“I know. But I hate weddings.”“Because of Darcy?”“Because a wedding is a ceremony where a symbolic virgin surrounded by women in ugly dresses marries a hungover groom accompanied byfriends he hasn’t seen in years but made them show up anyway. After that, there’s a reception where the guests are held hostage for two hours withnothing to eat except lukewarm chicken winglets or those weird coated almonds, and the DJ tries to brainwash everyone into doing the electricslide and the Macarena, which some drunk idiots always go for. The only good part about a wedding is the free booze.”“Can you say that again?” Sam asked. “Because I might want to write it down and use it as part of my speech.”

“Want to go to a wedding with me in Ohio?”Rolling to my side, Kellan sat up on his elbow. “Anyone I know getting married?” he asked, amusement in his voice.Smiling, I shrugged again. “Just some annoying wishy-washy girl that half the world hates.”

“I think some girls get so caught up in the wedding part that they forget about the marriage part, and they end up bonded for life to the wrong person. It's not the wedding part that matters.”

“It’s never the wedding dresses, you know. We keep those, too, but only because they’re so blooming expensive. No. I’ve seen enough old ladies’ closets to know what we really hold on to. Not the till-death-do-us-part dresses. It’s those first lovely dresses: the slow dance dresses, the good-night-kiss dresses. It’s those first pangs we hold on to.”

“What I find about wedding plans is that everyone wants to talk about when I don't. As soon as I do feel like talking about my wedding plans, their eyes glaze over and I can see them wishing they were dead”

“This is a great wedding. I like weddings." "It is a good one, isn't it?" she agreed. "But it was always going to be--Emma so efficient." "Isn't she," he said. "I like weddings." Lulu said nothing. "Weddings," he said after a moment. "Funny things, but I like them." Lulu stopped dancing and drew back to look up into his eyes. "If you say that one more time," she said levelly, "I won't take you to the Cheddar cheese shop." "Sorry," he said quickly "I like funerals, too, if that's any help? We do marvelous ones in Ireland, we're famous for them.”