Chapter Text
After doing the official photoshoot for Steph and Cass’s engagement, they were having a meeting to go over wedding planning. If Steph and Cass really wanted to have the wedding in slightly less than 3 months, and have it be a big wedding to appease the public interest in their family, then they needed to work on planning things immediately. Tim was already on board as Best Man to one or both of them, and he immediately got roped into helping with planning.
So, Tim was there along with Steph, Cass, Alfred, and Bruce to discuss initial plans. Alfred, with his many years of experience with event planning, led the discussion. They decided on Saturday, September 5th for the wedding date, since the weather should still be mostly nice, but everyone would be home and there were no scheduling conflicts then. They would host the wedding here at Wayne Manor, though their formal ballroom only had dinner seating for 300 guests maximum.
“I doubt we have more than 300 people to invite anyways,” Steph commented.
“If we’re truly doing a big wedding, then we’ll have to invite various Wayne Enterprises people and also some of the gala circuit,” Tim pointed out.
Alfred proposed that a lot of people would want to attend the wedding, and they could possibly seat 1000 people outside for the actual wedding ceremony, and then have a somewhat more private reception with a max of 300 people.
“That would cause a lot of drama, about who got an invite to the reception versus just the wedding,” Bruce commented.
“I think more people would be offended at not being invited at all, but would be somewhat understanding of space concerns. We can have a nice outside pavilion with refreshments for the ceremony-only guests; we could do the first dance and parent-child dances on the balcony off of the ballroom, to be seen by both groups of guests,” Alfred recommended, “Anyways, invites will have to be sent out as soon as possible, to allow time for RSVP’s to get back to us. So, we’ll need to make the guest list. Who do you actually want to invite, that comes first, then secondly we will fill in the more….political/business contacts.”
“I don’t have any family other than my mom, not any close family at least. I can ask her if there’s any more distant relatives we should invite, but I don’t really know any,” Steph replied.
“My birth parents are not invited, they would cause trouble,” Cass decided.
“It can be friends, people we know from the GYC, maybe some of the people you did ballet with, maybe, Steph, if you have any classmates you are friendly with. We’ll have to be….careful about inviting contacts from our night work, for who we have a plausible civilian excuse for, but we’ll get who we can,” Tim explained.
“We’ll work on lists for friends and I’ll ask my mom about family, I guess, but sounds like you should take lead on the guest list, Tim, I feel overwhelmed by the idea of it. I’ll look it over for final approval, but I trust your judgement,” Steph decided.
“That’s fair, I can take lead on the friends and some of the business contacts, then Alfred can help with the social politics side of things,” Tim agreed, “Just to check, you are actually okay with having a big wedding, right? Ultimately, it’s your wedding, we will do what you want, you shouldn’t feel pressured.”
Steph considered, “I like the idea of having a big wedding, with lots of flowers and other décor and fancy dresses and stuff, it’s just the….people aspect is a bit weird. I also understand how playing these social games, being in the public eye like this, is part of the family’s cover.”
Cass spoke, “I am okay with….spectacle, but I worry about….words? Emotional vows in front of people, since…my talking isn’t the best.”
“We could do something where before the wedding party walks out, you can exchange personal vows in the more private area, then for the ceremony in front of everyone, you only have to say ‘I do’,” Alfred suggested.
“Yes, I would like that,” Cass said and Steph nodded her agreement.
“So, for the part that excites you: What wedding colors were you thinking? Purple and….?” Tim asked, slightly teasing, knowing Steph’s color preference.
“Purple and Purple, yes,” Steph replied with a smirk, “I was thinking Royal Purple and Lavender. I like the deep purple, and Lavender is a word that has associations with queer terms, and the two purples are different enough to contrast well. We can have white and a light pink as tertiary colors where needed. I liked how Jason and Percy did color symbolism stuff for the two sides; since it’s a gay wedding and we won’t be split neatly into bridesmaids and groomsmen, having themed colors makes sense. So, I was thinking Royal Purple for my side and Lavender for Cass’s side. I’m really excited about planning out the outfits, though of course we’ll commission a professional to actually make them.” Steph rambled a bit excitedly at the end.
“Who were you thinking for the wedding party? Aside from me as Best Man, of course,” Tim asked.
“Babs as Maid of Honor,” Cass suggested, “If Bruce is parent walking me down aisle, Babs as mother/big-sister figure should have place of honor too.”
“That makes sense. So, does that make me Steph’s Best Man?” Tim asked.
“Yay, I get him! I’ve known you longer than she has, anyways,” Steph said with a smile.
“Other Groomsmen or bridesmaids? Presumably, Cass’s other brothers,” Alfred prompted.
“Jason, Percy, Dick, and Damian,” Cass listed.
“Even number from that, but how should we split them?” Steph asked.
“Jason and Percy on Steph’s side, since Percy has known Steph longer than he’s known Cass. Dick and Damian on Cass’s side, since they are closer to Cass,” Tim suggested.
Damian can go down the aisle alone, then Jason and Percy can walk down together, then Richard can walk Barbara down since it may not be the smoothest path for her to navigate with the wheelchair, then Tim can walk down alone as best man,” Alfred planned.
“Ooh, if the path is going to be a carpet, instead of like a red carpet, can we do a dark purple one?” Steph asked.
“I’ll see what we can do,” Alfred agreed.
“Anyways, my mom can walk me down the aisle. We already decided that Allison will be the flower girl,” Steph summarized.
“Lian could be the ring bearer,” Tim suggested, and they agreed.
“Anyways, I have a lot of ideas for our wedding outfits, I’ll have to sketch some things out. Cass, darling, I’d love to see you in the biggest most beautiful dress with a long train, but for myself, I’d like to do a mix of a suit with some feminine elements,” Steph planned.
“Are you designing things for the rest of the bridal party too? You should get with Percy before he leaves for the summer, he likes genderqueer attire and may like to wear a dress of sorts,” Tim suggested.
“Yes, good point,” Steph agreed.
“Some people will quietly have a cow about the subverting of gender roles, this will be fun,” Alfred exclaimed.
“Hey, they know it’s a gay wedding coming in. If they don’t like that, fuck ‘em,” Steph said, and Cass smiled at that.
“Hmm, thinking about it, we might need someone to help guide the train of Cass’s dress, with what I have planned, kind of auxiliary bridesmaids? Cass, is there anyone you would want for that?” Steph asked.
Cass shrugged while thinking about it. Tim chimed in, “Would need to be someone you’re friendly with as a civilian, perhaps Annette and Mia? You’ve known them for a fair bit.”
“Yes, that works,” Cass agreed, “Not full bridesmaids like family, but good civilian friends, yes.”
“Alfred, will you be the officiant again?” Tim asked.
“I can be, if that is your wish,” Alfred replied, “We will be hiring proper caterers for this event though.”
Steph and Cass exchanged a look and nodded before Steph spoke, “Yeah, Alfie, we’d love for you to officiate, to be part of the wedding party in a way. Neither of us is religious enough to care to get a religious official to do it.”
“Well, we will work on the guest list and invites. Do get your list together soon and let me know to help for arranging the commissioning of the outfits once you have sketches, those need to be started as soon as possible. Details like the wedding cake and what songs to play when can be decided later. Is there anything else you feel we should discuss now?” Alfred asked.
“I liked the more lowkey dance party at Percy and Jason’s wedding; maybe we can have like an after party after the main reception, where all the stuffy people leave and the fun people stay and we can relax more and dance and stuff,” Steph suggested.
“We do have the smaller secondary ballroom, I can see that working. I’m thinking 2pm for the main wedding ceremony, time for pictures, a toast, and the official dances, then dinner can be served at 5pm. The main reception can conclude and the afterparty you suggested can begin at 8pm or 9pm. I’ll work on finalizing a schedule. Food options for dinner will include steak, a fish option, a Vegan option, and possibly a white meat option; we can discuss the full menu more later,” Alfred planned.
“That all sounds good, I think we’d both prefer to just do steak. Oh, we should have outfits to change into for the reception, especially Cass, considering the train,” Steph mused. She was clearly more focused on the clothes, considering her fashion design interest, than in the rest of the wedding planning. Tim was glad he was in a position to help, to help take some of the stress off of her; he liked planning details of things anyways.
Tim would work with Alfred on the guest list….and maybe he would do the seating chart a bit, those two kind of went together. Of course, the final seating chart would depend on RSVPs, but he could plan what to do with their…hero contacts and such, to place them somewhere that made sense, and ensure the people actually close to them were near the front.