Chapter 13
Once the news was out and Olivia had spoken to each of her sisters, they all moved into action.
Olivia and Francois had chosen Memorial Day weekend in May as their wedding date.
Olivia had called the local florist and told them what she wanted.
Ellen, the housekeeper, knew a good caterer.
Andy knew a great photographer. Francois told Olivia to do whatever she wanted.
So they were having the family, and Robert Farr, and Scott Freeman, who was deeply involved in a relationship with Veronica, and they were happy.
All four sisters went with Olivia to Bergdorf’s bridal department with her to pick a dress.
It had to work with her chair and not get tangled up in it, but they all thought it should have a train and a cathedral veil.
Olivia didn’t want something enormous but she wanted a traditional wedding dress.
It took them three hours to choose all of it, with the right Manolo Blahnik shoes, with special-order cameo blue soles for good luck, for “something blue.”
Even for a small wedding, there were so many small component parts that it took all five of them to divide up the tasks and tend to everything.
The sisters had decided to wear simple white piqué dresses and carry bouquets of field flowers.
Olivia’s dress was white organdy, which floated around her, and a lace veil.
Julia and Penny were going to walk down the aisle together as flower girls in white eyelet broderie anglaise dresses, carrying daisies.
The boys, Sean, Tyler, and Charlie, would wear white jeans and white button-down shirts and blazers, with white buck shoes.
And since Olivia’s dress was a formal wedding gown, Francois had decided to wear a formal gray morning coat with striped trousers and gray top hat.
So the bride and groom would be formal, and the wedding party less so.
Quinne had booked a fabulous hairdresser from the set, and she was bringing two assistants for the sisters.
They were going to have dinner outdoors, on the large patio, and they were putting in a dance floor and hiring a band for dancing.
It was a small wedding but every detail had been tended to.
Charlotte had agreed to oversee everything since she was the most organized and had more assistants at her office, and Quinne was on set for long hours every day for the series and couldn’t take calls when there.
Before any of it got put in place, Olivia had booked the IUI insemination for the morning after the wedding.
They were doing it naturally without hormones, because Olivia didn’t need them.
Her hormones and reproductive organs were fine, the only problem was her spinal cord injury, which wouldn’t interfere with the pregnancy, or getting pregnant.
She was going to have the baby in New York, by Caesarean section, a week before her due date, because labor would be too complicated and C-section was safer for her and the baby, if the IUI succeeded. And if it didn’t, they would try again.
Francois called her morning and night during the weeks before the wedding.
He couldn’t believe his good fortune to finally marry the love of his life, his soulmate.
They had long conversations when he had time.
The wedding worked perfectly with his schedule.
His last scheduled performance was ten days before the wedding, and he left the next day to be in New York with Olivia.
She had found a bigger apartment on Central Park West with four bedrooms, close to Lincoln Center for when Francois worked in New York, and they were planning to move in September.
If she got pregnant, the baby wouldn’t be due until February.
Francois was handling the honeymoon, which was a secret so far.
He was mysterious about it, and teased her by saying they were going camping.
Olivia had called Spencer in London and asked him to walk her down the aisle, and they both cried when she asked him.
He said he was delighted, since it would be his only opportunity with no daughters of his own.
When Francois returned and met Andy, they got on so well, that he asked him to be the best man.
And all of Olivia’s sisters were her bridesmaids.
In all, the wedding party consisted of fifteen people, including the five grandchildren, and in addition they had invited Robert Farr.
Scott Freeman was Veronica’s date. It was a lot of fuss for a wedding of fewer than twenty people, but it was a jubilant celebration, and Olivia had always wanted an intimate wedding. All she needed there was Francois.
Isabelle had ordered a beautiful flower arch of white roses, tiny white orchids, and lily of the valley for the ceremony, and Olivia’s bouquet was lily of the valley and tiny orchids.
She had gone to the nearest Episcopal church and the minister had agreed to do the ceremony at the house, in the garden where they were holding the wedding.
Francois looked happy and relaxed when he arrived ten days before the wedding.
He loved reacquainting with Olivia’s sisters, whom he had known well before, and he enjoyed Andy, Coop, Scott, and Spencer when he arrived from London.
They organized a bachelors’ dinner for him at the Racquet Club, where Scott was a member, and Olivia’s sisters threw a party for her at her favorite restaurant in the Village.
It was all she wanted as her bachelorette night.
Ian had been left out of the family gatherings, because he and Isabelle were still on very tenuous terms, but she had decided to invite him to the wedding, since they were still married and he was her husband and the children’s father.
The ceremony was to be at seven o’clock, dinner at eight-thirty, before which the little children would be put to bed, and then everyone else could dance as late as they wanted to.
Everything about the wedding was easy and relaxed, joyful and about family, which was what they were all about, and at every event, Francois and Olivia were beaming and happy.
—
The day of the wedding, everything went according to plan.
The hairdressers and makeup artists were right on time.
The photographer recorded Olivia getting dressed with her sisters’ help.
He left the wheelchair out of the pictures as much as possible.
The dinner tables had been set with exquisite flower arrangements, and when Olivia was dressed, she looked like a princess.
The train came from her shoulders and trailed fifteen feet behind her, draped over the back of the wheelchair, so you couldn’t see it, and Penny held it for her aunt.
—
Every single detail was flawless. The women looked beautiful and the men handsome.
And Olivia could feel her mother near her as she rolled slowly down the path next to Spencer, in gray morning coat and top hat, toward the flower arch where the minister and Francois were waiting, and the scent of lily of the valley hung in the air.
Francois was in the same formal coat as Spencer, without the hat.
Tyler was holding Francois’s top hat for him.
Spencer walked solemnly beside Olivia, and gently touched her shoulder, lifting the veil from her face when they reached Francois, and then Spencer stepped back and Francois got a full view of his bride, holding her bouquet, looking adoringly up at him with wide eyes full of love, trust, and hope.
Francois stood beside her during the ceremony, after Spencer took his seat, wishing that Felicia was beside him.
And when the minister asked, “Who gives this woman in marriage?” Spencer and Olivia’s four sisters spoke up in strong clear voices and said, “We do.”
When Olivia and Francois exchanged their vows and Tyler and Charlie handed them the rings, the minister gave his blessing, presented them as husband and wife, and told Francois that he may kiss the bride.
Francois bent down and kissed her, and scooped her out of her chair and held her in his arms, and walked down the aisle with her, with the photographer following them closely, and the bridal couple beaming.
It was the most romantic thing any of them had ever seen, and he gently deposited her on a chair where she could talk to everyone and enjoy the reception.
He was holding her hand and he never left her side.
He had been dreaming of this day since he met her.
The wedding had been as beautiful as any ballet they had ever danced together.
Charlotte noticed as the group circulated and talked to each other that Ian looked uncomfortable, stayed slightly apart, and followed Isabelle with his eyes. Charlotte had the feeling Isabelle was avoiding him. She sat next to him at the ceremony but moved away from him after that.
Everyone had fun at the first dance. Olivia had picked all the music, and then they sat down to dinner and Isabelle’s children were led off to bed by the nanny. They had eaten dinner before the ceremony. All five sisters had thought of everything between them.
Isabelle left the table between courses to sit at a distance in one of the garden chairs, and smoke a cigarette.
She enjoyed watching her sisters, and everyone having fun and celebrating Francois and Olivia.
The music added even more romance to the balmy evening.
She was watching them when Ian came up to her and sat down on a bench near her chair. He looked strained.
“I guess everyone hates me by now,” he said to Isabelle, who looked uncomfortable as soon as he sat down. It was hard having him there, but she had thought it was the right thing to do. He was still part of the family for now.
“No one hates you,” she said quietly. “They’re sorry for us. How are you?” she asked him. She hadn’t spoken to him since Tyler’s appendectomy.