"I'm freaking out," Ana pants as she leans against the vanity and looks at herself in the mirror.

"I know," I say, patting her on the back, trying to mute my laughs. "Everything is fine. Everything is going smoothly. The only thing that can go wrong now is if you pass out from the lack of oxygen to your brain. Breathe, Ana."

"I stopped breathing half an hour ago," She admits breathlessly as Mia is standing on the other side of her, trying to soothe the bride. When the music started playing outside of the trailer that we're in for the guests that have started arriving, she kind of lost her mind. It's her wedding day though, so I think she deserves some time to go crazy but just right now isn't the best time considering she only has ten minutes until she's supposed to walk down the aisle.

"What are you nervous about?" Mia wonders as Renee is standing off to the side adjusting her bridesmaid dress. We're all wearing the same dress, it's short with black lace and under the black lace, there's a sky blue fabric that peeks through the black with a matching blue ribbon belt but Renee can't get her ribbon tied correctly. Sarah is standing beside her, trying to help her get it straightened out.

"I don't know," Ana breathes, shaking her head. "I just feel like nobody is going to show up."

"People are already here," Sienna assures her in the tiny trailer. The whole wedding is outside, so we have two trailers of people- one for female and one for male- for the wedding party to get ready in. The trailer is now crowded with all of Ana's bridesmaids including Sienna and I, Ana's closest friends, Mia and Renee, and then Niles' friend, Sarah, and his sister, Sophie. And then Annabelle, acting as the flower girl, who is silently playing on Sienna's phone on the couch, minding her own business. "Ana, you have nothing to worry about, I promise."

"She's right," Mia confirms. "Everything is going wonderfully."

"What if I start crying and I ruin my makeup?" Ana questions.

"Waterproof makeup, darling," Mia reminds her. "And if you're worried about your bridesmaids ugly-crying, don't worry about it. We'll control ourselves."

"I could forget my vows," She says, growing a bit more hysteric.

"They're written down, the officiant has a copy," I add.

"People might not like the music, or they might think that the guestbook thing is tacky, or my hair could fall out of the bun, or Niles could run away with my maid of honor!"

"Excuse me?" Renee chimes in. "I mean, I know you have your wedding nerves but really, Ana. Come on."

"Okay," She sighs just as there's a knock on the trailer door. "What is that? Who is that? What's happening?"

"Calm down," I say quickly. "I'll go see who it is. I promise that it's probably not Bin Laden, so don't freak out."

I walk over to the door and pull it open to see my beautiful Scott standing on the other side wearing his nice suit. He isn't actually in the wedding but he offered to come with me really early to help out with last minute stuff. And right now, acting as a messenger between the men and woman trailers is his job, I guess.

"Hey," I offer him a tired grin. "What's up?"

"I have a message from Niles," He informs me, handing me an envelope that has Ana's name written on the front. "Everything going alright?"

As if to answer that question, Ana lets out a very loud groan from where she's standing at the vanity. "Ana's getting a bit... anxious, you could say. I personally think it has a lot to do with the pregnancy hormones, but you didn't hear me just say that."

"Have her read this, I think it'll help," He says. "And by the way, you look beautiful."

I grin at my wonderful boyfriend and lean down, off of the stairs of the trailer, and I press my lips to his for a short kiss. "Thank you. You look pretty spiffy yourself. But I have a crazy bride to attend to, so I'm going to go. I'll see you soon."

"See you soon," He says with a small smile before disappearing around the side of the trailer as I shut the door and head over to Ana.

"I've got a message from Niles," I announce, handing the envelope to Ana.

"Oh god," She groans, taking the envelope in her hand and it looks like she's about to tear it in half. "He wants to call the whole thing off."

"No!" I snap quickly, taking the envelope back from her hands before she can harm the letter inside. She's only a few months pregnant, she isn't even showing yet, but with the stress of the wedding and her pregnancy hormones going wild at the same time, she's really stressed. "I'll just read it to you, I promise that it's a good thing, alright?"

She sits down on the vanity's stool and closes her eyes, nodding for me to go on.

I rip open the envelope and the chatter outside as the guests continue to arrive is starting to get louder. I unfold the paper and start to read Niles' handwritten letter:

Dear Ana,
I know that you're probably really freaking out right now, but don't. Even if everything goes wrong today- even if the moon and stars collide right on top of us- I will still love you, and that's all that matters. This day and all of the efforts that have gone into today have been about our love. Me loving you, you loving me. And as long as that's still there, then this day is a success no matter what else happens. Remember that, alright? Even if the flowers are wrong or the music is off beat, remember what this day really is about.
Not the flowers or the music or the guests. It's about our love, and that can't go wrong.
And I know that you look so incredibly, monumentally, extraordinarily beautiful right now- so beautiful, in fact, that Aphrodite herself is jealous, and she's probably taking notes on how to strive to be as beautiful as you, although it's not possible- and I can't wait to see you out there and I really can't wait to marry you today.
So breathe and remember what today is really about.
I love you,
Your Husband (in about twenty minutes)

After I read the whole note, all of the girls in the trailer coo at how sweet that is except for Ana, who looks like she's calmed down and the letter actually brought a tear to her eye.

"That was really sweet of him," She sniffles. "And he's so right. I shouldn't worry about any of that. I should just focus on Niles."

"Exactly," Renee pipes in agreement. "And now, I can understand your worry about me taking off with Niles because that was really something."

"Shut up," Ana says jokingly and Renee just laughs.

"Okay, so we have five minutes left," Sophie announces, approaching Ana to make sure that her hair is in place and her makeup isn't smudged. Nothing is out of place though, she looks perfect. Her dark brown hair is pinned up in a curly bun low on the back of her head with pastel flowers pinned into a braid that goes across the top of her head. Her white dress has sheer white sleeves and back with a line of buttons going up her back and little white flowers patterned into the sheer layer of the dress. The dress is tight until it reaches her waist and then it starts to poof out like a ball gown. It's a tea cut though, so the dress doesn't go to the ground like a ball gown, it cuts short and exposes Ana's white shoes and about six inches above her ankles.

"Are you ready? Just remember to breathe," Mia instructs Ana, taking a deep breath as if to demonstrate how to breathe because Ana has forgotten how, it seems.

"I'm breathing," Ana sighs, shutting her eyes slowly and then quickly reopening them. "Okay, I'm ready now. Let's do this thing."

We all empty out of the trailer just as the music stops and then changes to something slower and more beautiful and I can see the audience sitting in the chairs, all facing the big wooden arch that's covered in white and pastel colored flowers. We're in the middle of a forest-type park so there's trees all around us that people have decorated with flowers and lights to make it seem romantic for the wedding.

"Forgetting somebody?" Ana's dad wonders from outside of the trailer as he's holding the hand of five year-old Declan, who is the ring bearer and he looks so adorable in his tiny little tux. Stella's son is grinning at us and when Annabelle sees him, she runs to him and they share an adorable hug because they're pretty close with their parents being best friends.

"Hey, Dad," Ana breathes as Mia hands her the pastel bouquet of flowers that's much bigger than our little bouquets. "Are you ready?"

"I will never be ready for this," He tells her with a shake of his head.

"Well, it's now or never," Sienna pipes before bending down to talk to Annabelle and Declan. "Okay, do you see that pretty bush right there?"

They both nod as she points to the bush that they have to stand by that's at the front of the crowd.

"Good, I want you guys to go stand there by that bush, okay? Don't run," Sienna tells them. "And remember what I showed you, Annie? How to throw the flowers?"

"Yes, mommy, I can do it," Annabelle says as Sienna hands her the small basket of white rose petals and Ana's dad hands Declan the little pillow with the rings on it.

The music changes again and then everybody turns to watch as the two little kids start their stroll down the aisle. After the kids, we all pair up with our respective groomsmen and then start walking. It's Sienna followed by Sophie, me, Sarah, Mia, and then Renee, being the maid of honor. We walk slowly, to the beat of the music, and I find Scott just a few rows back in the audience and offer him a small smile as I walk past him down the aisle, making sure that my heels don't go through the cracks on the stone that I'm walking on. My arm is linked with the guy that I'm walking with just for that purpose, so if I fall, Johnny will hopefully keep me stable.

After Renee is on the aisle, the music changes yet again for Ana and then everybody stands from their seats to watch her enter the aisle with her father beside her, their elbows interlocked. I glance up at Niles and I see how much he loves her in his eyes and it's crazy how one person can love another one, and how visible it is in that look.

When Ana reaches the wooden archway that Niles and the officiant are standing at, Ana's father kisses her cheek and then says something to her quietly before he finds his seat between Ana's mother and her brother, Peter.

Now, Ana and Niles are staring at each other and I know that this kind of love isn't something that you can photograph. You can try but even taking a picture of this moment won't capture the love that they feel. Not even the best photographers in the world could capture this in a photo.

Everybody goes silent as the officiant between them starts speaking. "Welcome family and friends of the happy couple today. We gather here today to witness a new beginning for two wonderful people, dear to our hearts. We are celebrating their love and the beginning of the rest of their lives.

"Somebody once said 'Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses.' Marriage is the unity of two people who share a love as bright as the fire that burns on their friendship. It is loving each other through thick and thin, unconditionally. But I am not going to talk about the extraordinary love between Ana and Niles because the only people who can explain their love is the couple themselves. So, without further lecturing, we will do the vows. The couple has prepared their own vows for the occasion, and we will start with Niles."

Niles clears his throat and takes Ana's hands in his, lightly kissing her knuckles before he starts speaking, his voice a bit raspy and shaky. "Ana Shaw. You are the strongest, most beautiful, intelligent, toughest, funniest, coolest person that has ever existed. I love you so much that even I don't understand it. It's like a beautiful puzzle that I'll never be able to solve, but I'm going to spend my whole life trying. And we have been put through some heavy trials in the ten years that I've known you. Bernard's, my overprotective sister and your overprotective brothers, that dingo in Australia that almost ate my face off. But every day with you is a wonderful, beautiful adventure. An adventure that I never want to stop venturing. I can't even explain how much I love you, but I plan on trying my best. And I can't wait to spend my entire life with you, Ana. I promise that I'll never give up on us, no matter what happens, I promise to always cherish you and to love you."

She's crying by the end of his vow and honestly, so am I and most of the bridesmaids that surround me. I remember a conversation that I had with Scott yesterday when I'd told him that I wouldn't cry and he'd told me that I definitely would cry. I find him in the crowd and make eye contact with him as he shakes his head at me, jokingly disapproving of my joyful tears. We've only been together for a year, but I can still imagine it being us walking down the aisle sometime in the far future. The thought makes me smile and sniffle a little bit more.

Ana takes a few minutes to sober up before she starts saying her vows, her voice shaky as she sniffles one last time. "I remember at the beginning, when I had gone on my self-discovery journey with my friends around the world and you stayed here to do what you thought was best for me, and I felt a little bit lost. I knew that I'd be okay without you but I didn't want to be okay. I never wanted to be without you again, it totally sucked. Even when the world was between us, I never stopped loving you. And I never plan to. Because you know me better than anybody does, even myself. And you were there for me when I needed somebody the most.

"After I had lost all hope, you were the one that had showed me what it felt like to be alive. And you've never stopped making me feel so alive, and I never want to lose that feeling. You are so kind and wonderful and I don't know where I'd be without you. I love you so much, Niles Allred, and I can't wait to be your wife because we're totally going to rock this marriage thing, it'll be a blast, I can just tell. A whole new adventure, and you know how much I love adventures. I promise to love you and to cherish you forever. No matter what. I don't care if there's a Hun invasion, I will still love you. Always. And by the way, the dingo thing was totally your fault."

After the vows, Declan approached with the pillow with the rings tied to the top and then they do the ring exchange as I take that time to calm down my emotional self and wipe away a few stray tears.

Once the rings are placed on each other's hands, they do the unity ceremony which is usually when the couple will mix two colors of sand into one vase. That's not what they're doing though. Ana and Niles had written love letters to each other and they put them in a wooden box along with a bottle of their favorite wine. In front of everybody, Niles holds a nail on top of the wooden box and Ana uses a hammer to nail the box shut. That way, when they start going through rough times in their marriage, they open the box and read the letters.

"Niles, do you take Ana to be your wedded wife, to live together in marriage? Do you promise to love her, comfort her, honor and keep her for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, and forsaking all others, be faithful only to her, for as long as you both shall live?" The officiant starts the last part of the ceremony.

Niles is grinning at Ana, whose shoulders are shaking from unreleased joyful sobs. "I do," He croaks.

"Ana, do you take Niles to be your wedded husband to live together in marriage? Do you promise to love him, comfort him, honor and keep him for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health and forsaking all others, be faithful only to him so long as you both shall live?"

She sniffles and then says, "Yeah, I do."

"Well, then by the power invested in me by the state of South Carolina, I pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride," The officiant says with a wide grin and then everybody is grinning and applauding as Niles wraps his arms around Ana's waist and then leans over so that she's being held up in his arms, leaning parallel to the ground and her laugh echoes through the crowd before he kisses her.

The music starts again and then Ana and Niles, holding hands and grinning like wild happy idiots, walk back down the hallway to the applause of the crowd and then we follow them, walking in couples. Sienna walks with Penn and then Sophie with Gavin, Niles' friend, and then I follow them, locking elbows with Johnny, who is one of Ana's friends.

The wedding reception is just across the park so there's large golf carts that are going to shuttle everybody over to the outside reception area and being part of the wedding party means that we get the second shuttle (Ana and Niles getting the first one).

Once everybody is shuttled and seated in the reception area, the party really begins. There's a table for the bride and groom and their parents but there is no wedding party table, which means that I get to sit with Scott, Jasper, and Conner.

Ever since that soccer game on Halloween, I guess I really knocked some sense into Conner because he had asked Jasper on a date, a real one, and then they'd actually put a label on their relationship. They were legitimately boyfriend and boyfriend after that and they're still going strong, which is really good because they're a really cute couple. Not as cute as Scott and I though, of course.

"It turned out really well," Jasper says as we're eating our dinner, which is buffet style. There's lantern and floral centerpieces in the middle of the tables which is cute because the sun will be setting soon so the lanterns will light up the place. "They're really cute together."

"They are," I agree with a nod. "And this whole thing was put together so well, it's so romantic."

"It'll be tough to beat," Jasper tells me jokingly.

"Sure, but we'll beat it," I confirm with a nod, glancing over at Scott and then blushing.

"Perhaps riding off into the sunset on horses," Scott adds with a grin of his own.

"Or live doves," Conner pipes.

"I hate birds," I say. "But remember that for your wedding, I think that it'd be cute."

"Jo!" I hear somebody call my name and I look up to see Ana and Penn's mother grinning at me from the table beside ours. "How are you, dear?"

I offer her a polite smile. "I'm doing great, thank you."

"How's school going?"

"The year just ended," I tell her. "But it's going well, I really like it there."

"That's good to hear," She says with a friendly nod. It's so weird to see her so friendly because she's usually kind of uptight and controlling, especially with this wedding. I figured that she'd be especially uptight today, fearing that anything could go wrong. I wonder if she's already had a bit too much wine to deal with the stress. "Ana told me that you made it into the art gallery."

"Yeah, I had three showings this year," I explain, referring to the fall, winter, and spring expos that I'd gotten accepted into. After Broken Doll for the fall one and then Look of Love for the winter one, I did a social justice piece for the spring expo and I'd gotten into all of them. After Sebastian being fired, not much changed around the school except that we got a new photography teacher and she was on the board of the expositions committee and she really loved my work, which is a major relief.

"Well, congratulations, dear," She tells me before turning back around to her table.

"That was weird," Jasper mumbles and I just silently nod my head in agreement.

"That's Ana's mom?" Conner wonders curiously.

I nod in confirmation. "Yeah. She's usually a complete bat. I guess she's just so happy for her daughter that she's not going to be a bat for tonight."

"Or she's drunk," Jasper shrugs.

"That too," I laugh.

"What are we doing tomorrow?" He asks me randomly. "Because I say that we steal a few bottles of wine and get drunk in the hotel."

"While that does sound very fun, I can't. I'm going to hang out with Sienna after this," I explain to them. "Since Scott has his soccer practices starting up, we have to get back to Atlanta quicker than I had originally thought and I want to spend some time with Sienna before we leave."

"Oh, yeah, I forgot about that," Jasper sighs.

"I told her that she didn't have to fly back with me," Scott tells them. "So that she can stay for an extra few days, but she wasn't having it."

"I don't want to travel by myself," I shrug. "It's not a big deal."

Scott had agreed to join the club soccer team with Dax and a bunch of other guys that he knew from high school and he joined last season really late but this season, he's starting with them at the beginning so I think that it's going to be a lot of fun for him. He seems to really love soccer. Another thing that Scott did after Halloween was declare himself as an architecture major so he can start taking those classes next year, which is exciting.

Dinner goes by rather quickly and then it's time for Ana and Niles' first dance, so everybody gathers at the dance floor as Je L'Aime A Mourir starts playing from the DJ's speakers and they start slow dancing. It's a really romantic and slow French song (the whole song is in French but after looking up the lyrics online, I know that the lyrics are really beautiful) and we all watch them dance until the song is over and then another slow song starts for all of the couples.

I drag Scott onto the dance floor with me and wrap my arms around his shoulders as his arms rest on my waist.

"You look really nice tonight," Scott tells me. "I know that I already told you that, but yeah. Wow."

"Thank you, again," I giggle. "This whole wedding is so beautiful."

"It is," He agrees. "And you looked really cool walking down the aisle."

My breath hitches a little bit.

"I just think that you'll look a lot cooler when you're the one wearing white," He adds with a sly grin.

"I'm not engaged," I remind him.

"Not yet," He offers me a boyish grin. "But you will be. Eventually."

"Stop it," I whine softly. "I can't take so much cuteness in one day."

"Okay, what do you want to talk about then?" He wonders with a small laugh.

"Let's talk about how ever since Felix got into the spring expo, he thinks that he's tough shit and it's annoying," I mumble. "I mean, I like the kid, he's been kind of growing on me, but really. He's acting like he's freaking Ansel Adams now that he's gotten into one expo. I mean, Tara has been waiting for an expo position since freshman year and she went through hell to get it and she finally got her chance for the spring one and even she isn't as big headed about it as he is."

"That's just how he is," Scott laughs. "You have to deal with it."

"I don't know how Haven does it," I shake my head at him. "I just don't get it."

"They're in love," He tells me with a grin. "And that makes up for a lot."

"I guess you're right," I sigh, resting my head on his shoulder. "Love is pretty amazing."

"Can I get a picture of you two?" The photographer of the wedding randomly approaches us on the dance floor and I nod, facing the guy and offering a wide smile into the camera as Scott does the same.

He thanks us and walks away and I think to myself that in years from now, when people look at that picture from Ana and Niles' wedding, they won't ever know how much I love Scott. Because, just like Ana and Niles, our love is so intense that it cannot be captured on camera. It is too real, beautiful, eternal to be caught in one moment. Even as a photographer, I know that it's just absolutely impossible to get somebody to understand just how much two people love each other with a photograph.

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but our love couldn't even be explained in a million.

THE END