Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Angelo, Chasity, and I sit around their table as we discuss wedding preparations. I invited Baba to come along with me to their manor but he said that he has been feeling ill and to just fill him in on what we choose when I get back home.
"How many guests would you like to invite, Naya?" Angelo asks me, and I cringe at the question. I do not want a giant wedding festivity, guest wise and I am aware that my extended family will talk badly behind my back due to me marrying an Italian man so my dream list is 50 people maximum including my family and Angelo's.
"Well let me see. In my family, there are nine members and in yours, there are twenty-two members plus Chasity's future child-."
"Children, most likely. Our family has a history of popping out armies." My eyes widen remembering that she told me this a little while back.
"Yes, children...so that adds up to thirty-one guests, and then for friends I would most likely invite around twelve because I only want to invite close ones. So that is forty-three. My parents will definitely force me into inviting my extended family on both sides which is around sixty people. So that is eight three. Okay, what about your extended family and friends?" I ask writing everyone's name down on a document.
"Well our whole family is dead except for us and our family is already huge that we have no use for friends so zero," Angelo says and I frown. Everyone should have friends in case they get tired of their family.
"I suppose I can invite around twenty of my business partners but they are so obnoxious with all their, 'Angelo, let's go get a drink after work, or Angelo, some of us are going to dinner, would you like to come with?' Wait." My fiancé realizes that he could have easily made friends if he gave his business partners the light of day.
"You should invite them and perhaps have a conversation or two with them as well?" I recommend.
"I am sorry, darling. I would do anything you ask of me but conversing with them may be pushing it." Angelo says playfully, and I roll my eyes.
"So if you do invite twenty of your associates, then our guest list goes to one hundred and three. Is there anyone else that you would like to invite?" I question as Angelo writes down the name of his business partners but he has to pull out his phone not remembering their actual names.
"Oh yes, James my assistant. He's very funny." I laugh at what my fiancé states. He wants to invite his assistant because of his humor.
"Okay, if that is all then our list is one hundred and four guests. " In Islam, it is encouraged to have intimate weddings with guests that you are close with. That is why I did not want to invite an excessive amount of people, especially ones that I do not know, personally.
"That seems perfect to me," Angelo says and I smile. "I can have James send different designs of invitations for us to look over."
"Sounds good. So what are we going to do about the venue?" I ask, as I stab a chocolate-covered strawberry with a fork not wanting to get my hands messy.
