Uncle Don stands up beside his table, and Annie whispers, “Is he . . . giving a toast?”

Giving any sort of toast would be very unlike Don; giving an unplanned, undiscussed toast is even more out of character. But as soon as the crowd quiets down and most people find their seats, he starts talking.

“Thank you all so much for coming today. I know many of you have traveled from far away to be here, and we appreciate it. I wanted to take a moment to say how much I love my Annie. I may not be her parent, and I may not have any right to say this, but I’m so proud of the woman she’s become.”

“Oh, God,” Annie says, her eyes filling with tears. I yank another tissue out of my bra and hand it to her. At this point, my tissue stash is going to be deflated before we even get to the first dances.

“But I also want to express how grateful I am to Annie, because even though I’m the older and supposedly wiser one, she’s taught me so much through the years. After watching so many of those movies she loves, and seeing the way she lives her life, I’ve learned that when you love someone, you’ve gotta tell them. So, Tyler . . .”

Uncle Don gets down on one knee and everyone in the room gasps.

“I’ve loved you since the second we met online, when you were just WookieeLover001. And as I’ve gotten to know you, that love has only grown. Will you do me the honor of being my wife?”

Tyler’s hands cover her face, but her rapid nods communicate a clear yes, and everyone cheers as she stands up and Uncle Don easily lifts her into a hug (she’s about the size of a pixie and he’s, well, Chewbacca-sized).

Beside me, Annie lets loose a full-on sob at this display of love, her mascara running down her cheeks. Oh well. I tried, and at least photos are already done. Maybe some brides would be mad that a proposal stole their spotlight, but not Annie.

“This . . . is the best . . . thing . . . that’s ever happened to me,” she chokes out through her sobs.

“Um.” I meet eyes with Drew, who has his arm around her. “Didn’t you just get married?”

She waves me off. “Oh, besides that.”

“Also.” I gesture to Drew to turn the other way, and he rolls his eyes and starts a conversation with Louis. “What in the ever-loving hell am I supposed to do now? Don stole my grand gesture thunder in a major way.”

Annie blinks a few times. “Oh. Yeah. Maybe you could propose, too?” she suggests brightly.

I smack her arm. “Get real. I don’t want to get married; I want to have sex with Nick every day for the rest of our lives until both of us die in our nineties after having simultaneous orgasms.”