It was going to be Anna and Kristoff's wedding soon, they'd spent a few months engaged and now it was finally happening!
There were some minor concerns: it was so early into Anna's time as queen, Elsa says things still haven't been sorted out in Northuldra, some of Anna's advisors hate that Kristoff was a so-called commoner... et cetera, et cetera.
"Now, I know Elsa always said never to rush into these things, but I'm not rushing it per say. Just, I can feel the distance growing between me and Kristoff ever since I became queen and I need to fix it… No, not fix it... you know what I mean?" she turned to Olaf, who was currently sitting on her bed, listening to her rambling. A giant smile was spread on his face as always as he kicked his twig legs up and down.
"Yeah absolutely, you're not trying to fix your relationship with a rushed marriage ceremony in which your potentially incompatible lives will be chained together for eternity, it's just the power of true love!"
Anna ignored the parts of her snow nephew's words that she didn't like. "See! You get it!" She reached out to him for a warm hug before someone knocked on her door. It was six in the morning for hot, steaming chocolate's sake!
"Come in," she called, neatening herself up a little in preparation. It was Aagot, one of Anna's lady's in waiting.
Yep, she had lady's in waiting now, it was her advisors' idea. Secretly, she thought they were just throwing their daughters onto her, giving them something to do. Kai and Mattias who were usually on her side of things said it was good to get in touch more with her 'royal side' and apparently this was a great way for that. All she could think was that Elsa never needed anything like that.
It's not like she disliked the opportunity to befriend new people (she LOVED that), but her lady's maids weren't exactly her friends. They followed her around to help her with work but she always failed to get past that formal barrier with them, which was usually never a problem with Anna before, everyone liked her! But suddenly all the things that made her such a good princess were now kind of bad when she was a queen.
"You act so boring when you're in the castle now Anna," said Kristoff once when they were out in the snow together. It was a moment of extreme sincerity and he'd immediately regretted it. Anna hadn't really taken offence to it or anything, he was sort of right: there were a lot of formalities associated with being the queen. She felt like she wouldn't be as respected as her sister Elsa if she was her usual warm and bubbly self. He hit himself in the face. "Wait, no! I wasn't saying you were boring! I just-things have changed."
Sven voice was activated, as if it was a defence mechanism, as Kristoff hid behind his reindeer. "What Kristoff means Anna, is that all this royal duty stuff is really tough!" Anna laughed at that and this caused Kristoff to wrap an arm around her shoulder and said in a way that was super romantic: "I just love your dedication Anna." Then his entire face went red when she'd giggled at his flirting.
So, in the end, they'd forgotten about that awkward episode beforehand and her and Kristoff decided to go on a sleigh ride together just for old time's sake. But then some farmer wanted audience with her over his sheep going missing and their adventure had come to an early end anyway.
Anna never really got Elsa's willingness to skip on fun stuff for work until she was in her place. She waved goodbye to Kristoff and hoped he wasn't too bothered by it.
"You have a meeting with the ministry of finance today your highness," she informed her, Anna blanked for a moment at her Lady's words. Oh yeah, or as Olaf liked to call it when she tried to explain it to him,' the money people'.
"See you later Olaf," she waved, ready to get into Queen Anna mode. She'd reviewed what she was going to say to them at dinner with Gerda yesterday. Sure, Gerda had never done the finances of entire country, but she supposed she managed the finances within the castle so close enough. Olaf left her room as she was walking out too.
Royal duties were hard, but they were also rewarding and as she slowly learned the ropes, she would feel proud to serve her people. She could do this.
As mentioned before, there was a little pushback on Kristoff and Anna's union, but Anna had with the help of Mattias and other trusted subjects such as Gerda managed to convince absolutely everybody it was the bestest thing to do. One of her main arguments was that it would heal the rift between the people of Arendelle and the royal family if her marriage was to a commoner (he was the royal ice deliverer but somehow that still didn't qualify him to be in the royalty category).
Of course, it would've happened even if they weren't supportive, since she was the queen and she could do whatever she wanted, but this certainly made it easier.
Gerda started working on every little detail of the wedding without even being asked. She bossed around the all the seamstresses, the cooks and the various other castle personnel to do her bidding. Anna was very grateful to her old maid and Gerda had a hand in her own mother's wedding, so she trusted she'd make hers just as special.
/
"We'll all live in the castle together and we can play charades every day and Elsa will visit all the time and I'm sure even Aagot, Hege and Janne might start joining in too once they see how much fun we're having, it'll be just like old times and nothing will have to feel like it's changed."
"Old times," sighed Olaf. "You're completely right Anna, who needs new times when you've got the past to cling on to desperately."
Anna was starting to feel Olaf wasn't as comforting as he must've thought he was, but she dismissed it.
/
Kai, previously only had responsibilities within the castle but was now more involved with the royal family's affairs outside the castle (now that there actually were some). He organised the invitations for the event and spread word throughout the kingdoms.
Of course, the wedding list was extensive, although Anna did try to get Kai to reduce it down a little, for Kristoff's sake after eavesdropping just a little on a conversation Kristoff was having with Ryder about how overwhelming this all was, being a royal wedding to a queen and all. Why Kristoff hadn't told Anna herself about all this? She didn't know, but she didn't want to make a big fuss about it.
She'd had a brief fight with Kai over how she couldn't just possibly sacrifice international relationships over her fiancé's discomfort and that maybe if he didn't like all these royal duties now, she should reconsider the whole wedding. She couldn't believe what she was hearing from a man who she considered her basically her fourth parent (there was Gerda as well after all). With a limited amount of time before the wedding he eventually apologised over his outburst, saying he just wanted the best for everyone, especially her.
"I'm so sorry your majesty, I shouldn't have- phrased it the way I did," he apologised.
"It's fine. You're right, what was I thinking? Of course we can't risk offending our neighbouring nations. Keep all the guests. Kristoff is great at compromise; he'll just have to cope."
Compromise, that's what you did in a relationship. That's what her parents did with each other.
/
Anna and her lady's maid walked through the kitchens with Arendelle's most esteemed chef (he actually came from France). Remi was a mousy sort of man with big ears and buck teeth, it was Hege's father, a wealthy farmer who recommended him. As Anna walked in to the kitchen she noticed Kristoff wasn't there yet, which worried her slightly.
"This tall kransekake will be the centre piece, it'll be right in the middle of the hall and on the right, we'll have the chocolates," Anna's eyes sparkled at the mention. "We'll have meringue nests other there and…" he looked around the hall before pointing to a far off corner. "The little sandwiches filled with fish paste or fruit compotes, all over there in colour order. We're hoping to arrange them by the colours of the kingdom's flag."
One of her ladies extended a hand towards the sandwiches before it was slapped by the other.
Anna's three lady's maids laughed about it amongst themselves, and she felt sort of left out. She was the queen for goodness' sake, course she could join in! She tried to laugh along with them, and they went silent and it became a bit awkward. WHYYY.
The cook looked down at a little piece of paper. "There was a request, you said no fondue, is that correct?"
Anna nodded, fondue, she shivered, bad memories. Hege looked like she was about to ask why but thankfully the lanky chef continued to speak before she could.
"The townspeople of Arendelle will probably bring their own food to share in the celebration, as is tradition, so we have left this table empty," he explained, pointing to it.
"Make that one a little bigger," she ordered, and he wrote it down. The Northuldrans would be bringing things too, hopefully, when some of them came with her sister and she couldn't forget the trolls on Kristoff's side.
Anna really had hoped for Elsa's input for showing their Northuldran heritage, but she was quite busy with a bunch of other duties which Anna totally understood, being queen now herself. No biggie, her sister was still going to be there for the actual thing. I mean, she sort of hated being queen back in the day so maybe she just didn't want to get involved with all that now but still… Anna missed her sister, letters relayed between them by Gale just wasn't cutting it.
"Sir Kristoff is terribly late your majesty," pointed Aagot after a bit, the other lady's maid, Hege, nudged her with her elbow.
"He will come soon, Aagot," Hege then says, shooting her friend a look that was undecipherable to Anna. Anyway, he did eventually show up, he'd just slept in, see?
Olaf had debated whether to be a flower snow man or the ring bearer, in the end Anna told him he could be both; provided he didn't accidentally throw the ring with the petals. Of course, Sven would be Kristoff's best man and Elsa would lead Anna down the aisle. The trolls would also be there, Bulda and Grand Pabbie insisting on sitting right on the front row at the chapel. Anna had experienced the troll's betrothal ceremony first hand and wondered if they'd want one like it after the official wedding, but they never seemed to bring it up.
The dress Gerda had commissioned for the wedding was stunning. It was a pure white gown with small silver snowflakes adorning the bottom, she would wear a long train and a crown which her mother had worn at her own wedding ceremony. The crown was tall and made of silver, attached to it were ribbons in the colours of Arendelle flag. Kristoff said he would wear the traditional groom outfit: a woollen waistcoat with silk shorts. Anna was so happy he'd agreed without a fuss despite hating formal clothes. He would also be wearing a toned-down version of the traditional troll headdress on Bulda's insistence.