Chapter 19
“Ms. Granger will see you now.”
Jamie stood up from the couch in the receiving room. Friends Natasha and Seena were slower on the uptake, partially because Natasha had dozed off during their thirty-minute wait, and Seena was too busy gawking at ten-thousand-dollar wedding cakes in a magazine.
They followed the assistant through the door and into what appeared to be an office and entertaining space hybrid.
Jenny Granger stood up from her glass desk, wearing a flowy, silky floral blouse and black skirt that sashayed with every step she took.
Both hands went out to Jamie, who felt she had no choice but to take them between her fingers and accept the kisses to her cheek.
“It’s so lovely to have you here, Jamie.
” Jenny gestured to the sofa and chairs in the middle of the room.
The trio sat on one side with Jenny on the other.
She pulled out a binder labeled “JOY / COLEMAN” and opened it to the first blank page, pen poised in her hand.
“I’m looking forward to working with you. ”
You’re looking forward to it? I’m about to die.
Jamie hadn’t slept in the nearly two weeks since that terrible article came out in the paper.
After Etta chewed out and threatened to have half the staff fired for the heinous misprint, the paper put the corrections up online right away and ran them in the next day’s paper…
but it wasn’t enough. By that time, a hundred high-profile and would-be guests had called to demand the exact date of this supposed wedding so they could make last-minute changes in plans.
I still can’t believe it… After being humiliated in a national paper, Jamie suddenly discovered she was getting married in fewer than three months.
Etta started telling people that they were getting married on the last Sunday of June, and Jamie had no choice but to go along with it.
She thought that would be the hardest thing to accept.
Ha! After that fervor died down, Etta still had to deal with the pushback from her and ex-girlfriend Adele Thompson merging companies.
But not before she told Jamie, “You need to call Monique and get the name of her wedding planner. We’re having the summer wedding of the year according to these assholes. ”
Jenny Granger was not an easy woman to book, let alone at the last minute.
She was the go-to wedding planner for any well-to-do couple in the whole region.
She claimed to have reach throughout the thirteen original colonies “and some of those states that branched off because of the Civil War.” Jamie couldn’t imagine this woman going out to West Virginia for anyone’s wedding, but she didn’t care. She had to have her.
Since Jenny only did one wedding a month, it was nearly impossible to book her for a June wedding that year.
Monique had booked her the moment she found out she was getting married six months before the wedding, and the only reason she convinced Jenny to take her on was because of who she and Helen were.
This is so ridiculous. If Etta weren’t one of the richest women around, Jamie would have done more than get on the floor and grovel.
Which she practically did, not that Jenny was unprofessional enough to acknowledge it now.
She turned away another high-profile couple marrying in early June to do our wedding.
Jamie had gone from engaged to planning the nuptials of the summer within a week.
Now she sat in Jenny’s office with two of her best friends. This should have been fun. So why did Jamie feel like she was about to pass out at any moment?
“Who are these lovely ladies?” Jenny asked, already writing things down. The assistant brought them all coffee, complete with a cream and sugar set. Selene dug right in while Natasha waited a few seconds and Jamie completely ignored it. “Your bridesmaids, I’m sure.”
“Two of them, yeah.” They had already agreed, Natasha a bit more reserved about the whole ordeal than Seena, who screamed into the phone and asked if she could wear “the most expensive dress ever!”
“Is either of them the maid of honor?”
Jamie’s lips twitched. “I haven’t decided that yet, sorry.” She wasn’t looking forward to figuring that mess out. So many politics.
“All right. Let’s dive in. How many people do you plan on having in your bridal party?”
The woman was practically filling out a pre-fab form.
Not that it surprised Jamie, since she had hired the best of the best, and she expected this woman to be no-nonsense and get things done in a timely fashion.
I was on the other end of her at Monique’s wedding.
I know what she’s capable of. Jamie was exhausted thinking about it.
From maid of honor to bride in four months… what were the odds?
“Maybe three to five.” Jamie cleared her throat.
“I’m still talking to people and trying to figure it out.
Plus, I have to keep in mind that Etta needs to balance it out with her own party…
” Who the hell would she choose as her best woman?
Her one close friend turned out to be a creep and a half. “Should I have more?”
“You can have as many as you want, although I usually suggest odd numbers because it looks nicer. However, I will suggest that you extend goodwill to as many young ladies as possible. It also makes for more popular photo spreads.”
“Photo spreads, huh…”
“If you haven’t heard from a magazine yet, Jamie, mark my words. It’s coming.”
Seena whistled. “You mean I’m gonna be in a magazine?”
Nobody answered her.
“Next, I want to discuss the colors for your wedding. Regardless of what you think you might like already, you must take into consideration that the two most recent high-profile weddings used certain colors that would be uncouth to replicate. For example, the Warner wedding used crimson and black. If you were dedicated to the color red, I would suggest going for as light a red as possible and pairing it with any color but black. Another color to be careful of is emerald green. The Bingham wedding in December used it. I suggest waiting at least a year before replicating a color, and that’s only if you were not involved or close to that couple. ”
“I got it. Red’s out.” Not that Monique would care if Jamie used her favorite color in her wedding. “Anything I should be aware of between then and now?”
“Nothing as high profile as Warner and Bingham, but this month I am doing an orange and gold wedding, and in May yellow and blue is happening. I do not think it will create too much conflict if you borrow from those colors for your wedding, though.” Jenny’s smile was more ruthless than reassuring.
“To be honest, Jamie, I will be telling my clients for the rest of this year to avoid whatever colors you are using. Etta Coleman having a June wedding? I hope you appreciate how popular this is going to be.”
Jamie’s hands shook in her lap. “Oh, I do.” Her engagement ring nearly cut her other finger. “The guest list is already a mile long.”
“Oh, good! That’s what I wanted to talk to you about next.”
Jamie was held captive for the next hour, being grilled about colors, flowers, religious traditions, and going over a plethora of pre-approved locations for a large wedding like she and Etta were destined to have.
I won’t recognize half the people there.
They’ll all be people Etta has done business with or would like to one day.
Jamie would be lucky to have a pew dedicated to the certain people she did know. Her family? Good luck.
Natasha was a good sport and asked only minimal questions.
Seena, on the other hand, nearly got herself kicked out because she wouldn’t stop barging in with questions about the quality of this, how much of that, and whether she would get to walk with a hot guy.
“Come on, Jamie,” she said more than once.
“You need to make sure I get paired up with a hot single billionaire. I could even go bi! I’m sure Etta knows some. I need to get paid too!”
These were comments that were funny on the phone or in private, but here in front of Jenny Granger, Jamie nearly sank so far into the couch that she was never to be seen again.
By the time her first meeting with her wedding planner was over, Jamie needed a hard drink. She also needed an excuse to go through the binder she was sent home with, so she had her driver take the three of them farther into town and to a quaint café for lunch.
Bad idea.
“Oh, congratulations!” cried a woman Jamie had never seen before.
She had barely sat down, purse on the ground and binder clattering against the table.
Now she had to get up again, receive a hug from this strange woman, and pretend she had any idea who she was.
“You’ll be the most beautiful bride since my daughter! ”
Jamie made sure to buy the hardest drinks they could muster for lunch.
Long Island iced teas, martinis, cosmos…
Jamie was willing to sample them all if it meant forgetting how stressed out she already was.
All this because someone had to get fired at a paper.
She took a cursory glance at the binder before shoving it into her bag. No more patience.
“So, where are you going for your honeymoon?” Seena asked over her drink.
“No idea yet. Haven’t had time to figure it out.
Etta’s already rearranging her schedule for two weeks afterward so we can even go on a honeymoon.
” At least Fourth of July weekend was in there, which meant little in the way of socializing for Etta, anyway.
She better not work while we’re on our honeymoon.
That’s why she had Adele now. That woman could take over the grunt work while her partner went on her honeymoon.
“You should go to Hawaii.”
“Hm. You think so?”
“Totally. It’s the most romantic place on Earth.”