Theoretically, the hard part was over.  Edward had popped the question, slaughtered a few renegade vampires, put the ring on my finger, gotten Charlie’s permission and I had a dress, courtesy of Alice and a guy whose name I still couldn’t pronounce, much less spell. 

Growing up with a single mother, I had heard horror stories about every stage of the courtship.  They talked about trying to get a guy to commit or the nightmare of finding a wedding gown that wouldn’t look like a meringue on steroids.   Renee had told me about how it took three arguments and a verbal pre-nuptial agreement to get my grandfather to approve of Charlie, police officer or not.

From their point of view, I had everything falling into my lap.  I was marrying a man who had been getting over his fear of commitment for the last ninety years.  My custom-made wedding dress haute couture fit me like a glove.  The ring hadn’t even needed to be resized. Technically, by those standards, I was having the perfect wedding experience.

Obviously, Renee and her friends had never let Alice Cullen plan their weddings.  Alice, bless her frigid little heart, was determined to have everything go off without a hitch.  The problem was that she had a very different idea of things that could go wrong.  She thought about a tear in her Christian de la Croix evening gown.  I worried that the bride’s friends and the groom’s family would decide to forget the treaty and rip each other’s throats out by the time we cut the cake.

But Alice being Alice, I got a call from her before dawn on the day after I’d asked her to be my Maid of Honor.  I couldn’t tell if she was calling that early because she actually thought it was a decent hour or if she forgot that humans actually [i]do[/i] have to sleep.

“Bella,” she trilled.  “Have you picked out your wedding party yet?  I’ve found fifty-five dress styles that will look good on all of your friends and I need to know what coloring I’ll be working with.  And I need to know your colors…”

I turned the alarm clock towards me and glared blearily at the digital numbers.