EM - I Do [ch 1] (sequel to She Has My Heart)

Gino and Alex’s wedding was here before we knew it. The wedding was held in Alex’s hometown of Arlington, VA. Her sister, Emmy, was the maid of honor and then Lys and Natale as bridesmaids. Gino had his brother as his best man and Sidney and I as groomsmen. We got ready in the nearby hotel that we all were staying. The ceremony would be in her church that she grew up in and the reception back in the L’Enfant Plaza hotel. Pink was her theme. We wore black tuxes with light pink lapels. It matched the bridesmaid’s dresses. They were strapless dress that hit knee length then became longer in the back. Lys looked very nice in it. We were all waiting for the limo to ride over in the church. It was about one-o-clock. The ceremony started in an hour. Lys was making sure we were gone before Alex came down to the lobby.
“You look gorgeous.” I whispered in my fiancé’s ear then kissed her cheek. She blushed.
“Thank you but you guys need to go!” She ushered us out of the hotel room and down to the waiting limo. The limo would drop us off at the church then come back for the girls. “Oh Gino, you look so handsome!” Lys gushed and kissed him on the cheek. We all climbed into the elevator. I could tell Lys was holding back tears and I just pulled her close to me. The elevator dinged letting us know that we were on the first floor. Lys walked us outside. “You all look so happy and handsome! Knock em dead!” We piled in and drove away to the church. It was a short distance to the church. We soon met up with everyone else and started to escort people down the aisle. I saw Cathy and Jay and immediately went to offer her my arm.
“Hello Jordan, how are you?” She hugged me and I shook Jay’s hand. “You look handsome.” She now took my arm and we walked down the aisle.
“Thank you. I am doing well…did you guys have a nice drive?” They drove down last night after they both got off work.
“It wasn’t bad at all, just hit the cruise control.” Jay explained. We reached the pew on the bride’s side.
“Thank you Jordan.” I nodded and walked back down the aisle to escort another guest. I saw the limo pull up about quarter til two. I looked down the aisle and saw that Gino was escorting his mother and father down the aisle. Then his brother, Denis, escorted Alex’s mother down the aisle to her seat. He then took his place next to his brother by the altar. Stationed up there was a Russian translator for Gino's family. He would repeat after the priest. The doors closed and I turned around to see the girls climbing out of the limo. I walked down with Sidney to meet our girls. We then helped Alex out of the limo. She looked so radiant. Her dress was strapless. The fabric pulled and tugged at the bodice then filled out in the skirt. It wasn’t poofy but flared nicely away from the body leaving a nice train behind her. There were little beads throughout the bodice all meeting on the side to form jeweled design. Gino would fall in love all over again with her. I wonder what Lys picked for her dress. I bet its something princessy. I could picture her in something like that. Although I think something form fitting would look nice too. Her dad escorted both of his girls up to the church. We were all positioned in front of the door. Alex and her dad were off to the side for now. Natale and Sidney walked down first, then it was Lys and I and Emmy to follow. They closed the doors once more. The bridal march started to play and everyone stood up. They opened the door to reveal Alex and her dad. I glanced back at Gino. He had the biggest smile on his face. He was truly happy and content to be marrying her.
After the ceremony we took pictures in front of the altar and then some outside of the church before getting into the limo and heading back to the L’Enfant Plaza. We were all laughing and joking around.
“Alex thank goodness you didn’t burn the your dress while lighting the unity candle.” Lys commented.
“I know I was praying that I wouldn’t”
“Would be funny if he caught jacket on fire.” Denis commented. And his brother just shook his head and laughed.
“Let’s have a quick toast!” Emmy suggested and passed out glasses of champagne. “To a perfect reception just like the ceremony!”
“Salut!” the Italians chimed. “Cheers” Said everyone else. “Nice driveway!” stated Lys. Everyone looked at her.
“What?” but Lys didn’t have time to explain because the limo came to a halt at the hotel. The couples climbed out to the limo and went inside. We lined up and waited for our names to be called as we walked into the dining hall.
“Alyssa Trunzo escorted by Jordan Staal.” We walked out did a little spin then took to our spots at the bridal table. “And now, give it up for Mr. and Mrs. Evegni Malkin!” the whole crowd stood up and applauded. “The couple would like to share their first dance.”
“It’s Big and Rich ‘Lost in this moment,’” Lys whispered in my ear. “It was between this and a Taylor Swift song. But this suits them.” I kissed her on the lips. “So thankful that we got the room situation under control.” She stated again. What she is referring to, is that they hotel booked the wrong room for the reception. It would have been interesting squishing 400 people into a 250 space. But fortunately we fixed the problem in time. We sat down and the food started to arrive. The whole reception was nice. We partied till about 11 then retreated up to the hotel room.
“I can’t wait until our wedding.” Lys cooed in my ear. “I can’t wait to be called Mrs. Jordan Staal!”
“I can’t wait for you to be Mrs. Staal!” I kissed her lips and we made love the rest of the night.

In the morning we woke up early to see Alex and Gino off. They were going to Hawaii for their honeymoon. Lys and I still haven’t figured out where we are going. She wants to go to Taiwan. I think it would be nice to go to the Bahamas. We got dressed and headed down to the restaurant in the hotel. Natale and Sidney greeted us.
“Morning!” the girls hugged while Sidney and I exchanged handshakes.
“What’s good?” Lys asked while she pulled up a seat.
“Oh I am just getting some eggs and toast.” Natale stated. We both looked over the menu while they got their food. Lys ended getting French toast and I order pancakes. After we ordered the newlyweds appeared.
“Hey Mr. and Mrs. Malkin!" We greeted them. Alex was just beaming! You could tell that she was ecstatic. We all enjoyed breakfast with the newlyweds. We exchanged stories of last night!
"The father daughter dance was adorable!" Natale commented. Pretty soon more people started gathering for breakfast, including the families! Mommy Malkin looked so happy. Lys went over to sit with her parents after she finished eating.
"Yinz leaving today?" she asked them.
"Yes. We are going to stop and the see kids on the way home." her mom replied. Those kids she was referring to was her adorable little cousins. Well they are not so little. Cody is 12 and Cydney is 9.
"Aww give them hugs and kisses from me!" she told her parents. " I really wish I could have gotten more time off of work. I miss them."
"Will do." her mom replied. Cydney and Cody were both going to be in our wedding.
"Alright we are heading out after we finish our breakfast." her dad stated.
"Aww okay. You are not staying for the goodbye luncheon?"
"No, sorry toots."
"It's okay I know yinz wanna see the kids and get home at a reasonable time." she gave her parents a hug goodbye. I said goodbye and wished them a safe travel. Lys and I retreated back to the hotel room before slipping into something more appropriate for the goodbye luncheon. Lys wore a cute yellow sundress with high heel brown sandals. I threw on khaki pants and a powder blue top.
"That brings out the color in your eyes." she told me and kissed me on the cheek as we made our way to the reception hall. It was the smaller one of the two and I noticed most of the team had stayed. It was great to see new and old players like Max Talbot. He signed a deal with the Philadelphia Flyers about a year ago.
"Max!" Lys called out his name. "How are you!? I am sorry I missed you last night!"
"That's because you were too busy eyeing up your fiancé to notice me!" Lys turned 10 shades of red. It was cute. I shook his hand.
"It's good to see you again. How's Philly treating you?"
"Not too shabby but I definitely miss playing with you guys!" he said.
"I so want a Philly cheesesteak now!"
"You are more than welcome to visit anytime!"
"Oh really, Max?" Lys cooed. "I would love to visit you in the city! I have only been there one other time, my freshman year of college for Panic! at the Disco concert." I shook my head. My girl is crazy about concerts. She slapped my arm lightly. Just then Gino waved us to the head table.
"Chat later Max." We walked over there and sat down. Soon the room was silenced and Gino stood up to say a speech.
"I just want to say a thank you for everyone who came to celebrate with my beautiful wife and I. We appreciate at it greatly. We so wonderful to have friends and family as yourselves. We hope you enjoy yourself. Thank you." he sat down them quickly stood back up. "oh enjoy food." he laughed. Just then coach Bylsma stood up and started saying something about Gino. Before we knew it turned into a little bit of a roast told him. Then Lys stood up and said something about Alex.
"Alex, I didn't want you to be left out but Gino never let her be in charge of the directions. This one time we were looking at the monuments in DC and she got us lost in the Reagan airport using a GPS." Alex just pouted and then her sister turned stood up. It was a funny lunch. The newlyweds were such good sports about it. As lunch came to a close we started to say our goodbyes. Alex and Gino were on the evening flight out and Lys and I had a drive back. "Safe travels. Love you! You best text me when yinz land!!!!!" she told her person. I gave them both a hug goodbye. Lys and I walked back up to our hotel room. We gathered our luggage and checked out the room. "Want me to drive back?" she asked as we were loading my car.
"No I'll drive."
"But you drove down."
"I know but you have work tomorrow and if you need a little nap you can take it." she kissed me on the lips.
"You are so thoughtful! I love you!"
"I love you." We got situated in the car and made our way back to Pittsburgh.
"Just think this time next year I will Mrs. Staal!"
"You are correct! I can't wait!" I beamed at her. She looked so radiant in the glistening sunlight. We drove on as we talked about our wedding plans. Next up will be Sidney and Natale's wedding.