Chapter 37: A Beautiful Flowerless Wedding.

A few hours later, I was dressed up and prepared for my wedding. We had decided to have a non-religious wedding, as we prefer to keep things simple rather than religiously dogmatic. Sectarian behaviour had caused endless segregation, and conflicts throughout the history of humanity. Thus, we didn't want to involve any religious matter on our wedding day.

Besides, although I have long heard the True Maker inside my head, I had another reason for not marrying Alex under a Terran religion. The deity, who had rebirthed me, was the True Maker, the creator of the Universe. But no religion on Earth acknowledged the True Maker, so it didn't make sense to marry under any Terran religious beliefs.

We exchanged our wedding vows in front of 500 people at the beautiful and serene Lyne Park on a sunny March day. The sun reflected beautifully on the crystal-clear water of Sydney Harbour, and it was just the perfect temperature for a nice event. I wondered if the True Maker was looking over me to make my wedding memorable. I concluded that wasn't the case. The almighty creator of the Universe had better things to do than manipulating the weather for my enjoyment, or so I thought.

"I do," I replied to the marriage celebrant. Then I turned to Alex and kissed him.

As we walked around among scenic locations for the wedding photos, Alex turned to me and smiled. "You look stunning today," he said.

"I better; otherwise three hours of makeup and wearing this impractical white dress would be for nothing," I responded, and winked at Alex.

"I can't wait to help you take it off!" He responded cheekily, purring under his breath.

"That makes it two of us. But believe it or not, I have an even better present for you tonight!" I announced.

"Ah, do you perhaps have a twin sister?" Alex asked jokingly.

I gave Alex an angry stare, and he quickly backed down. "Just kidding, Boss!" he apologised, sporting a big silly grin on his face.

"Good. I wouldn't like sharing you with anyone else. But I will share your wedding present with the world. Let's go to the reception, it is starting soon." I replied.

The wedding reception went smoothly. The food and drink were all delectable, but unfortunately, I didn't get to enjoy much of it, as I wanted to avoid going to the bathroom with my impractical dress. After the main course, we danced the wedding waltz, which we had practised a lot. Dancing was one of the better ways for a couple to stay fit together, while also building a closer bond.

After the wedding waltz, came the highlight of the wedding, which was the wonderful speeches. I had prepared the speeches to get media attention, and I had invited several reporters to my wedding. I had realised that revealing my plans to clean up the oceans on my wedding day would be unique and would give the topic a lot more attention than if I called in a separate press conference. I went up to the podium and spoke: "Dear friends and family. Thank you for attending our big day. First of all; this wasn't meant to be a flowerless wedding; we do apologise for it. Our florist had a minor accident and is now recovering in a hospital. I would appreciate if all of you can send her your best wishes on social media, whenever time suits." I looked at Alex, we looked at each other with a beautiful and warm gaze. I continued my speech and said, "To you, Alex, you are the love of my life. While I could spend the next 45 minutes talking about how much you mean to me, I want to show you, and everyone here, how much you mean to me. Behold, your wish comes true, I have organised for projects on the first step to cleaning up the oceans. May I introduce, Dr Tony Phillips, who will lead our ocean preservation projects."

As I finished speaking, Dr Tony Phillips walked in with a marine prototype built like a vacuum suction, packed with tentacles like underwater tubes. He gave a presentation on how the machines would slowly clean up the oceans, through sucking up plastic and rubbish, to protect marine life. After the performance, we drank and celebrated all night, before we finally took a limousine to the hotel suite we had reserved for the night.

As we got to our hotel room, Alex looked at me drunkenly and spoke. "Hey babe, you don't intend to use this dress again, do you?"

"No, of course not, I'm never going to get married again, you silly darling. Why do you ask?" I replied with a laugh and a quick pash.

"Because today is our special day. I feel like a young kid who just got his first bike. I want to tear the wrapping off my present," Alex replied cheekily while kissing me gently.

I nodded and smiled at Alex and said, "Go ahead, husband, enjoy your present."

"With pleasure, my beautiful wife," he replied.

After that, we had a long and passionate night. We rejoiced that the peer pressure of pleasing everybody on our wedding day was over, so we could enjoy each other's company without interruption!