The 500-Dollar Wedding

I had been the biggest pushover in our circle. In the years I had worked as a wedding planner, I had dipped into my own pocket every time a friend got married to make sure she received the very best of everything. A newcomer named Sloane Halliday arrived one day. "30,000 dollars for one wedding? Laurel, that markup is outrageous." A friend tried to smooth things over. "That was already the friends-and-family rate. Venue rental alone cost that much anywhere else." Sloane rolled her eyes. "Friends-and-family rate? Give me a break. "My family ran a wedding supply chain. I knew exactly how this racket worked. "Tell you what. From now on, all of you bring your weddings to me. "I will get you the same specs, real wholesale pricing. Only 500 dollars, all in." The room erupted. "500 dollars? That saved tens of thousands. "We were giving all our weddings to Sloane from now on. "And Laurel, do not take it personally. We go way back. You really should not be pocketing the difference." Pocketing the difference? For every friend whose wedding I had planned, I had pulled every favor I had to make her the most beautiful bride in the room. The top-tier teams I brought in did not even take outside clients. Sure. That was fine with me. If 500 dollars was all it took for a complete wedding, then they were welcome to find out exactly what a 500-dollar wedding looked like. Chapter 1 A month before the wedding, I asked my friend Gemma Lawton to come by the shop to finalize the details. "Gemma, take a look at the plan I put together. If everything looks good, we can settle the remaining balance." I handed her the venue layouts and the reception package I had prepared. "Do not worry, we are friends. The price stays exactly what we agreed on. 30,000 dollars, all in." "30,000 dollars for a wedding?" The friend who had come with her let out a gasp. "That is a total ripoff!" My expression cooled instantly. "Gemma, who is this?" "This is my college friend, Sloane Halliday. She is in the wedding industry too. She heard I hired you and wanted to tag along and take a look." Sloane tugged at Gemma's arm, her tone needling. "Gemma, your friend's prices are insane. Seriously, do not let her do your wedding." A few other clients who had come in for consultations overheard and drifted closer. "What do you mean by that?" "What is she talking about? Is 30,000 really that much?" "Yeah, 30,000 for a wedding does not seem that crazy." Sloane put on a look of exaggerated disbelief. "Are you kidding me? You do not think that is expensive? My family runs a wedding supply chain. Trust me, nobody knows the real costs better than I do. "An entire wedding, start to finish, costs a few hundred dollars. And she has the nerve to charge you 30,000." "A few hundred?" Everyone in the room stared at her in shock. "Are you serious?" "You can put together a whole wedding for a few hundred dollars?" Seeing the skepticism on their faces, Sloane pulled out her phone. "See for yourselves. These are all weddings I have done for clients, and I charged every single one of them just a few hundred." The photos on her screen showed polished, gorgeous setups, and every person in the room was instantly convinced. "So Laurel has been overcharging us by tens of thousands this whole time?" "And we actually thought she was our friend!" "I cannot believe she would do something like this." With the room's fury pointed squarely at me, Sloane jabbed a finger in my face. "Laurel, you go around calling these women your friends, but all you have been doing is milking them for every penny. You prey on the people closest to you!" I kept my temper in check and tried to explain. "Sloane, everything I put together for my friends is premium-tier—" "Oh, please!" She cut me off. "Premium-tier? That is just a pretty way of saying you are lining your pockets!" Gemma spoke up hesitantly. "Sloane, maybe Laurel is telling the truth." She pointed to the portfolio on the table. "Look at the venue designs and the reception packages she has put together for us. It is all five-star quality." "Gemma, that is exactly the problem. You are too easy to fool." Sloane swept the portfolio off the table and sent it crashing to the floor. "She is using a pretty booklet to trick you. When the actual wedding day comes, it will look nothing like this." The mood in the room shifted. "Laurel, if I had not come with Gemma today, nobody would have ever found out what you are doing behind their backs," Sloane continued. "I am in the wedding business too, but the rate I give my friends is the real deal. Only 500 dollars. Unlike you, I do not make money off the people I care about." The room erupted. "500 dollars? Seriously?" "Can we book with you instead?" Sloane did not miss a beat. "Of course you can! I promise you will not be disappointed with your wedding." "That is incredible!" "We will save so much money!" "No more taking out loans just to pay for a wedding!" Gemma's face had gone pale. She turned to me, visibly uncomfortable. "Laurel, my fiancé and I have been really tight on money lately. We want to switch to Sloane for the wedding. Her price is just so much more affordable." Several other brides who had been considering booking with me spoke up to cancel as well. "We are out too." "Your prices are outrageous. Give us our deposits back." "Fine." I did not hesitate. My expression gave nothing away. "Anyone who wants to cancel can register with my assistant." I caught my assistant's eye. "Process refunds for everyone who wants out. Handle them all right here." She grabbed a tablet and began working through the cancellations one by one. Pouring 100,000 dollars' worth of heart into every 30,000-dollar budget, with nothing to show for it except ingratitude. I had had enough of that a long time ago. Chapter 2 Friends who had previously booked their weddings through me crowded around to confront me as well. "Laurel, we all paid 30,000 dollars for our weddings with you. But Sloane says the real cost is only 500. So should you be refunding us the difference?" "Yeah, you pocketed tens of thousands from each of us!" I let out a cold laugh. "Ladies, your weddings are over and done with. I used real materials, and I put together flawless events for every single one of you. That money is not coming back." When they saw I was not budging, they exploded. "Scammer! Give us our money back!" "If you will not refund us, we are calling the police! We will have you charged with fraud!" Sloane watched the pile-on with open satisfaction. "Ladies, someone who would rip off her own friends was never going to hand money back willingly. I say we get the word out before she does this to anyone else." Several of them drafted the whole story on the spot and posted it across social media. Within the hour, people flooded in demanding refunds, and there was no stopping them. Sloane, meanwhile, could not keep up with her phone. It rang nonstop with calls from people wanting to book. Once everyone had left, my assistant Paige Smith rushed over with her phone. "Boss, that Sloane woman is trashing you all over the internet! And those people from the shop are all backing her up!" A handful of inflammatory headlines had been pushed to the top of the trending topics. "My So-Called Best Friend Scammed Me at My Own Wedding!" "One Wedding Was All It Took to See Who Really Cared!" Commenters who had no idea what actually happened tore me apart. "How does someone like that even call herself a friend?" "She probably treated her girlfriends like walking ATMs." "Block her and never look back!" Paige was red in the face with anger. "Laurel! How can they slander you like this? Every single wedding, you designed a custom plan from scratch. The gowns, the venue builds, the reception menus. The real cost blew past 30,000 dollars every single time. "They got top-of-the-line service, and now they are turning around and dragging your name through the mud!" I reached over and patted her on the shoulder with a faint smile. "Do not get worked up over it. When money is on the table, so-called friendship does not mean a thing. Besides, I was already planning to step away from wedding planning. The organizers for Valcourt Fashion Week have reached out to me multiple times now." I pulled up the invitation they had sent a few days earlier and called them back. "Lisa, I have made up my mind. I am coming back." The voice on the other end shrieked with excitement. "Laurel! You finally came to your senses and quit the wedding business! You spent all that time bending over backwards for people who treated it like you owed them. You should have walked away ages ago! Get over here, I am waiting for you in Valcourt!" I hung up and laughed quietly at myself. Very few people knew that I was actually a globally renowned lead designer. I had opened the wedding planning shop on a whim, and when friends started asking for help, I had wanted to give them weddings they would never forget. For every one of their events, I had pulled strings and called in personal connections for arrangements that money alone could not buy. My husband Drew Callahan had warned me more than once that sincerity did not always earn sincerity in return, and that my friends would never appreciate what I was doing. At the time, I had brushed it off. I had told myself that years of friendship and bonds that deep would never break down like that. I had not expected to be proven wrong quite this fast. It was just as well. I was done. A single event of mine was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and there was no reason to keep fighting over a few tens of thousands with people like them. I called a friend right away and arranged to return the storefront I had been borrowing. I had barely hung up when Drew arrived in a rush, his sister right behind him. Chapter 3 Drew’s face was tight with worry. “Honey, are you okay? I saw those posts online. I already have someone handling it. Do not let it get to you.” Drew’s sister Kelsey Callahan gripped my hand. “Do not let them get in your head. These people do not deserve to call themselves your friends. You poured your heart out for them, and they turned around and stabbed you in the back.” The warmth from my family loosened something in my chest. “I am fine, really. I was planning to quit the wedding business anyway and go back to what I used to do.” Drew’s face lit up the moment he heard that. “Really? That is the best news I have heard in a long time. I will not have to watch you stay up all night working on proposals anymore. Every time you were running around contacting vendors, checking venues, arranging tastings with private chefs for them, it killed me.” Kelsey nodded along. “Exactly. No more cleaning up after ungrateful people.” Paige could not help cutting in. “You two have no idea. That Sloane woman actually told them she would do their weddings for 500 dollars.” “What?” Kelsey’s eyes went wide. “500 dollars? A few people going out for a casual dinner costs more than that.” “That is what I am saying.” The two of them were fuming. “I cannot imagine how cheap and tacky those weddings are going to look.” Kelsey turned to me. “Laurel, my wedding is in a few months. Can I still have you plan it?” I smiled and ruffled her hair. “Of course you can. Your wedding will be my grand finale in the industry. I am going to make sure it is something you remember for the rest of your life.” “Yes.” Kelsey bounced up and threw her arms around me. “You are the best. Those people did not know what they had. Let them regret it.” I laughed and held her tight. “I mean it.” Kelsey’s jaw was set. “I am going to make every single one of them see with their own eyes how much work you put into planning a perfect wedding. I want to shove it right in their faces. 500-dollar wedding? They can shove that where the sun does not shine.” The moment she said it, she pulled everyone into a group chat, framing it as an invitation to her upcoming wedding. In reality, she intended to livestream every detail of my planning process so everyone could see the truth for themselves. On the first day, Kelsey flooded the group chat with the custom wedding portraits I had arranged for her. “Oh my God, Laurel actually got me an exclusive custom-made bridal gown. I am the luckiest girl alive.” People in the chat chimed in right away. “No way, seriously?” “How much does something like that cost?” “Well, she is her own sister-in-law. Of course she is pulling out all the stops.” A moment later, I dropped screenshots into the chat showing that the same designer had custom-made the bridal gowns for several of my friends’ weddings as well. The chat went silent. Sloane jumped in right away to mock it. “Exclusive custom-made? Sure. More like cheap rentals off some discount website.” I followed up with screenshots of my conversation history with the designer, a well-known name in the industry. Gemma rushed to cover for Sloane. “Sloane, let us go get my gown custom-made this afternoon. We will find one even more beautiful than hers.” However, Sloane did not take the bait. “Gemma, custom bridal gowns are so basic. Do not worry about it. I already picked out the perfect dress for you. On your wedding day, you are going to be the most beautiful bride in the room.” Chapter 4 The others piled on. "Gemma, I am so jealous. A perfect wedding for only 500 dollars." "Tell me about it. I spent tens of thousands on mine, and looking back, I feel like such a fool." Kelsey tossed a popcorn-eating meme into the chat. "A 500-dollar wedding? I cannot wait to see that." Over the days that followed, Gemma waited for Sloane to reach out and lock down the wedding details. Not a single call came. Her future mother-in-law asked her about it more than once. "Gemma, when are we going to look at venues?" Gemma’s face drained of color. "Mom, I already picked one out. Do not worry about it." Her mother-in-law tried to press for details, but Gemma made up an excuse and slipped away. A few more days passed, and Kelsey posted a video in the group chat of me taking her to sample the wedding reception menu. "We are getting a five-star chef for the reception." A few friends who had booked their weddings through me chimed in. "I remember Laurel took me to do a tasting before my wedding too." "Same here. Every single relative said the food was incredible." When Gemma saw those messages, she lost it completely. She started tagging Sloane over and over. "Sloane, when are we doing our tasting? The wedding is right around the corner. "Is the venue even booked yet? "When are we doing a walkthrough and rehearsal?" She fired off message after message in the group chat, but nobody answered. Her friends could see what was happening and started voicing their concern. "Gemma, the wedding is almost here. None of this has been finalized?" "Yeah, did you not say everything was already taken care of?" "Is there even enough time to get it all together now?" Gemma did not reply to any of them. She called Sloane over and over, but nobody picked up. Then, the day before the wedding, a message from Sloane finally came through. "Gemma, relax. On the big day, you are going to be the most beautiful bride in the room. I have taken care of everything. The venue is booked at The Grandview Hotel." The knot in Gemma’s chest loosened when she read that. She went out of her way to tag me and Kelsey. "Laurel, do not forget to bring Kelsey to my wedding tomorrow." Kelsey fired back with a digital wedding invitation of her own. "Sorry, I am having my wedding tomorrow too." Gemma did a double take when she saw the venue on the invitation. "Wait, your wedding is at the same hotel? What a coincidence." Reading her message, I smiled coldly to myself. A 500-dollar budget, and she had somehow booked a five-star hotel? Sure. On the day of the wedding, Kelsey had her exclusive custom gown on and her look done by a celebrity makeup artist before we headed to the venue. The moment we stepped out of the car, we ran straight into Gemma and her husband Brendan Ray. I froze when I saw the two of them standing there without a trace of makeup or styling. "Gemma, did you show up to your own wedding in your pajamas?" Both of them froze. Kelsey burst out laughing. "Gemma, that is a bold bridal look you have got going." Gemma’s face twisted with anger at the sight of Kelsey in her stunning, immaculate outfit. "Sloane said I would change into the gown at the venue. We were just heading in." She grabbed her husband by the arm and marched toward the hotel entrance. "Excuse me, and you are?" A security guard at the door stepped in front of them. Gemma lifted her chin. "We are the couple getting married here today. Gemma Lawton and Brendan Ray." The guard paused for a moment, then pointed toward the far side of the hotel. "Right this way. Your wedding venue is over there." Everyone turned to look in the direction he was pointing. "What the hell is that?"