here comes the bride?

September 2080 - Paul Gallagher is 30, Charlotte (Centowski) Gallagher is 26.

Whether or not Charlotte Centowski actually makes it down the aisle this month is anyone's guess. Marisa made the trip back into town this week to be her maid of honor.

"Don't make that face," Marisa says. "It looks beautiful."

"I don't know," Charlotte says. "Something's not right."

"Well, if you would stand up straight, it might look better."

"What color did I tell you, for your dress?"

"Pink," Marisa says.

"I said pink? Why on earth would I say pink?"

"That's what you said, so that's what I bought!"

Charlotte assures Paul that she loves him, and she does! He's been so patient with her, while they maintained that long-distance friendship, while she rattled on and on about all those failed relationships.

Paul is a little worried, even if he's trying not to show it. Maybe he's sensing the cold-feet episode she experienced a couple months ago. Sometimes he wonders if she was going to flake out, would notice the precise moment it happened? He knows about all the failed relationships, the good guys and the crappy ones, and of course, Paul knows about Adam. Adam who shattered Charlotte's romantic life almost beyond repair seven years ago.

Profesionally, Charlotte is doing better than ever! She sells an Eastern-inspired cookbook and nets a nice $10,000, which will more than help with the cost of the wedding. As well as backing a new blender/fax machine contraption - she doesn't know what it is exactly, she just signed the patent and banked another $50,000! She's also working as an executive chef now, her career life growing in leaps and bounds in the past couple years. She knows that must be a credit to Paul too, and the peace of mind that he gives her.

Paul is working as a rookie field agent now, and again, being in the intelligence field, that's all he's really at liberty to say about his job. They have another two years left on their apartment lease, but they don't plan to stay it out. Leila has finally sold them on Bluewater Township. Paul likes it out there too. And they've found a pretty house, just across the street from Matt and Leila, with four bedrooms and a big yard. Because, you know, they both want lots of children.

Well, maybe we should get Charlotte down the aisle first before we start counting children...

***

Maybe a night out with the girls would make it all seem a little more real?

Bachelorette party!!! (from the left: Leila, Amelia, Charlotte, Marisa, Piper)

Check out the rock on Marisa's finger! Marisa and Roland are engaged now too, though they haven't set an official wedding date. Marisa misses Lake City, and misses Charlotte even more, but she's still on contract with her dance company in Abandia City for four more years.

Piper rocks out to some amateur karaoke, and she's thinking, Hey, he's dreamy, where have I seen him before? Hayden definitely recognizes her too - but Jackson doesn't look like he approves, you know, looking out for his brother's mental well-being and all.

Matthew, there are no husbands allowed at a bachelorette party! "Shouldn't you be hanging out with Paul tonight?" Charlotte says.

Matthew says, "He thought I might stop over to make sure none of you ladies were getting into any trouble." Really, we think he just missed Leila ;)

And these girls have been singing drunken karaoke as long as they've been old enough to get into the bars! Good thing Charlotte and Marisa are too toasted to notice just how weird this bachelorette party is going to get!

Hayden and Piper sit down at the bar, for a drink and a talk, and Hayden is just about scared shitless, and they're not even on a date yet! He isn't sure if he's ready for all of this - because it suddenly strikes him that he hasn't so much as kissed or held hands with or even flirted with another woman but Rhianna EVER! And that's no typo! He and Rhianna were fourteen when they met!

But he figures there's nothing wrong with having one more friend. Even if she is cute and spunky and he always did have a thing for red-heads. He doesn't consider himself shy, exactly, but maybe just rusty. How does this go again? It's been a little while... like about seventeen years...

And while Hayden and Piper get their bearings on a conversation, it would only figure that just about the point Amelia couldn't look any stupider on that karaoke machine, who else would show up except her ex-boyfriend, first love, the guy who broke her heart in about five-million pieces, Alon Hutchins???

Amelia immediately goes on the defensive! And it's not like this is the first time they've seen each other or anything, since he lives in the same apartment building as her mother. But she thinks he just caught her off guard, and maybe she's a little drunk. He says he just wants to talk, but then he's trying to flirt with her! What on earth could they have to talk about?

Meanwhile, Hayden and Piper have discovered that they work for the same gaming company! How about that! They seem to have quite a bit in common, actually. But seeing as he doesn't plan on making any moves of his own, she takes things into her own hands. She gets up and says, "Are you going to ask me to dance or what? "

"Okay," he says. How's that for charm? ;) Well, it has to start somewhere, right? Because at 31 years-old, he figures he's probably too young to spend the rest of his life alone...

And dancing is easy. Maybe dancing will be a good start.

And as painful as this conversation might look, this is very healthy for Amelia. She's been having second thoughts lately, thinking about what would happen if she and Alon had the chance to start things up again, and now she knows that would be a bad idea.

So she steps outside to call Jason, because maybe she just needs to hear his voice. She knows they have their ups and their downs sometimes, but one thing is for certain - she's never been more sure in her life of how wrong Alon was for her. That is one chapter of her life she will not be revisiting, ever again.

And it seems both drunk-dialing and ex-boyfriends have become common themes of the night. "Are you sure you want to do this?" Marisa says. "It's late, it's like 1:30 in the morning."

Charlotte says, "I totally need to do this." So with her best friend there to support her, she called each and every one of them. She called Mark, and she called George, and she called Joe, and she called Adam, and she looked at her engagement ring as she told them, "I'm getting married this weekend!" And surprisingly, for as late as it was, none of them seemed very angry about it. Mark said, "Okay." And George said, "Whatever." And Joe said, "Charlotte who?" And Adam said, "Good for you Charlotte. You deserve it."

***

On the morning of their wedding, Paul says to Charlotte, "I have a little wedding present for you." And he takes her to their house. Of course, she's seen the house before, but she hasn't been allowed inside since they signed the paperwork. He said he was working on something there.

And Charlotte knows she's a lucky woman, because look at this HUGE kitchen he had redone just for her - and Paul knows, what better way into Charlotte's heart than through a big fat kitchen?

Look at how happy she is! Now that's love! :) She knows she's been flaky before, but she's going to do her best to be courageous and not disappoint this one, because Paul is a good man, and maybe she does deserve it after all.

They decide to have the ceremony at the Bluewater Chapel, the same place where Matt and Leila were married. Charlotte says, "Dad, I'm getting married today!"

Orlando says, "I know, Honey, that's what we're all here for..."

Here comes the bride... that's what Marisa is whistling... she's been whistling the whole time they were waiting. And the guests chatter on as Charlotte walks down the aisle with her father... it seems engagement has become more a topic of conversation than an actuality between Amelia and Jason... and Luke is telling Jim about how great Charlotte's shoes are, not that you can ever really see bridal shoes under the gowns, and what a shame that is!

Giving away the bride...

Marisa, still whistling. She continued to provide all of the ceremony's musical needs. Matthew is best man, you know, since he and Paul are BFFs now...

Charlotte says, "I do," and the whole room lets out a relieved sigh.

She does, people, she does!

(This one is my favorite, and will be their formal wedding portrait - lucky for Charlotte, her father is a portraitist, and they get theirs done as a wedding gift!)

W00t!

Presenting Mr. and Mrs. Gallagher!

***

notes: very good judgment on Amelia's part, because as soon as she left the room, Alon started flirting with some blonde bimbo! lol! Call it instinct maybe. Our Amelia has always been a very smart girl.

I haven't had a formal wedding in a while, so picture overload! LOL!

Charlotte got married! Yay! :) Oh, what a difficult girl she's been! It took Charlotte SEVEN years (Sim-time, of course) to get over Adam Thompson, and I think she's honestly genuinely there now (I know she's claimed this many times before, lol!).

Even poor Amelia got a little bit of closure that night. All of those people at the bachelorette party showed up 100% autonomously! Hayden, Alon, and Matthew! What a very weird night, lol!

So this was my first time actually staging a wedding, with the bridal party and her father giving her away and all... it was annoying as hell, lol! My guests wouldn't sit down! And they kept leaving the lot when their needs were just fine! I think it's something to do with the lot though, because my other wedding lots don't do that, and I seem to remember the same thing happening when Matt and Leila were married there. The church is available here (It doesn't come with the rec hall at the side though, I added that).

And holy crap! Charlotte just banked $60,000 in one round! Maybe she should have signed a pre-nup? ;)