Chapter 13 San Diego
The trip to San Diego has come, Cody and Lizzie have set the wedding date and location. They will be announcing it to their families during dinner. Lizzie knows her family will be okay with whatever they choose, but Cody is nervous about his parents' reaction. Everyone was arriving for dinner.
When Jackie and Pete arrived, Cody and Lizzie opened the door. "Mom, Pete come on in. I would like to introduce you to my fiancée Lizzie."
Jackie gave Lizzie a hug, "It so wonderful to finally meet the woman who makes Cody so happy. Now I have some wedding venue information for places in Atlanta and some here in San Diego. They are very lovely places."
"Mom, we found a place," Cody said.
"We are going to announce it when everyone arrives. We also have a date," Cody said.
"Is it hundred percent set in stone?" Jackie asked.
"We are very excited about it," Lizzie said. "We are going to share it when everyone gets here."
"Please don't tell me it is the ranger station in Tahoe, like your brother's wedding?" Jackie commented.
"Mom we will let everyone know at dinner tonight," Cody said.
"No hint or anything?" Jackie asked.
"None, we will share with everyone at dinner," Cody said. Another car pulls up and out come Jesse and the rest of the Hawkes family. "Looks like dad and Matt are here."
Jackie rolled her eyes, "We will spend more time together and get to know each other better."
Kelly got out of the car, and you could tell that she had been sleeping. Once she saw Cody in the door way she came running over to him., "Uncle Toad. Miss you," Kelly said. Cody immediately picked her up, hugged and kissed her.
"I missed you too. So happy you could come and celebrate with us," Cody said.
"I am going to be flower girl," Kelly said.
"You remember Ms. Lizzie?" Cody asked.
"Yes," Kelly said.
"Tomorrow, you are going to go dress shopping to look for your flower girl dress with Ms. Lizzie. Won't it be fun?" Cody asked.
"You come too?" Kelly asked as she held onto Cody tightly.
"Well, I won't be able to be there. But you are going to help Ms. Lizzie look for her wedding dress. I am told Ms. Lizzie's dress needs to match the flower girl dress." Cody explained.
"But why can't you come?" Kelly asked.
"Well, the groom, that is me. It is bad luck for the groom to see the flower girl and brides dress before the wedding." Cody said.
"Oh, so it is a secret?" Kelly asked.
"Yep, so when I see you and Lizzie walk down the aisle it will be the first time, I see the dresses and how beautiful you both look," Cody said.
"I going to be as pretty as a princess," Kelly said.
"Prettier," Cody said.
"I think your grandma will be going along too," Lizzie said.
"Grandma is here?" Kelly asked. Cody could barely say yes and Kelly was squirming out of Cody's arms and running to her.
"Hmmm. Guess you play second fiddle to grandma." Lizzie teased.
"I guess. At least I am number one in your book," Cody teased back and kissed Lizzie.
The rest of Cody's family walked in. "Mr. Hawkes, Matt and Robin, it is good to see you."
"Good to see you sweet heart," Jesse gave Lizzie a hug and kiss on the cheek.
"Son, good to see you," Jesse gave Cody a hand shake and then hug."
"Good to see you dad," Cody said.
"Where did Kelly go?" Robin asked as she looked around for her daughter.
"She ran in there to be by mom," Cody said.
"Your mom and Pete are here?" Jesse asked.
"Yes, they just got here," Cody said.
"Good to see you Lizzie and Cody," Robin said. She quickly moved to the other room to find her daughter.
"Lizzie, are you sure this guy is good enough for you?" Matt teased.
"One hundred percent yes," Lizzie said.
"Good, he needs a good woman like you," Matt gave Lizzie and Cody a hug. "Congratulations again Cody."
Matt and Jesse moved into the other room with everyone else. Cody took a deep breath.
"It will be okay," Lizzie said. She gave him a side hug.
"That is easy for you to say. It is not your family I am worried about. Between understanding and respecting our decisions." Cody said as he shut the front door. "Not too late to elope."
"Not happening," Lizzie said as they walked into the room where their families all gathered and were getting to know each other.
The cater poked their head in. Mrs. Donavan said, "Everyone if we could gather around the table, dinner is ready."
Everyone said down where their name plates were located, except Kelly wanted to sit by Cody. So, Jesse switched places with her. Then Jesse was sitting between Robin and Jackie. The food was brought out and everyone enjoyed some small talk. As dinner was cleared away for the most part. Cody and Lizzie stood up.
Cody gave a speech, "I want to thank everyone coming out this weekend to celebrate Lizzie and I getting engaged. I don't know if your family is like mine, but it is difficult these days for the whole family to get together in one place. And to have both our families here to celebrate our engagement we are over joyed. I would like to especially thank Mr. and Mrs. Donavan. for welcoming the Hawkes family into your home. I know you have all been patiently waiting to find out details of our wedding."
Then Lizzie continued, "Cody and I have carefully considered all the suggestions of venues and location. We took careful consideration of all of them. I decided that since I have not lived in San Diego for many years, I no longer feel that deep connection. So, we decided to rule out San Diego as a location."
Cody stated, "Since I have only been to Atlanta a couple of times, I don't feel a deep connection there either. Sorry mom but we won't be getting married there either."
Jesse commented, "Tahoe it is," Jackie just rolled her eyes.
"Even though we would like to eventually settle in Tahoe down the road. Lizzie has only been there once, and I have not lived there in many years either." Cody said.
"Then where?" Matt asked.
Cody and Lizzie looked at each other and smiled. Cody continued, "Since we met at and will be starting our life together there. We are planning on getting married at Mammoth Chapel in Yellowstone National Park. We are planning on living there for the foreseeable future. It is a very special place for the two of us and this is where we like to get married and celebrate our love to one another."
Lizzie commented, "The chapel is an older rustic stone building. We have looked at the venue and have seen a wedding there. It was so beautiful. There is a little bit of a wait, but not as bad as it could be. We have reserved the Chapel for April 17th. The park is typically back open again by then, weather pending."
"Son wat if it is not open yet. You're taking a gamble." Jesse said.
"For the last several years, the park has opened around April 5th and 10th. So, we have some wiggle room. Most of our guests will be coming from the park and we all live there year-round. So hopefully should not be a problem for our family and couple guests." Cody said.
"I think the perfect place for the two of you," Mrs. Donavan said.
Jesse looked at Matt and rolled his eyes. Matt looked at Robin.
Next day the ladies went wedding dress shopping. Matt was on call in case Kelly needed a break. After a couple of shops, she did. They had found a couple of dresses for Kelly to pick from. She loved twilling around in the dresses but getting to be nap time. Cody stayed outside the store, but Matt went in to collect his daughter. He picked her up and got her bag. "Say goodbye to mommy and grandma," Matt said.
"Bye..." Kelly said as she yawned. Lizzie came out of the dressing room in a beautiful timeless white dress. Matt looked at her.
"Wow" Matt was stunned.
"You like it, Matt?" Lizzie asked.
"You look beautiful, Cody would flip out." Matt said.
"He is not here, is he?" Lizzie asked in a panic.
"He is outside," Matt said.
"Make sure he does not come in. I really like this one and I don't want him to see it." Lizzie said. "I am going to go back here until you leave." Lizzie went back into the dressing room until Robin gave the okay that Cody was gone.
Matt walked outside, "Man you are one lucky guy. If she looks as beautiful in the dress, I just saw her in."
"Matt, I need to see," Cody said.
Robin had followed Matt outside, "Oh no you don't, I am on guard to make sure you don't come in here. Matt may have just seen the dress. No looking or coming in here, or we will be starting over. Go…. Go get some lunch or something."
Matt and Cody drove off with Kelly and joined Jesse, Lizzie's father, brother and brother-in-law for lunch.
Saturday night came and the two families and some family friends came to the country club where Lizzie's parents are members for the engagement party. Cody met a lot of new people, relatives of Lizzie's family, some of Lizzie's parents' friends. Jackie and Pete also had few friends in San Diego, and a couple of Lizzie's college friends attended. Jackie was in her hay day with Pete and their friends.
Their trip was overall successful, Lizzie found her wedding dress and Cody found the tuxedos. The Tuxedos were ordered at a national chain, so they could pick them up in a shop in Bozeman.
Cody and Lizzie return to Yellowstone where they crash at Cody's apartment. They took as many of the gifts back with them as they could. Some will be shipped. Many people gave them cash, they are going to use for their honeymoon or save for future home or cars. Cody was still paying off his college debt but did not want to use the money for that.
"How big a wedding do you think our parents want us to have?" Cody asked.
"I don't know. One good thing about having it here, it will help keep the number of guests down, between the travel and weather," Lizzie said.
"Yeah, I had not even thought about it. Outside our immediate family and Mark, most people I want to invite are here," Cody said.
"Me too," Lizzie said.