She called her best friend, Megan, that afternoon.
They’d known each other since high school, and fortunately, they were about the same height, with similar figures and long brown hair.
When Megan heard our plan, she stared at us.
“You want me to marry your boss? Should I at least ask what he earns?”
“I became a substitute bride.”
“Megan, this isn’t funny!” Janine protested.
“Sorry! I’m just trying to understand how I became a substitute bride.”
Eventually, Megan agreed. She’d been worried about Janine’s engagement from the beginning.
On the morning of the wedding, both girls gathered in my bedroom.
Megan stepped into Janine’s wedding dress while I helped arrange her hair in the same elegant updo we’d planned for my daughter.
They looked remarkably alike.
I applied her makeup, then fastened a long veil over her face.
“Well?” Megan asked, turning toward the mirror.
Janine gasped.
From a distance, they looked remarkably alike.
Up close, however, their faces were unmistakably different. I deliberately left Megan’s features visible.
“I don’t want to hurt him.”
Janine twisted her fingers nervously.
“What if Richard doesn’t notice?”
“Then we’ll stop the ceremony and figure out what happened,” I assured her.
She looked at Megan, then back at me.
“I don’t want to hurt him, Mom.”
I pulled her into my arms.
“What if Richard doesn’t notice?”
“And I don’t want anyone to hurt you.”
We drove to the chapel separately.
Megan waited near the main entrance, while Janine and I slipped inside through a side door.
From there, we could hear everything happening near the altar.
I squeezed my daughter’s hand. The wedding music began.
He looked remarkably relaxed.
The chapel was nearly full when the ceremony began.
About thirty guests sat in the wooden pews, whispering excitedly and admiring the flowers decorating the aisle.
Richard stood beside the officiant in an expensive dark suit.
He looked remarkably relaxed for a man who supposedly feared forgetting his own wedding day. He smiled at his friends, adjusted his cufflinks, and even exchanged a joke with one of the guests.
“Mom, I’m nervous.”
I watched everything through the narrow opening of the side door. Janine stood beside me, trembling.
“Mom, I’m nervous,” she whispered.
I squeezed her hand.
“Just watch, sweetheart.”
The music started.
Megan reached the altar.
The chapel doors swung open, and Megan appeared, holding the arm of my cousin, Daniel, who had agreed to help us.
Her white dress swept across the floor as they slowly approached the altar.
Richard’s face lit up. He smiled broadly, watching his supposed bride walk toward him.
For a moment, I wondered whether he might actually go through with the ceremony without noticing anything unusual.
Richard’s smile vanished.
Then Megan reached the altar.
Daniel stepped aside, and Richard reached for her hand.
Megan lifted her veil. Richard’s smile vanished. He stared at her, blinking several times. Then he stepped backward.
“Who are you?”
Megan remained silent.
“Who arranged this?”
Richard looked around the chapel.
“Where’s Janine?”
Someone in the front row chuckled nervously.
But Richard wasn’t laughing.
“This isn’t my bride! What the hell is going on?”
“On my own wedding day?”
Megan tilted her head. “I thought you sometimes confused people.”
Richard’s face turned bright red. “I know what my fiancée looks like!”
He turned toward the guests.
“Who arranged this? Is somebody trying to humiliate me? On my own wedding day?”
The officiant raised his hands, trying to calm him.
“I want Janine here.”
“Sir, perhaps there’s been a misunderstanding—”
“A misunderstanding? Someone sent a complete stranger down the aisle!”
The guests began whispering.
Richard pointed angrily toward the entrance.
“I want Janine here. Right now!”
“What is this nonsense?”
That was when the side door opened.
My daughter stepped into the chapel wearing a simple cream-colored dress.
“Richard?”
He spun around.
“Janine! Finally! What is this nonsense?”
“You call me Catherine.”
She approached him slowly.
Then she asked the question we’d prepared. “How did you know she wasn’t me?”
Richard stared at Janine as though she’d lost her mind.
“Because I know what my fiancée looks like! What kind of ridiculous question is that?”
