Staphas, 6 months before the Wedding

Everyone has kindly gathered at Steve and Beth’s place on Staphas since that's the most central place for everyone to be and I have broken the news about the wedding and everyone is very excited and we're eating some tasty treats that they had stashed away and we've just barely started talking about what a wedding would look like when Beth decides to start messing with me.

“I meannn, it’s not that big a deal. Marriage is whatever.”

“Beth, you are literally married.” Mickey points out, very fairly in my opinion.

Beth fakes being all offended. “Steve and I got married for an important reason!” They hold up a finger dramatically.

“For a free parking space at up to twenty six venues.” Steve nods and Beth turns on him.

“Don't share my private information willy nilly like that!” They say as if this isn't a story they'd told all of us, many times including via video call from the wedding itself.

“I don’t think me and Abigail get any free parking spaces.” I say, scratching my chin thoughtfully. “Actually I don’t know how weddings work at all really. I’ll need to figure a lot of things out.”

“I'm assuming you'll want the erudite and organizational skills of an experienced event planner.” Robyn says. “I cannot confirm at present if it will work with my schedule but I will happily lend you my expertise.”

Um, I hadn't considered that Robyn would be interested in something like that. I have a brief vision of a Robyn-organised wedding, all stiff and business like, everyone in Alliance uniforms freshly pressed, before Beth interjects.

“Good luck fighting off Jayken for that one. Don't you remember how upset he was that Rojjel didn't use him as a wedding planner? He ended up giving him a role in the reception but it almost got really ugly.”

“I wasn't there and I don't know either of those people.” Robyn responded.

“Abigail's visiting Jayken and Alexa while I'm here actually,” I muse, thinking of their cool house on Werayne which I'd visited a couple of times.

Beth strokes their chin thoughtfully. “I will say, when Steve and I got married we never really got to do all the fun wedding shenanigans - the parties, the hens night.”

“You mean henna night?” I ask, fishing around in my brain for anything I know about weddings.

“No…” Beth says. “But that also sounds cool. Are you gonna have bridesmaids or anything? I bags maid of honour if so.”

“Hey!!” Mickey protests. “I want to be maid of honour.”

“Your girls will get to be flower girls and stuff you'll already be involved in the wedding. Besides, I would plan a way better bachelor party than you would.” Beth jabs at him.

“Would not!” Mickey bursts out and I hold up my hands in sheer confusion.

“Guys, what are you talking about? I don't know wedding stuff. Why does a wedding need parties?”

“You've never been to a wedding, Soph?” Steve asks.

I think for a minute. “Just Jayken’s, I think. There was a lot going on but it was all like Weraynian traditions. I don't really have anything like that and neither does Abi. Like, all Abi and I have talked about is the Paladanian ceremony, which is simple but nice. We get to plant trees.”

“You can do whatever you want with your wedding Sophie.” Mickey says, with an excited gleam in his eyes. “There's so many traditions from so many different cultures throughout the galaxy. You can invent traditions as well. The best weddings are the ones that feel like they reflect the people getting married perfectly, with personalised aspects to them.”

“Ooh! Maybe I need to do more research.” I don't even know what my parents' wedding was like, I think but don't say. Instead I ask, “So what were you guys talking about before? What are the parties?”

“Well on Earth there's an old tradition of having one last night out with your friends before you get married,” Beth explains and I nod along, ignoring the weird feeling of having Earth culture explained to me. “So you go out partying and get drunk and have fancy food and go dancing and it was like, supposed to be because you can't do those things once you get married.”

I frown. “That seems stupid.”

“Yes, but, at some point people realised this was stupid but they still do the parties just because they're fun. There's lots of traditions there that we could mess around with. We could all get dressed up!! Ooh and sometimes you hire a stripper or a dancer and they burst out of a cake and it's very sexy.”

I laugh. “That's so weird. Is that a real thing?”

“I've never heard of that.” Mickey says. “You're making that up Beth.”

“You'd have to get a really cheap cake.” Steve says thoughtfully. “Or it wouldn't be worth it right?”

“No you'd want to get a really fancy cake to make it more authentic.” Beth argues. They grab my hand pleadingly. “Sophie can we do the cake thing? We don't even need to hire anyone I’ll be the one in the cake.”

I think about it, start to form the image in my head. Grin gleefully. “That does sound fun. Can I be in the cake too?”

“Oooh a bit of double cake action.” Beth says. Steve is shaking his head incredulously.