Wedding Bell Hell is a short story originally published for free on Kelley Armstrong's website, and later printed in Tales of the Otherworld. It is narrated by Paige Winterbourne and follows the days leading up to her wedding with Lucas Cortez.
Plot[]
Three weeks before the wedding: Paige and Lucas try to make the frustratingly nitpicky last-minute wedding decisions, such as what goes on the matchbook favors. Maria, Lucas's mother, comes to stay and help and gets along wonderfully with her "granddaughter" Savannah. They are interrupted by a wedding planner hired by Benicio, who wants to "help" by offering expensive wedding upgrades.
Two days before the wedding: Benicio arrives for the wedding and tries again to interfere. Maria deftly intercepts him and distracts him by helping make reception favors.
Nineteen hours before the wedding: The matchbooks arrive. They are fuchia, and Paige is horrified to realize that she was about to let herself be upset by it.
Fifteen hours before the wedding: Paige complains about Benicio with her supernatural friends at the rehearsal dinner.
Eight hours before the wedding: Paige and Lucas wake up. Before they can have a private pre-wedding celebration, a breakfast delivery from Benicio interrupts them. They decide it's time to pull out Plan B in dealing with him.
Five and a half hours before the wedding: Paige discovers Savannah's artistic additions to the wedding invitations. Lucas "discovers" Benicio in Maria's hotel room.
Fifteen minutes before the wedding: Adam checks in on Paige and Savannah. Paige walks down the aisle. Benicio has been upgraded to best man to keep him happy. He still surprises the newlyweds with a four-horse carriage to take them away.
Characters[]
- Benicio Cortez - Lucas's father
- Maria Valdes - Lucas's mother, Benicio's former mistress
- Savannah Levine - Paige's, and now Lucas's, teenage ward
- Clayton Danvers - werewolf, friend
- Elena Michaels - werewolf, friend
- Adam Vasic - half-demon, friend
- Margory Mills - Benicio's wedding planner
- Troy Morgan - Benicio's bodyguard
- Griffin Sorenson - Benicio's bodyguard
- Jaime Vegas - necromancer, friends
- Robert Vasic - half-demon, friend
- Talia Vasic - human, Adam's mother and Robert's wife
- The Sabrina School - created by Paige to train neophyte witches outside the Coven
Continuity[]
- The cover art commissioned by Kelley Armstrong shows Paige's middle name as Catherine, but in Broken she specifies that it is Katherine with a "K".