My Hero

I got out of the Taxi and into my apartment building where I came face-to-face with an "out of order" sign on the elevator. Great. Now I would have to walk up 3 flights of stairs. I ran upstairs as quickly as possible, thankful for the converse Tyler had given me. I realized that at the top of the stairs that I had forgotten my clothes at Tyler's. Thankfully, I had my purse which contained all of my keys, my wallet, and my phone.

I inserted the key into the lock to my apartment. I opened the door to my very small studio apartment. It was all I could get in downtown Dallas straight after college. When you walked into the left was a kitchen equiped with a stove, dishwasher, fridge, and some cabinets. Right when you walked into the right was my very small bathroom. In the corner on the right past the bathroom was my bed, my TV, and my closet right next to the window. I made the whole entire apartment light lavender and gray, my favorite color combination.

I looked at the time on the stove- 3:26 pm. I needed to be at the venue by 4:30. I did some mental math in my head, subtracted the twenty minutes to get to the venue, and figured I had about a half an hour to get ready. I threw on a black dress- a signature Hoffman Brides uniform- and some gold heels. The colors of the wedding were gold and black so I thought I may as well go with the colors. My hair was still in a braid, and now it was dry so it created some beautiful, natural looking waves.

I stood in my mirror looking at myself while putting on make-up. I knew I was pretty, I had confidence and an older brother that always told me I was the prettiest girl he knew. I had medium length copper hair, kinda tan skin, green eyes, and my main feature- freckles. Hey, my mom is super Irish and my dad is super Italian. My freckles looked pretty cool on my tan skin, but sometimes I wish I could just pick a trait- tan or pale with freckles.

I did my make-up, a very basic look- just some face make-up and a smokey eye with some eyeliner. On the way out, I made sure to grab a clutch and fill it with my keys, wallet, and phone. I also grabbed "the folder."

Ever since I was a little girl, my mom was "the wedding planner." Everyone wanted their weddings planned by her. I was raised around weddings and I grew madly in love with the whole event- especially the dresses. My mom created an organizational tool to keep her on top named "the folder system". Basically, every single wedding we planned would have an individual folder that held records, recipets, color swatches, etc. If anything went wrong during the wedding, we had everything stored in one folder.

The wedding today was the Glenn wedding- Erica and Vincent. They were such a happy couple when they came to see me at first that I could never turn them down.

I walked out of the apartment, walked down the stairs, and into the parking garage. I went to my parking spot- 3-F, to my wonderful Jetta sitting there. It was small and black, and the best part was it was a graduation present from my parents so I didn't need to pay anything on it!

When I got into the car I reviewed the folder quickly and made my regular calls on bluetooth to the bakery, the florist, and the venue set up people. The first one I called was the bakery, owned by one of my first friends in Dallas- Mark. He picked up on the first ring.

"Sarah! I knew it was you!" He yelled loudly into the phone.

"Hey Mark, double checking that you had the cake delivered already and set up? Three layer with white quilted fondant I believe?"

"Yes Sarah, not to worry, my boys delivered it about 30 minutes ago."

"Ok great! Thanks so much!"

I hung up the phone and then called the rest of the numbers and sorted everything out. Everything seemed to be going well, too well. You see, my mother and I have planned too many weddings to count. And not at one of those weddings, did everything go right.

I pulled into the valet and since I have had so many weddings that I had planned here before, the valet know me and park it for free. I walk into the venue to see everything set up beautifully. It looked amazing, maybe one of my best works of art. I go to see the bride in her room.

Erica looks amazing, a short dress that is tight at the waist then goes out, with a lace collar and sleeves. It really suits her, and I don't normally go for short dresses. The bridesmaids wear a not too gaudy gold with black shoes. Everything was going well except until i looked over at the flower girls' hair. It was completely soaked and Erica looked like she was on the verge of tears, and the flower girl was already sobbing.

"I'm so sorry Aunt Erica! I really didn't mean to!" Wailed the little girl, who I assumed was Erica's niece.

"What happened?" I asked calmly bending down to the flower girls height.

"Well, my brother, the ring bearer, got mad at me because I told him he was gonna mess up the rings so he threw water on my head, making all of my curls bad." The little girl said looking down. I looked up at Erica who was about to start wailing.

"Erica. Breathe. You're fine. I will take care of this, you go take care of pictures and making sure you have everything. I think the photographer wants you anyways." I said smoothly.

I led the little girl into a bathroom and ordered a staff member I saw lurking around to go get a curling iron, a hair dryer, and a brush. Usually these venues always have back-up tools for the bride just in case of situations like these.

The staff member came back and I got to work. I lost myself in drying the little girls hair that I started thinking of all the things that I have ever seen gone wrong at a wedding. Lets see... spilling wine on the dress, a bridesmaids dress doesn't fit, the whole family got into a fight, cold-feet, and worst of all: no groom. This little incident to the flower girl was really nothing to be worried about.

After about 10 minutes, the girls (whose name I learned was Anna), hair was done perfectly and curled masterfully all done by me. Erica came back in to look for Anna once the pictures were almost done.

"Oh my god!" Erica beamed once she saw Anna, "Sarah you're a lifesaver! Her hair looks even better than before!" Erica hugged me, "No wonder Hoffman is the best!" She laughed.

After that, Erica and the rest of the bridesmaids finished up pictures. I also went to the groomsmen room, and as usual, nothing was wrong. The guys never have anything wrong, the most that I have seen is someone getting something on their tux, but even then I always have an extra shirt with me.

It was getting closer to the time of the ceremony, and I could see the guests finally start to come in around 6:15. It was finally time! I had the groom walk in, and then the groomsmen with the bridesmaids, then the flower girl with the ring bearer. Then came my favorite part of the whole entire day. The part that made my job so pleasurable.

The bride walking in. Everyone stands and gasps. Even if the bride's make-up is running down her face, there is no way she could look bad. In this case, Erica's smile says it all. She was beaming and her husband-to-be was crying at the end of the aisle. This is what made my mom start the business in the first place. A tear rolls down my eye, like it does every. single. wedding. Mom always told me to keep it together, but I never could, everyone was just so happy!

And the ceremony ends the same as it always does, the groom sweeps the bride off her feet and lays one on her and they live happily ever after.

After the ceremony, the bride and groom along with the bridesmaids went to take more pictures while I made sure that the Cocktail party was going smoothly. Usually I would first go up to the parents of the groom, then the bride, (especially the father of the bride who writes my check).

I was going around the room and I felt a light tap on my shoulder, and there he was. How? I begun to ask myself.

"I promise i'm not stalking you." Tyler smiled.

Notes

sorry for so much words at the beginning, I had to explain a lot of Sarah's background, so not a lot of talking. Hope the rest of the chapter was good though!

Thank you so much for reading! I am happy to take comments/suggestions/questions!

Thanks again :))))))