Crowned

Chapter Thirteen: Practice Makes Perfect

Time passes and soon I along with Mathieu, Abbigail, Jax and Jen excuse ourselves to go to the rehearsal.

We are given many well wishes and Kate along with the other girls say they can't wait to see how beautiful I look tomorrow.

"Amelia is going to kill me." I state as the five of us rush to the ballroom.

"We aren't running that late." Jenn says quickly.

"She can't complain really, it is early in the night and we have plenty of times to run this through." Abbigail points out.

"I just hope we don't have to run through the three damned hours that this will take tomorrow it's ridiculous. To think people will watch for that long!" I exclaim.

"The people love you Jaclynn, I am sure they will watch until the very end." Jax says hopefully.

"It's a waste of their time." I say as we reach the ballroom.

It took them all day to set up but tomorrow it will take less than three hours to remove all the chairs and set up the tables as well as the reception decor, which is completely different from that of the reception.

"There you are!" Amelia says as we enter. "I was just talking about the layout of the ceremony."

She continues talking for an hour before we finally begin the first formal rehearsal.

We start with Mathieu and his groomsmen entering from the from of the ballroom.

Next Ellise goes out with a small basket of practice petals so that Amelia can perfect how she throws the petals.

Charlotte goes down the aisle after Ellise, followed by abbigail, and then Jenn.

The doors open for me and Amelia stops us.

"No, no, no. You must wait at least ten seconds so the guests can have time to stand!" She exclaims yelling at the poor officers.

We restart and this time we wait the ten seconds before the door is opened.

My father stands beside me as we practice as he will be escorting me down the aisle.

"Stop!"

I groan.

"Princess you are practically running down the aisle you must wait a second between each step! Try again."

On the Sixth try I finally get it right as does the guard.

We practice at least ten times of how my father will give me away to Mathieu and we skip past the songs and traditions such as taking two candles flames and lighting one with the flames combined.

Amelia quickly explains how the french traditions call for drinking out of one glass, and how I will be legally accepted as the French Heir and princess.

"All you have to do is recite the French Royal Manifesto, in french of course whilst holding the crown Jewel and staff, as I have practiced with you, then you will be given the heir's crown and we will move onto the vows." She explains as we hit the second hour of rehearsing.

The 'royal officiant' who is quite old and has married most of the royal couples including my parents runs through a condensed version of the vows.

Which he does many times as Amelia gives us specific wait times and ways to answer that are acceptable.

On the third hour we take a break so Ellise can go to the bathroom but we get all of five minutes before going over the exchange of rings.

It sounds simple but Amelia breaks it down to a science.

"Prince Jax, you are responsible for handing Prince Mathieu the Princesses ring, and Jennifer you are responsible for giving the Princess Prince Mathieu's ring."

"Take his hand, not by the wrist but under his hand itself."

"Prince Mathieu, be a little quicker, we do not want the guests to fall asleep."

If they aren't already.

We finally reach the end of the ceremony and we go over acceptable kiss lengths and appropriate types of kisses, which takes multiple attempts and at least twenty minutes of my life I will never get back.

"Now for the exits, The newlyweds will go first, after they have waited 30 seconds from the beginning of the guest's applause. Ten seconds later Princess Ellise will follow, then Jennifer and Prince Gabriel will go, ten seconds after them Princess Abigail and Prince Jax, And finally Princess Charlotte and Prince Leo. There will be a traditional kiss on the balcony for the reporters exactly five minutes after your first kiss as husband and wife and then you have 2 ½ hours for the minimal amount pictures that Princess Jaclynn requested and any final touch ups."

It's true, I don't want pictures but I know that there must be a few for the public to see.

We practice the exit as she told multiple times before we are finally dismissed for the night, four hours after we started...

"May I speak to you Mathieu before you go to your room for the night?"

He nods eyes trained on the floor and the others wish me a good night.

I lead him to my empty music room.

"I am sorry for hurting you Mathieu. I truly am. To prove that I promise that tomorrow I will not be angry or argue with you. It's our wedding day, so I give you until we reach the plane tomorrow to do as you wish, any amount of kisses or questions, no complaining. I want you to be happy, as I want to be your friend. But most importantly I want to remember this day in the best way possible aside from not choosing my husband. You could have been Prince Mateo."

He laughs looking over at me, "Thanks."

"I mean it. If I married him I am sure by the end of the week I would be pregnant."

He laughs uncomfortably. "You are really letting me decide things tomorrow?"

I nod. "Perhaps things will change between us and I will not have to try not to hate you, it may come naturally."

"How sweet." He smiles at me and I notice that Nicoletta was right, he does have quite a nice smile.

"Anything for you dear." I tease.

"Yeah, that's a bit terrifying to hear from you." His eyes are crinkled slightly as he laughs

"Make up your mind!" I exclaim joining in on the laughter.

"None of that please unless you truly mean it, otherwise it scares me to no end. But we should probably turn in for the night it's quite late and we both need to get sleep for tomorrow." Mathieu says.

I nod.

We walk to the third floor and stop.

"Goodnight Jaclynn."

"Goodnight Mathieu."

"See you tomorrow."

"Goodnight dear." I turn away smiling to myself.

After I change into my Pajamas sleep finds me quite easily to my surprise.

My last night In my home.