[Anna Cresswell]

Her smile turned into an expression of unease. "Are you having doubts?" She confronted rather than toe around the topic.

"Emily's already been married to a half committed fool, I won't let that happen again," she warned righteously.

[Emerson Toscano]

Emerson's palm pleaded for a pause. "I'm not having doubts," she rectified. "And like I said, we've been together 20 years, I'm fairly certain I've proven time and again that I am committed to her."

She took a deep breath. "You can go back, tell her I'm a little nervous, but that I'm certain I will feel better once I see her standing at the end of the aisle." Determined to figure this out on her own, she wanted Anna to respect her privacy. "I swear I won't get cold feet," she promised.

[Anna Cresswell]

She tilted her head and scrutinized Emerson's promise. Putting her trust in the 20 years during which she had witnessed Emerson and Emily's love, she gave the woman a small nod and went back to her sister's dressing room.

"Emerson is fine, she's nervous but she said that seeing you standing at the end of the aisle will make her feel better." Anna kept her faint doubts hidden behind a smile.

[Emily Anderson]

Anna's words did nothing to appease Emily. Her brow creased and she looked frantically around the room. "Do you think I should go and see her now?" she replied, twisting her hands together nervously. If Emerson was nervous, perhaps it would ease her concerns to see her, even for just a brief five minutes.

[Andrea Carter]

Andrea moved towards her mother and placed her hands on her shoulders. "Emerson is going to be fine. I promise you. It's nearly time. Knowing you both, you'd see each other and turn around and elope or something!" She took Emily's hands in hers and squeezed them tightly. "Today is about the whole family, so you definitely can't do that." Andrea turned and picked up Emily's elegant but simple bouquet and pressed it into her hands. "Are you ready?"

[Ellen Sage]

Dressed in a delicate pink lace number, Ellen descended the staircase into the gardens and took her seat between her brother and her cousin's twins. When Emily and Emerson had announced their wedding, her mother had immediately asked who she was intending to bring as her plus one, to which Ellen had rolled her eyes and walked out of the room. She was perfectly happy attending a wedding as a single woman. She didn't need a man to make her happy. Still, she could see the disappointment in her eyes and now that she was sandwiched between her brother and his girlfriend, and Layla and her fiancee, she might ever so slightly be having second thoughts. Perhaps she needed to track down Alessio later. The bastard better have come alone.

[Alessio Toscano]

Alessio was standing in the wings, waiting as Emily got her last touch ups done.

Once she joined him, he offered his arm. "You know if you want to you can make a run for it," he offered just as the music announcing their imminent arrival started to play. "I have a broom ready," he added quite seriously. He reckoned his mother was being presented with a similar offer somewhere. It was only fair that Emily got presented with the same.

[Emily Anderson]

Emily chuckled and touched her son's cheek lovingly. "I've never been more sure that this is what I want," she confirmed, without even a hint of insincerity. She had waited for this moment too long to walk away from it now.

[Emerson Toscano]

Emerson could not recall feeling like this on the day of her wedding to Julien. In fact, she remembered feeling quite the opposite. Fidgeting, pacing and sweating from every pore Emerson was more nervous than she had ever been. The passive calm she had felt before marrying Julien appeared to be a far figment of her imagination. How had she managed to be so calm when today she felt like she was bursting at the seams?

Sighing heavily as she lifted her dress to look at her shoes, she wondered why she was so nervous. "Did you feel like you were about to have a heart attack?" She asked her best friend before they were set to walk out and go to the altar where she would wait for Emily.

[Evelyn Winters]

Following through on her promise to remain quiet no matter how much she wanted to protest her friend tying herself to someone other than her, Evelyn remained quiet as Emily's sister spoke Emerson. Though she didn't even attempt to hide the disdain in her gaze as she watched them interact. She met Anna a handful of times, but like her Emily, the woman had yet to grow on her. The simple fact was that she was here for her best friend, and if her best friend wanted to marry herself off to some...divorcee in hopes that it would make her happy, Evelyn would give her that. Emerson's happiness was important to her, even if she didn't approve.

When Anna left them alone once again, and Emerson spoke, her immediate reaction was to tell the truth. No, she hadn't felt like she was going to have a heart attack when she had finally married Vera. In fact she had felt like she was finally coming home the moment she woke up that day. Sure she had been slightly nervous, but that had more to do with her past rather than her future, it had also been very easy to push aside when the day had started to pick-up. Telling her friend the truth however went against what she had promised both her wife and friend, so instead the french woman nodded from where she sat on a leather love seat with her legs crossed neatly with both hands cupping her pointed knee. Deep red nail varnish covered her very sharp and thin nails.

"Yes, but it will pass the moment you see her," She replied evenly enough. Though her gaze did flit down to the woman's left hand where the engagement ring had sat before today. It had been removed so that it could be replaced by a gold band that would symbolize today's events.

[Emerson Toscano]

In a rare moment of obliviousness to her friend's duplicity, Emerson felt reassured. She extended her hand towards her friend. "We have to go," she invited.

She took Evelyn's arm and held it tightly. "You've been married for 20 years, any advice?" She stalled.

[Evelyn Winters]

Holding on to Emerson's arm, she let the brunette lead them from the room they were in, "Say sorry, even if you think you're in the right." Evelyn murmured quietly without turning to look at her friend, "Emily should be more important to you than your pride." It had taken nearly twenty years for Evelyn to learn this valuable piece of advice, and even now she still got caught in old habits, but she liked to think she had come along way. Being right all the time wasn't important. Being with the ones you love — now that’s important.

[Emerson Toscano]

The question hadn't been rhetorical, but she had not expected such a profound answer either. Her friend had bloomed into someone quite different than who she would have become had she stayed on the path where they had met. "Very wise," she complimented with a hint of surprise in her voice.

"Let's go," she encouraged before she took the first step down the aisle. All eyes were on her, but her eyes were set on the wooden altar Alessio had built for them. Once they stood in front of the altar, it took her a few seconds before she let go of her friend's hand. "Thank you," she said before she finally let go.

[Emily Anderson]

Her hand grasped Alessio's firmly as they moved in the direction of the end of the aisle. Emily did not notice the crowd that awaited her, although that was unusual in this type of situation. She remembered, on her wedding day to Sebastien, beaming as she walked down, smiling as she acknowledged her friends. Today, she only had eyes for Emerson.

She took her first step down the aisle, and though she were moving at a fair enough pace, it was all she could do to stop herself from running towards her beautiful bride. Her eyes locked on Emerson, every feeling of fear or worry disappeared from her mind; this was exactly where she wanted to be. She squeezed Alessio's hand and kissed his cheek as they reached his mother and then she grasped Emerson's. "My love," she murmured. "Oh, my love."

[Emerson Toscano]

With the blink of an eye, see her little boy walking up the aisle. For years, Alessio had resisted Emily's affection. At times he had even given her a hard time and yet her little boy had grown into a handsome man who could not seem prouder to give Emily away. More emotional than she had anticipated, she gave her oldest son a quick kiss on the cheek and stammered a faint thank you.

The nervous edge she had been carrying slowly dissolved as she anchored herself into Emily's eyes.

"I love you," she mouthed before she gave their officiant a small nod to indicate that the ceremony could begin.

When they had decided to write their vows, Emerson had assumed that they would have come to her easily. Yet the ink on her quill had dried before she had been able to scratch down one word on her piece of parchment. Weeks of mulling over her feelings for Emily had made her realize that they could not be described with conventional idioms.

"People talk about falling in love, but my love for you has nothing to do with falling. Our love feels right, it feels safe and it is kind. Being in love with you feels like coming home. And it took us a little bit of time to figure it out, but eventually, we did build a home together." Emerson looked at their children. "In the presence of our family and friends, I take you Emily to be my wife. Finally." She smiled. "I vow to encourage your compassion and to keep being inspired by it. I vow to nurture your dreams. I vow to protect our family," she smiled gently thinking about the conversation they had shared regarding having another child. I vow to retire... Soon." She chuckled with the audience. "I love you, Emily. I am blessed to have built a home with you."