Chapter 19

A few days after my return I got a call from Ben asking if I could make it over the next day to pick up Jennifer – ‘my bride-to-be’ as he put it. I told him I could and made my ‘going away’ checks so that I could stay over if necessary.

The next morning was bright and clear and beautiful weather for the trip to the main island. Once I arrived, I made my way to the store where I found Jennifer with a cluster of other ladies, all talking at once it seemed. As soon as I walked in, all conversation stopped and all faces turned to me. It was almost as if I’d walked in to a women’s washroom.

“Wally, my friends and helpers...” Jennifer threw her arms out to indicate all the ladies “ ... have been planning how we can do our wedding.” Jennifer’s face was beaming from ear to ear.

“Uhh do I get any say in this?” I asked.

“Nope, just be there and say ‘I do’.” Jennifer said with a giggle. “Of course you do, silly. It’s OUR wedding and while I have some ideas on what we could do, you need to agree.”

I smiled and thought to myself ‘Just say “Yes dear” to anything you’re asked’. I smiled and Jennifer wanted to know what I was smiling about. “I was thinking how nice it is to have all this help.” I can fib with the best of them!

Jennifer and I said our goodbye’s to the ladies and headed back to our island. When we got home I suggested to Jennifer that we needed to talk about the wedding and about some of the logistics of it.

“Jennifer, dear, let’s talk about a few issues that we need to consider. First, are we going to have the ceremony here on this island?” Jennifer opened her mouth to start to answer but I held up a finger in a ‘wait’ sign. “Let me continue. If we have it here on the island, we need to seriously look at the guest list. Assuming our new home is finished – at least finished enough for the two of us to move into it – we’ll realistically only have room for one other person or one couple to stay here on the island – in the cabin.”

Jennifer pondered my comments for a moment. “What do you think we should do? I guess we should be prepared to have Martin stay over but does that mean we can’t have many others?”

“As we came back over from the main island, I thought about things. Here’s what I think might work. First, let’s only ask Martin from either of our families to be here. We can invite our friends from the main island and have just a simple ceremony here then the next day the 3 of us – you, me and Martin – can travel over to the main island and have a party where everyone in the community can come. If we did that, perhaps Elizabeth and Helen might be persuaded to allow ‘Jennifer’s room’ to be used for our accommodations and I’m sure Ben would put Martin up for then night.”

I stopped and looked at Jennifer who was smiling at me. “Okay, continue. I think what you’ve said would work,” she said.

“There’s one other thing that we need to deal with before we really get into the planning of the wedding - we need to deal with the issue of meeting with your family,” I continued. “I was thinking that we’d leave it to Martin to set things up and if possible see if he can find some of your mother’s family to have them attend or perhaps meet with them separately. I’d also like to take you back east to meet my family.