Warnings- none. Fluff, wedding planning, actual wedding.
Not because it wasn’t important.
But because loving y/n had already become part of Casey’s bloodstream long before the ring.
Still, there were moments that hit her out of nowhere.
Like standing in the grocery store deciding between two pasta sauces when she caught sight of the diamond sparkling under fluorescent lights and suddenly thought:
“Oh. I’m going to marry her.”
And then she had to pretend she wasn’t emotional in aisle seven.
“You keep staring at your hand,” y/n teased one night from the kitchen.
She looked up from the couch innocently. “No I don’t.”
“You literally look at your ring every twelve seconds.”
“That is not scientifically proven.”
Y/n walked over laughing softly, setting down two mugs of hot chocolate before dropping onto the couch beside her.
“It’s okay,” she grinned. “I stare at you like a loser constantly too.”
Casey snorted immediately. “At least you’re self aware.”
But then y/n’s expression softened.
The kind of softness reserved only for Casey.
She reached for Casey’s hand carefully, thumb brushing over both rings she still wore together — the promise ring and the engagement ring side by side.
“I still can’t believe you said yes.”
Her face melted instantly. “You proposed in Paris.”
“You cried before I even finished asking.”
“You were being emotional!”
“You tackled me so hard I almost dropped the ring over the balcony.”
“That sounds like a you problem.”
Y/n laughed quietly before leaning over to kiss her.
The kind of kiss that lingered afterward.
The kind that made home feel less like a place and more like a person.
Wedding planning turned out to be far less glamorous than Pinterest promised.
There were spreadsheets. So many spreadsheets because Casey wanted to make sure everything was perfect and detailed.
Guest lists caused arguments.
Flowers were somehow offensively expensive.
And seating charts nearly ended their sanity entirely.
“One more person asks me what our wedding colors are and I’m going to start barking,” Casey muttered dramatically one night.
Y/n looked up from the laptop. “You already changed the colors three times.”
“Because lighting matters!”
“Baby, I love you deeply,” she said carefully, “but I genuinely cannot tell the difference between ivory and eggshell.”
Casey gasped in fake offense.
“They are emotionally different whites.”
She stared at her for a long moment before bursting into laughter so hard she had to lean forward.
And annoyingly enough, Casey started laughing too.
That became the thing about wedding planning.
No matter how stressed they got, they always found their way back to each other.
A month before the wedding, they ended up slow dancing in the kitchen at 1 a.m.
Casey had been sitting on the counter stealing frosting off cupcakes they’d made for a family party while y/n cleaned dishes beside her.
Then suddenly she stepped between her knees, hands resting on her hips.
“What are you doing?” she whispered.
But y/n pulled her closer anyway.
The apartment lights were dim except for the stove light glowing softly across the kitchen.
Outside, rain tapped gently against the windows.
Inside, she looked at her like she still couldn’t believe she was real.
“You know what’s crazy?” y/n murmured.
“I loved you so much when I gave you that promise ring.” Her thumb brushed against the band still sitting on her finger. “And somehow I love you even more now.”
Her chest physically hurt sometimes.
Y/n said things so casually that rearranged her entire nervous system.
“You’re really cheesy lately,” she whispered, smiling against her mouth.
“You’re marrying me anyway.”
Her hands warm against her waist while she smiled into it, breathless and happy and completely hers.
And for a second the entire world narrowed down to that kitchen.
To the quiet scrape of her thumb against her skin.
To the feeling of being loved gently.
The wedding itself happened on a warm spring evening.
Nothing huge. Nothing extravagant.
Just people they loved gathered beneath strings of lights while music drifted softly through the air.
And y/n waiting for Casey at the end of the aisle looking seconds away from crying.
The second she appeared, her face completely fell apart.
Like she’d never seen anything more beautiful in her life.
“Oh my god,” Olivia whispered somewhere behind her. “She’s DONE for.”
She reached her smiling through tears already threatening to spill, and y/n grabbed her hands immediately like she physically couldn’t wait another second.
“You’re shaking,” she whispered softly.
“No,” y/n laughed breathlessly. “You look insane right now.”
She nearly started crying instantly.
By the time they exchanged vows, both of them were emotional disasters.
“I choose you,” y/n said quietly during her vows, voice trembling. “In every lifetime. Every version of this life. Every ordinary Tuesday we get lucky enough to have.”
And suddenly there wasn’t a dry eye left.
Marriage didn’t change them the way people claimed it would.
Stealing each other’s clothes.
Y/n still reached for Casey in her sleep.
They still argued over what to eat for dinner at least three times a week.
But there was something quietly beautiful about calling y/n her wife.
Something beautiful about hearing her introduce her as her wife.
The words never stopped feeling sacred.
Months later, she found y/n one evening sitting on the living room floor surrounded by old photo albums.
Screenshots of blurry late-night FaceTimes.
Tiny pieces of a life built together.
“What are you doing?” she asked softly.
Casey sat beside her carefully, resting her head against her shoulder while she flipped through another page.
Then she stopped at a picture from Paris.
The morning she proposed.
“You know,” y/n murmured quietly, “that promise ring was the best decision I ever made.”
She smiled softly. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She kissed the top of her head gently. “Because it led me here.”
The overwhelming terrifying softness of loving someone enough that they became stitched into every future thought you had.
And somewhere between Paris and promise rings and sleepy kitchen dancing and wedding vows whispered through tears, they built the kind of love people write poems about.
Not because it was perfect.
But because it was theirs.