." Erin figured it out. "Hmm. I don't know what we can make that out of. Any ideas, kiddo?"
"Hmm." Placing her hand on her chin, always about the theatrics, Macy pondered. She broke out in giggles a few seconds later. "What about toilet paper?"
Laughing, Erin agreed. "It'll have to do."
Ten minutes later, Macy waddled down the steps, wearing her own make shift bed sheet dress, and carrying two of Jay's suit jackets. They were about as big as she was, so she was extra careful walking down the stairs. Erin would have carried them but Macy had insisted that, "Daddy isn't allowed to see the bride before the wedding." Somehow Erin's idea to make a dress and take a picture, had warped into a full on mock wedding. She should have known it was coming; Macy had always loved to play dress up, and make believe.
The little girl dropped the suit coats onto the couch and Jay looked up noticing his daughter for the first time. "What's going on my little Grecian princess?" He laughed referring to her hot pink bed sheet toga.
"You and mommy are getting married, okay? I need you to come try on one of these jackets."
"That's funny, I was under the impression that you and Erin were already married." Ruzek joked. He'd stopped over for awhile, and he, Jay, and Micah had been playing video games for the past hour.
"Come on daddy! We don't have all night. The bride is waiting."
"Okay. Okay, Ms. Bossy. I wouldn't want to keep the bride, or her mini me waiting."
"I'm taking this as my key to go." Adam stood from the couch.
"No! Not yet Uncle Ruzek. We need you to be the guy that runs the wedding. You know what I'm talking about?"
"The officiator?" Adam asked.
"I don't know what it's called." Macy shrugged honestly.
With a laugh Adam agreed. "Are you sure you're ready for this type of commitment, Jay? I'm pretty sure I put my name into one of those websites a few years ago, so this wedding might be legally binding."
"I don't think I have much of a choice with the little boss running around." Jay chuckled.
Macy spotted her big brother trying to sneak towards the stairs. "I see you trying to hide Mic, but you have to be part of this too. You can wear daddy's other suite coat."
"Macy, that'll be way to big for me. This is dumb."
"It's gonna be fun. It's just for pretend. Now come on." Just like she had her daddy, Macy also had her older brother completely wrapped around her little finger. Neither could ever tell her no.
When the boys were all dressed and in place, Ruzek holding one of Micah's Magic Tree House books as his pretend bible, Macy scurried back up the stairs to begin.
"Ready." She called from the top of the steps, and Ruzek began to hum a random tune for her to walk to. The child moved confidently, and proud. Jay couldn't help but grin at how adorable and happy she looked.
When Adam began to loudly hum "Here comes the Bride," Erin made her way down the steps. They didn't have any flowers in the house, so Macy had insisted that Erin carry an invisible bouquet, informing her mother that she had to use her imagination.
When Erin and Jay locked eyes they both laughed quietly, not wanting to ruin the moment for their daughter, they held back their full laughs. Erin knew she looked ridiculous, but Jay in his basketball shorts, t-shirt, tie, and suit jacket was a sight in and of itself.
"You look beautiful, that dress is stunning." He winked, taking Erin's hand.
"Thank you. It's one of a kind." She played along.
To begin the fake ceremony Adam quoted some random song lyrics before starting a dirty joke that Jay had to cut off before getting to the punch line in front of the kids. When it came time for Vows, Jay was up first.
"Five minutes ago I was kicking a…" Ruzek cleared his throat before Jay had a chance to swear. "Butt." He corrected himself. "Kicking butt at Madden, and now we're having a impromptu wedding in our living room. You and our daughter are both wearing bed sheets, and our son has on a suit jacket that falls to his ankles, and this doesn't even seem like a strange Saturday night in our house. This is our life, and it's crazy, and sometimes messy, and it's been completely unexpected, but I couldn't imagine being happier than I am right now. I love you, and I love the family you've given me, and most of all I love that you have a veil made out of toilet paper on your head right now."
The kids burst out in giggles.
Laughing at his joke, Erin wiped away the fallen tear that were streaming down her cheek. "Why did you have to go and make me cry at our living room wedding? I wasn't expecting you to say all that, so now I'm just gonna wing it."
She cleared her throat. "Our daughter asked me upstairs why I didn't wear a fancy white dress on our real wedding day. She was concerned that I didn't get to have that big day, where I felt beautiful, like in all her movies, so I was honest with her. I told her I didn't need that, because you make me feel beautiful every single day. You believe in me, and encourage me, and challenge me, and you love me, and I can't imagine feeling more completely beautiful than I have in these past five years with you. A few years ago, neither of us would have been caught dead spending our Saturday night this way, lets be real, this is crazy and really weird," she Jay both laughed. "But it's also kinda perfect to just be acting silly with the people I love most in this world, and Ruzek, I guess." She teased.
"Hey!" Adam interjected.
"I love you Uncle Adam!" Micah chimed in.
"Love you too little man."
"Anyways," Erin continued, "I love you, and thank you for being the best father, best husband, and my best friend."
"By the power invested in me, by some website on the Internet, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may now kiss the bride."
Jay dipped Erin back dramatically as they kissed. Micah groaned out an "Ewww," while Macy squealed and giggled with excitement.
Swiftly, Jay scooped Erin into his arms bridal style. "Bye kids, you're staying at Uncle Adam's. You mom and I are going on our honeymoon." Jay joked heading towards the steps still carrying his wife.
"Whoa, Whoa, Whoa! I did not sign up for this." Ruzek called after them.
Before he left for the night, they had Adam take a quick family picture of them in their ridiculous attire. Erin had promised her daughter a wedding picture to hang on the wall, and now she'd have a very unconventional one to look at forever.