May 2010

“Off.”  Justin grabbed Buckley’s collar and pulled him off of the couch.  The dog had snuck onto the spot where he had been sitting when he went into the kitchen for a drink.  Emma hadn’t stopped Buckley and just grinned at the look Justin had given her.

Buckley let out a loud sigh as he lay down on the floor in front of the couch.  Justin had brought his dogs with him for the first time to Arkansas because he was going to be with Emma for longer than a weekend.

Justin rolled his eyes.  He sat down on the opposite end of the couch from Emma and put his glass on the side table.

“So are you ready to dive into this wedding planning thing?”  Justin asked.

“Well you know I’ve already looked into dates, and since we’re still looking at another year my church’s calendar is wide open,” Emma replied.  She put her feet in his lap.

“When we talked on Monday, you said May of next year, right?”  He wanted to be sure because he already told his management to make sure the end of April through June was clear in his schedule. 

Emma nodded.

“Good.  I told Johnny to make sure nothing gets scheduled May or June of next year.”

“Nice,” Emma smiled.  She turned a little so she could pick up the planner that was sitting on her coffee table.  Emma opened it to the back where there was a long term calendar for the next year.  She looked at the weekend dates for the month of May.  “What Saturday?  The 7, 14, 21, or 28?” 

“The 21,” he answered.  Justin moved her jean leg out of the way so he could rub her calf.  “Did you get a new tattoo?”  He didn’t remember ever seeing the crown of thorns that circled her ankle just below the cross on her calf.

“Huh?”  Emma was puzzled and looked down at what he was talking about.  Justin pointed to it.  “No.  I’ve had that one for a couple of years Justin.”

“Really?  I don’t remember it.”

“You need to be more observant.”  Emma rested the planner open on her stomach.

“Maybe, you need to not wear pants so much.”  Justin grinned at her and poked her leg playfully. 

“I like my jeans, thank you.”  Emma smiled.  “So, I was thinking it would be cool to have the reception at The Music Hall.”

“Isn’t that kind of small?”  He asked.

“I think it’ll work,” Emma answered.  “You know I don’t really want to do anything overly extravagant anyway, and we’re keeping our guest list at 100 or less.” 

“I know,” he replied.  They had already had this conversation and figured the wedding would be best if they kept it only family and close friends.  Otherwise, their day was likely to turn into a media circus, and Northwest Arkansas wasn’t ready for that, nor were Emma and Justin.

They hadn’t officially announced their engagement, but if it came up Justin did not deny it, nor did he reveal any more than the basics.  It also didn’t hurt that Emma lived in the middle of the country where there was little media focus and not West Coast.

“We can just make it so it doesn’t look like a warehouse with a stage in it,” Emma stated.  “I even talked to JB, and he said if we want it we can book it for $5,000 because that’s what they usually pull in on a Saturday night.”

“That’s reasonable.”  Justin nodded.

“I picked up this book at the store the other day.”  Emma pulled the slim book from where it was stuck inside her planner.  She held it up for Justin to read the cover.  “I thought it could be helpful because neither of us have planned a wedding.  Maybe we could get a wedding planner to help?”

“That probably isn’t a bad idea,” Justin said and plucked the book from her hands.  He flipped through the book and stopped on a page that had a bunch of questions on it.

“What is your theme?”  He read and then looked at Emma with a raised brow.  “Theme?”

“Anything come to mind?”  She asked him.  He shook his head ‘no’.  “The only thing I could think of was something to do with the South, maybe?”  Emma shrugged.

“We have time to think about it.”  Justin moved his free hand to squeeze her foot and rubbed it affectionately.  “Colors?”

He paused and then when Emma didn’t say anything, he suggested black and white.

“I think we should have a blue or green color,” Emma replied.  She moved her foot a little when his movements tickled the bottom of her foot.  He looked over at her and smiled apologetically.  Justin handed the book back to her.

She stuck it back inside the planner and then tossed the planner back onto the coffee table.

“I can’t believe you’re going to be here for a full two weeks.” 

“I know,” Justin grinned.  “It’ll be the first time in forever that we’ve spent more than a weekend together.”

“What are you going to do while I’m at work?”  Emma asked as she sat up and put her feet on the floor. 

“I don’t know.”  He shrugged.  “Can I come bug you and Bryan?”

“Mmmm … maybe on Thursday, Bryan and I have presentations tomorrow and Wednesday, therefore on Tuesday we’ll have to finalize the one on Wednesday.”  Emma stated and stood up.  She disappeared into her kitchen and came back a minute later with a package of cookies and a soda. 

“You’re hungry?”  Justin raised a brow as she sat back down next to him.  They had had a big dinner a few hours before.  Buckley perked up when he saw what Emma had and that Brennan had followed her into the living room from her spot in the kitchen.

“A little.”  Emma shrugged as she opened the package.  She stuck a cookie in Justin’s mouth before taking one for herself. 

*  *  *

The following week Emma had scheduled an appointment for her and Justin to talk to an event planner.  Emma and Bryan had done a few invitation and program designs for this planner, so Emma knew she could work with her on her own wedding.  And it didn’t hurt that her office was a few doors down from 479design.

Justin followed Emma into the foyer of the space and was a little surprised when a woman, who was shorter than Emma, came bouncing toward them.  She was either very energetic or pumped up on caffeine. 

“Hi Emma!”  She said, and her smile grew even wider when she recognized Justin.

Now he really wasn’t sure what to think.

“Hi Jill.”  Emma smiled and grabbed Justin’s left hand in her right.  “This is my fiancé Justin Timberlake, Justin this is Jill Richardson the wedding planner.”

“It is so nice to meet you.”  Jill was still grinning as she stuck her hand out for him to shake.

“You too.”  He sounded hesitant as he returned her handshake.

“She’s always this wound up.”  Emma explained and reassured him with a squeeze of her hand.  She could tell he wasn’t sure about her, but he had to know that Emma wouldn’t use someone’s services if they were going to squeal to the world.

“Well come on back,” Jill said with a wave of her hand.  They followed her to the back of the office space, which was set up similar to Emma and Bryan’s.  “Have a seat.”  She gestured toward the opposite side of the conference table that she had sat on.  She picked up the mug of coffee next to the yellow pad of paper and took a sip of it.

Justin and Emma sat down.

“All right,” Jill started.  “Now you mentioned on the phone that you already booked the First Baptist Church of Springdale and The Music Hall in Fayetteville May 21 of next year.”

“Yeah.” Emma nodded.

“Perfect.  That’s always one of the hardest parts of planning an event.  Now is there a budget you are working with?”

“It’s really pretty open,” Justin answered and looked at Emma.

“Well, I really don’t want to spend more than $60,000.  I just think any more than that might be a little ridiculous.”  Emma said.

“Okay.  We’ll say 60, but flexible.”  Jill wrote it down and sat back in her chair.  “Now what do you envision for your day?”

“Well,” Emma paused.  “Really the only thing I’ve ever wanted was to get married in the church I grew up in.”  She looked over at Justin as she spoke this and waited to hear what he had to say.

“It’s not really something I ever thought about.”

“That’s all right,” Jill said.  She stood up.  “I can show you my portfolio to give you some ideas.”  Jill picked up a book from a side table and set it down in front of Emma and Justin before sitting back down herself.

Emma opened it and starting to look through the pages.

“Have you thought about the number of guests?” 

“One hundred or less,” Emma answered.  She looked up from the portfolio for a second.  “We want to keep it low key otherwise it’ll turn into a zoo.” 

Jill nodded.

“The only other thing we’ve talked about is colors,” Emma started.  “Justin wants black and white, which I’m just fine with, but I think it would be nice to throw in a blue or green color.”

“That would be really nice,” Jill smiled.  She wrote it down and then reached over to the table behind her to pick up a ring of color cards.  “Those are pretty modern, sleek colors.”  Jill laid the color cards on the conference table for them to look through as well.

They spent another 45 minutes with Jill talking about miscellaneous things and deciding on teal as their third color.  When they left the wedding planner’s office, Justin and Emma walked back down to her office to get her stuff and head back to her house.

*  *  *

August 2010

“Look!”  Emma said excitedly.  She held a final copy of their wedding invitation in front of Justin’s face.  Emma had picked them up from the printer’s on her way home from work.

“Very nice,” Justin said.  He grabbed the invitation from her hand and looked it over. 

Emma had designed it.  The invitation was on a four by six teal colored card with a piece of velum glued over it, revealing a quarter-inch of the teal color on all four sides.  Underneath the velum, the first letters of their names overlapped each other in a black script font that looked gray through the opaque paper.  The velum itself had the basic information for their wedding in the same black script font.

“You’re so good at what you do.”  Justin pulled her down onto his lap.

“Well thank you.”  Emma smiled and kissed his cheek.  “So like we talked about, we’ll send out the save-the-date cards this month and these will go out in January.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Justin replied.  He smiled at her softly before bringing up the next topic of conversation.  “So I talked to Johnny today.”

“Oh yeah?”  Emma asked and grinned.

“He thinks we should make an official statement,” Justin stated.  “I want to.”

“Okay,” she nodded.

“Really?”  He hadn’t expected her to be so ‘whatever’ about it.

“Yeah,” Emma answered honestly.  “I know I can’t exactly hide from the world forever if I’m going to be with you.  We’ve done a pretty good job of that for three years now, but I guess I should suck it up and go for it.”

Justin laughed lightly and picked her left hand up in his own.

“There are a few different ways we can go about it,” he said.  “We could do a big thing like a magazine, TV show or radio interview.  Or we can just do a press release.”

“What do you want to do?”  Emma asked him.  Justin played with the ring on her finger.

“Maybe, because it’s already a little out there we can just do a press release.  And if I have an interview or something like that soon, I don’t know, I can always field more questions,” Justin answered.

“That sounds like a good idea.”  She nodded.  “My request is that my last name and hometown stay out of it.”

“I think that would be manageable.  I won’t guarantee that it won’t get out there, but we can try.”  Justin weaved his fingers through hers.

“That’s fine.”  Emma smiled.  They sat on the couch, looking at each other for a moment.  Both were content to be with the other.  “I talked to Mom this morning, and she asked about where we are going to register at, you know for gifts and stuff?

“And well, I was thinking that it would be kind of dumb for us to do that because we don’t really need anything.  Than I thought that a lot of people I invited are going to want to do something, so maybe we could pick a couple of charities that they could donate to instead of buying us stuff.”

“Definitely,” Justin nodded.  “That makes a lot more sense.”

“That’s what I thought.  The only thing is, my parents have already insisted that they buy us our dishes and silverware,” Emma said.  “Because they aren’t going to pay for the wedding like they wanted to.”

“If they want to do that for us that’s fine,” he stated.  “I’m sure some of my family will want to do something like that too.”  Justin was quiet for a moment.  “Are there any charities you like?”

“Well I was going to do some research when I knew what you thought of the idea,” she answered.

“Ok.”  Justin nodded.  “I have my foundation for music education we can do that to.  If that would be something you’re interested in.”

“Sure.”  Emma nodded as the front door opened.

“Baby brother’s home!”  Trevor announced his presence.  “Everyone decent?”  He stuck his head through the opened door and grinned at Justin and Emma. 

“Trevor!”  Emma rolled her eyes but didn’t move from her spot on Justin’s lap.  Justin chuckled and pulled Emma closer to him.

Trevor opened the door all the way and walked into the house he shared with his sister.  He had his guitar over his shoulder in its soft case and was dragging the suitcase he had his clothes in behind him.

Trevor let go of the baggage and closed the door.  He walked over to Emma and Justin, and leaned down to give Emma a hug, and when she moved out of the way, he gave Justin a hug too.

“How did your shows go?”  Emma asked moving to the sit down on the couch next to Justin.  The Wedding had played three sets in Bushnell, Illinois for Cornerstone Festival, which was a week-long music festival in the middle of a farm field.

“They went awesome,” Trevor answered.  He flopped down on the chair and yawned.  “I love Cornerstone.”  Emma nodded.  She had been out there a few times to help them at their merchandise table and to check out the bands.  It was like summer camp especially when you slept in tents and everyone smelled.

“How long you here for?”  Trevor turned his attention to Justin.

“Until Wednesday,” Justin answered.

“Sweet.  The guys are coming over tomorrow and we’re gonna do some writing.  You want to join us?”   

“Sure,” Justin said.  Usually “writing” with them was just jamming.  They came from a completely different musical background as him, but they all had fun together.  

“I’m gonna start dinner.”  Emma stood up.  She walked out of the living room and into the kitchen leaving Justin and Trevor to themselves.  Emma was glad that both of them got along with each other.

*  *  *

“Did you see this Justin?”  Emma was sitting at her dining room table reading the news headlines on Yahoo! News.  She glanced over at Justin who was sprawled out on her couch, watching TV and half-heartedly playing with Buckley and Brennan.

“What’s that?”  He looked over at her.

“We’re the top news story.”  Emma answered.

“Huh.”  He was completely uninterested, mostly because it didn’t surprise him.  Emma decided to read what it said.

“Well that didn’t take long,” Emma stated when she saw her last name and hometown in it.  Emma sighed.  It bothered her a little, but she knew it was going to happen.  And at least they had tried.

Justin looked back over at her when she had said that comment.  Buckley and Brennan had turned their attention from Justin to each other.

“They already got my last name and where I live,” she said.

“Oh … I’m sorry Em,” Justin said.  Even though she had agreed to announce their pending marriage, he knew it wasn’t her first choice.   

“I know,” Emma smiled softly.  “At least we tried.  Right?”  She closed her laptop and stood up to go over to him. 

“It’s all we can do.”  Justin opened his arms to her and she lay down on top of him.  He hugged her to himself and kissed her forehead.  “You know if I could, I would hide you from everything.”

“I know,” Emma nodded.  “What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.”

“Mmhmm …” Justin sighed and decided to change the subject.  “So where should I take you?”

“Where should you take me?” Emma asked.  She was puzzled.

“Yeah, on our honeymoon.”  He explained.  His face lighting up at the idea.

“Oh … I don’t know,” she answered.  Emma reached down and ran her fingers over Brennan’s smooth fur.  She had given up on playing with Buckley and lay down on the floor next to the couch.

“We can go to Italy,” Justin suggested.  “I know you want to go there.”

“That could be fun,” Emma said.

“Could?  Emmy … it’d be awesome.”  He grinned.

“I know.  It would,” she smiled.  “I want to go to Florence and Rome.”

“Okay.”  He nodded.  “Just get your passport and I can make all of the arrangements.”

“Sounds like a plan.”