—-
One day Max got word that his cousin Vanessa was getting married. This surprised him a little, as Vanessa was a few years younger and had always been a wild child, and never seemed to go with one guy exclusively very often, or for very long. But evidently she’d met the right guy and had settled down some. Carly would be a bridesmaid. Max would be taking Ella to the wedding as his guest.
The wedding day came and it rained like hell. All day long. Thankfully the roofs didn’t leak and the church and the reception hall weren’t far apart. The wedding itself was short and sweet, maybe twenty-five minutes. Vanessa and her new hubby were skinny Goth chic, pierced and made-up and tattooed to the max, and the minister appeared anxious to expedite the proceedings. Despite the weather–a blessed, holy downpour of God’s love, according to the reverend–everyone had a great time. The happy newlyweds set the tone for everyone else and the reception was a blast. Everybody danced with everybody else. Max cut a rug with Ella a number of times, slow and fast, as well as most of the bridesmaids, including Carly.
Afterward, Max and Ella talked about the wedding and reception, how much fun it had been for everyone, and the things they liked and the things they would have changed. Before long they realized they were talking about their own wedding, and how they would do things. Max found himself down on one knee and proposed. Ella accepted. He carried her up the stairs to his bedroom, over their makeshift threshold, laid her down on the bed and gave her a serious fucking. He had no ring for her, but she didn’t mind, he took care of that the next week.
Friends and relatives were ecstatic when they heard the news.
—-
Max and Ella were now wedding planners. They booked the same church and the same hall that Vanessa had used, and chose a date four months down the road. They had discussed it so much after Vanessa’s wedding, before he proposed, that most decisions came quick and easy. They had a clear vision of what they wanted. They divvied up responsibilities and one-by-one, things got done. Church, reception hall, catering, music, photography, flowers, logistics, you name it.
Max had buddies that would serve as ushers and best man. Ella chose her stepmother as her matron of honor, and Carly as one of her bridesmaids. As the date neared and they tallied up RSVPs, they realized there would be a total of 182 people, almost twice as many as they’d thought when they started. Oh, what the hell, let’s party, they said.
They planned the wedding for three p.m. on a Saturday, with the reception immediately after. The wedding rehearsal and dinner would be the night before. On Sunday they would leave on their honeymoon, a week on the Riviera Maya on the east coast of Mexico.
—-
Throughout the planning process, sex had become crazier and more adventurous and daring for Ella and Max, as if all the marriage talk had created a deeper bond between them and had lifted a barrier neither knew was there. They experimented with a hundred different positions. They tied each other up and got rough sometimes. They watched all kinds of porn and found new ways to get off. They often talked about the possibilities if they brought another person into bed with them, even discussed candidates, but they didn’t act upon it.