terribly sorry, officer (baelfiery) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-01-12 08:55:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, emma swan, neal cassidy (baelfire) |
Who: Swanfire (with baby Niko)
What: Wedding planning, getting some shit together
When: Tonight?
Where: Their casa
Rating/Warnings: Very PG
Status: Complete
Wedding planning was hard. They’d gotten through Christmas and New Year, gotten through Orange County’s idea of festive cheer, although introducing Niko to snow had been decidedly fun, even if Emma spent the following few nights checking on the snowman Henry had built in the yard to make sure it didn’t come to life. But January brought new things, not the new-year-new-me thing, oh no, although Emma was determined that she’d shake off the remaining pregnancy weight in time for her wedding. Which brought her to the wedding. She honestly hadn’t known there was so much involved in wedding planning, and while Caroline had shed some light on all the things that they’d need to figure out -flower arrangements, really? Table cloths? What and why?- and how other people had just made it look so easy. She’d just shown up to Cindy and Garrus’ wedding in space, in space and Pete and Lina made their Halloween food truck wedding seem like it just fell together. She really hoped she was just oblivious to all the planning and headaches, because otherwise she was about ready to ask Neal to just elope with her. It wasn’t that she didn’t have ideas, no. She had plenty of ideas, she had hundreds of ideas. And even with she and Neal agreeing on a Tallahassee wedding because they were giant dorks and wanted that for themselves, Emma was discovering that the where didn’t narrow down the other options. “Neal? Where are you?” She was in the dining room this time, rather than spread out over the floor in the living room like her Christmas planning fiasco, “I need your beautiful mind again.” Plus side, she wasn’t planning a wedding alone. She wasn’t sure what she’d do if Neal were one of those ‘whatever you want’ type of guys, because she might just scream with no input from anyone else. But not Neal, so mind melding time seemed like an idea. “Coming!” That was Neal from upstairs, who was sitting in the magically-held-together rocking chair made by Tas (literally, the piece of furniture needed magic to keep it from falling apart, it was pretty amazing), with Niko in his lap as he read the chubby tot a story about animals. Well, it was a cloth picture book - something that he, in his six months of age (six, holy shit, where had the time gone) could also reach out and touch and feel, while his dad made the right sounds to go with the matching images. Niko was at that age where a lot of stuff was happening - he liked to touch everything, feeling out different textures, and he liked to be read to, he liked animal noises. He also liked being weaned onto solid foods too, tastes of applesauce his favorite. Such excited gummy grins he gave when he got a spoonful of the good stuff. Mostly gummy. Neal saw a tooth poking through, felt it too, when he ran his finger on the bottom gums - but Niko seemed to be alright, he didn’t scream about the pain. Much. As long as he had a frozen bagel to gnaw on (they’d tried lots - a cold washcloth, a pacifier on ice, traditional teething rings, but figures their chunker would get his relief from something usually edible) then he was fine. Scooping up the baby now, with him clinging to his frozen bagel in his little fist, Neal went downstairs. “My beautiful mind is here, and I also brought beautiful blubber to help,” he said, plunking Niko into Emma’s lap. “What have we got?” The beautiful blubber got a sparkling grin from mommy, a tickle to the tummy while he wiggled around to find his dad’s voice because Niko was a nosy little thing just as much as Henry was a curious creature. “We’ve got a million and five things that I can’t choose from.” Which was only a small exaggeration. Emma knew the dress was all on her, and she could maybe rope Regina and Mary Margaret into coming dress shopping with her later to find something suitable for Florida, but that was the only thing that Neal wasn’t getting his face into until the day of. “Apparently, we need to narrow down the season as well as the place,” because there were factors, oh so many factors, involved in this stuff. “It’s what helps pick flowers and foods and apparently also who is available to play music and officiate.” Eloping sounded better all the time, didn’t it. Since Emma had no opinion on flowers, aside from what looked nice and the fact that she was weirdly into wild roses, but still. Colours and patterns and all that stuff, you needed to pick a specific time of the year apparently. “Do we know when we want to get married? I mean, I want to get married as soon as all this can be organised into a suitable day.” So far it was just a mess of ideas, sometimes with swatches that probably made no sense at all, like the section of gingham she had for some reason. “Uh - “ Neal rubbed his hand over his chin, thinking about that, because he was sort of hoping their wedding would turn out how Lina and Pete’s did. Meaning, that it would just sort of fall together and be beautiful. But no, don’t be stupid, Cassidy - a destination wedding (and across the fucking country, no less) was not going to just come together like all the pieces were magically magnetized. Damn. Guess he better share some of his own ideas too, because he and Emma were a good team and he was confident that they’d pull this off. He shuffled through a few brochures and papers on the table, finding a notepad and flipping to a blank page so he could jot some stuff down. “How about a spring wedding? Early spring. March or April, so it’s not too hot. I know Florida doesn’t really experience seasons but the humidity shouldn’t be as bad then, like, at least not as bad as it is in August or something.” And he couldn’t picture making guests attend an outdoor wedding and reception in August. God, no. That was just cruel. “The place where we’re gonna book, we’ll have run of the property for the whole day - they do only one wedding a day anyway, and the reception’s in the barn,” he explained. “There’s a fireplace if it happens to be a cool evening for some reason.” That was pretty perfect, she’d spoken to people at the venue they’d picked a few times, going over prices and what was included before they’d both agreed that yeah, that was where they wanted it. She just needed to give them a date so they could book it up and she could get the deposit paid. March or April made sense, and realistically it wasn’t that far away -which should’ve sent her into a tailspin panic, even with her little goober on her lap trying to smoosh the frozen bagel into his mouth, but it sort of made it seem better. “March is only three months away, that’s like twelve weeks, that’s just one trimester.” Because you think it’s a long time, and suddenly it’s not. “That’s pretty damn soon, and pretty damn great.” Weather was also important, yes, but really, Emma wanted to be married soon. She didn’t think they’d be jinxed or anything, but she was sort of ready to put the ring on it, so to speak. “You know what else happens in March, right?” Mid to late March would probably mean that the humidity wouldn’t make them all sweaty and sticky before wedding pictures, and if they timed it right everyone could enjoy a nice afternoon before settling in for a cool evening of fun and festivities. A party, a celebration. There were other things to celebrate in March too though. “I mean, if you wanted…” Not that she’d try to steal a whole day from Neal or anything. “They hang up lights outdoors too - like on the oak trees and stuff, though I guess in that same vein a reception could be outside if we wanted?” Neal asked, lifting his eyebrows questioningly. He was neutral, and thought either a barn or something on wooden tables in the pleasant (hopefully) evening air would be nice. He’d leave it up to Emma. Either way, they’d call and get that date situation hammered out, since they’d seen the place in person already after taking a brief weekend. “But yeah, what else in March...” He was teasing, since he was pretty aware what she was referring to. Not that Neal had done much for his birthday before, not since moving to Orange County - when he had actual friends he considered family to celebrate (and drink) with. “I’m good with making our special day close to the day I popped into this world,” he grinned. “My birthday’s on a weekday, but the wedding can be that weekend. That way I won’t ever forget our anniversary.” Not that he would anyway, but you know. Extra incentive. “Please just tell me we can have a naked cake. It’s all the rage in weddings now.” Like, that disgusting fondant that wasn’t even edible anyway? Yeah, he’d pass. The rustic feel was something that Emma was definitely getting a nice vibe for, but all the recent dreams about the Enchanted forest and the outdoors made her appreciate that it could be nice to do things out in the open, embrace the nature of it all. And it actually suited them better than courthouses or ballrooms or the like. “We can have a whole week of celebrations. Birthday celebrations, wedding celebrations, honeymoon celebrations.” That was a lot of celebrating to fit into just a week, they might need to extend that by a couple of days. Which really wouldn’t be a problem provided they could sweet talk someone into babysitting their terrible twosome for their honeymoon. “Yes, because you’re terrible at remembering things.” It was a tease, really, because if she were honest, it would probably help her remember their anniversary. “Naked cake, we can do that. I mean, the fondant, in the heat, probably make it all yucky.” More yucky? Emma had a back and forth feeling on fondant, but she knew that too much was not a good thing. “Besides, less mess for me to potentially make of my dress and for Niko to get into.” The child in question just gurgled along with her. “See, our minds just blaze through the problems together.” Three things down, a million and one to go. “Yeah, no melting fondant cake, that’s not romantic,” Neal agreed. Besides, a rustic cake to go with the more rustic, farm-inspired theme (which really did suit them, given how outdoorsy they were - and Emma could even have her wild roses there too) was pretty perfect. “What else have we got to tackle?” They’d nailed down the location, the date, the cake, the reception dinner. That wasn’t hard to pick, since their venue did a farm-to-table dinner. Local roasted pig, local veggies and fresh bread, cake from the local bakery. Even wine from the vineyards right there too. He assumed colors and stuff were still up in the air, but honestly, he didn’t have opinions one way or the other on that end. Unless it was zebra stripes and purple, which he’d have to veto. Reaching to pick up the tubby child from Emma’s lap, Neal went right for the raspberries on the belly. Because farting noises made Niko smile, awww. And he had such a great tummy for blowing raspberries on. “What do you think, Niko?” Giggling babies were probably the best thing in the world, especially with Niko at the stage where he found things funny, where he was tickley in places and giggled like crazy. It was always fun listening to him giggling and laughing at whatever they were playing with. It distracted her for a moment from the planning and things. “Well,” but only a moment, because these things needed to be sorted. “We need to decide who we’re inviting, I mean… It’s across country, so that’s a big ask, but y’know, we know magic people and teleporting and stuff.” She waved a hand there because, well, Emma could take care of her and the boys and Neal going, and Regina could poof herself and her lot there and… “I could talk to Zee.” If Zatanna couldn’t get a group somewhere else, she likely know one of the other magic users who could. “And are there any colours you’re entirely opposed to wearing?” Emma had flipped through colour charts and ideas when Caroline had introduced Emma to the array of things she needed to consider, “I was thinking of keeping it simple, creams, golds, that kind of thing?” Because Emma was not a woman of many colours and patterns. Oh, right, the thing about a destination wedding was that people had to travel. And especially to Tallahassee, right on the Florida-Georgia line, that was a long trek for those coming from California. Neal had his ups and downs, when it came to his relationship with magic (especially when it came to paying the price), but honestly? A little hocus pocus where they’d save a shit ton of money on airfare seemed to be kind of a no-brainer. He and Emma made decent money, but could they afford to fly all their friends across the country? “Yeah, talking to her might be a good idea,” he said hastily, bouncing Niko a bit on his knee. Anything to distract chubbers from the knives in his gum tissue. “If the skills are there, why not use them? If it’s not too much trouble. If it is, we can always figure something out.” Not like he wanted to pressure Emma’s friends either, or the bride herself on what was supposed to be The Big Day. “As for colors, that’s where I know nothing. If you say cream and gold, I’ll trust you.” Seemed like a decent combo to him? “You wanna incorporate your Charming family crest in there too somehow?” he asked. It was a fleur-de-lis design, from what he could remember. Emma wasn’t overly sure of the details there, maybe someone had some kind of teleporting tool or whatever, she’d look into it, “Don’t worry, I’ll look into that, we’ll figure out something.” Because Tallahassee was important to them, and the place they picked was lovely, it dealt with so much of their needs that it was perfect, but Emma did still want to share their day with their friends and loved ones without costing people too much grief. “I was thinking about it, really, I just wasn’t sure how.” The design was simple and elegant, something she was sure that could be worked into things nicely, and she thought it would be a nice nod to her roots, their essence in True Love and where that stemmed from with Snow and Charming and all. But she didn’t want to make things too fussy either. She wasn’t sure how to include it. “We’ll figure it out,” and Neal was confident in that. If Emma wanted the design to be a part of their day, then it would happen - it could even be a pretty subtle thing too, not like they needed to have a table centerpiece or hire an airplane to make a fleur-de-lis in the sky or anything. He held up Niko in front of his face, like the baby was speaking all squeakily - of course, this put him in dangerous line with the diaper, and that was always a gamble. “I’ll even wear a little suit I can squeeze my fat rolls in. Just don’t make me wear a silly costume, okay?” Or, you know, they totally would. What was the point in having such a cute kid if you couldn’t dress him up in embarrassing things when he was too young to think it was uncool? “Yeah? I was thinking we could do what Lina and Pete did and get him a costume. He’d be a cute little ranch hand, or a cowboy. It’d suit.” Although she hadn’t actually. But either way, they’d figure out how to have the most adorable little tubby boy, since Henry would likely not let them dress him up. “Or he could match you. Mini-me.” Oh, she needed to think about Henry and Niko’s outfits too. It did cover a lot of their requirements, and it took some of the pressure off for things. Which at least narrowed a lot of things down. “That just brings us to… the guest list.” Which was a little bit of a stickler, because again, destination wedding. “We need a kind of ball park figure for the catering, and maybe for when I ask Zee about the travel thing.” Niko in a cowboy outfit, how precious would that be. Granted, Pete and Lina’s costume choice had been because of the Halloween wedding, but any time was the right time for something ridiculous for the baby to wear. He’d probably cry and try to dislodge things like shoes, but whatever, at the very least they’d get a few pictures in. Memories to last a lifetime. “Guest list...” Neal let out a breath, while Niko squirmed and grabbed at his face. Because dad’s nose was just so fascinating. “I think we have most of the same friends? It’s honestly not going to be more than thirty people - then you take into account their plus one’s, so, double that. Pretty small overall though. I was also thinking of inviting, uh...my half-brother?” He let out another puff of air. Of course he’d mentioned to Emma that Killian was in the process of tracking down whatever Gold called himself here, Neal’s father, and the result of that report had yielded a few surprises. Namely, the long-lost sibling. “I mean, I have to talk to him first. I don’t think he knows I exist. But I have one. Just like in the dreamworld, apparently.” Niko would be cute in anything, the tubby little guy with his fat little cheeks and his adorable smooshy face would most likely steal the damn show, but it wasn’t like Emma wasn’t fully prepared for that. She gushed over the little guy the most anyway. “We do, pretty much. Family and friends are mostly in the same circle, aside from the odd kid here and there,” because Niko, Amelia and Meara probably not going to eat a lot at the reception, “Catering numbers aren’t really astronomical.” And with the party later having some available food for anyone that got peckish, it was pretty much a fairly rounded off evening. Giving Neal a small smile, because all these things got so complex, Emma just nodded, “Of course we’ll invite your brother, family is always welcome. And ours appears to be ever expanding, so we won’t start picking who gets in.” Apparently Emma could even come to tolerate Zelena’s continued existence in the Dreamworld -not happening here thank God, but still. “I really want it to be March already, but we’ll probably need it to not go too fast so we can get all this stuff properly organised.” They could keep the likes of Zelena, Cora, and Gold out of the family - Neal was okay with that, and he was pretty sure everyone else would be too. It had been bad enough learning that Cora and his father had an illicit affair while Cora was married to Regina’s stepfather. Out of all the fucking things to have happened, really, it had to be that? Ugh. “Hard to believe it’s only weeks away, huh?” he mused. Technically a lot of weeks, sure, but February was a short month and the beginning of March would surely fly by. “We’ve got this though,” he leaned in and planted a smack of a kiss on Emma’s face. “Lemme go get him settled and then we can just...do something else for the night. Like not fry our brains with wedding planning stuff.” They’d worked hard, time for a booze break maybe? Emma was more than happy to sit things aside now and focus on anything else. And if Niko was going to settle down at his father’s behest, for a couple of hours at least, right, then they could be adults. Just a pair of adults sitting around to do adult things. “This is an excellent plan, you do that, I’ll get some beer and snacks, set up the TV?” They could Netflix and Chill, right? Make sure the baby monitor was on and then just unwind for the rest of the night. |