Menu

Prompts

Contests

Stories

Blog

Menu

✕

CONNECT

Editing Design Marketing Publicity Ghostwriting Websites

BLOG

Success Stories

APPS

TOOLS

Book Promotion Sites Book Review Blogs Booktube Channel Guide Book Title Generator Character Name Generator Independent Publishers Literary Agents Literary Magazines Pen Name Generator Plot Generator Publishers Directory Short Story Ideas Writing Contests Writing Exercises Writing Scholarships

ABOUT

About Reedsy Terms Privacy

CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#264: Save the Date

From romantic comedies like 27 Dresses to suspenseful thrillers like Lucy Foley’s The Guest List, it’s no secret that weddings are a compelling backdrop for storytelling. I’ve personally got weddings on the brain after attending a few this summer — and while they all went smoothly, I’m still intrigued by the narrative possibilities of dramatic, comedic, and just plain outlandish weddings!

This week’s prompts draw from those possibilities, though they’re worded in a way that doesn’t necessarily require you to write a “wedding story.” Whether your characters stroll down the aisle or avoid it altogether, now’s your chance to take them on a captivating journey… in sickness, in health, as long as they both shall live, or under any other circumstances you might invent for them.

This week's prompts

Center your story around two people who meet at a wedding.

Character – 72 stories

Write a story in the form of a speech (or multiple speeches).

Character – 24 stories

Start your story with people arriving at a special ceremony.

Character – 31 stories

Write a story from the POV of a plus-one.

Character – 48 stories

End your story with someone saying “I do.”

Character – 113 stories

Stories

“Just Outside Of Kandahar” by Thomas Wetzel

Submitted to Contest #264

Staff Seargeant Kenny Langstrom of the U.S. Marines 15th Expeditionary Unit took two AK-47 rounds – one in the shoulder and one in the thigh – on a mission just outside of Kandahar on 30 November 2001 during Operation Rhino. Others were not quite so fortunate that day. The fighting was fierce; the memories of a greasy column of thick black smoke blowing away from those two burning towers at an oblique angle against the backdrop of a clear blue September sky were still very fresh in everyone’s minds. Perspective would come in time but this ha...

Read story

“Father of the Bride” by VJ Hamilton

Submitted to Contest #264

Maggie settled down in the reserved pew, second from the front. Listening to the organ prelude, she smoothed and re-smoothed the skirt of her new dress. Dove gray or pearl gray, she couldn’t remember what she’d finally decided on. Keep it together, she reminded herself. Do not embarrass your daughter. This day was about Sasha and Devon—those two gung-ho, madly-in-love young folks. She adjusted the pin of her corsage, an ebullient display of lily, chrysanthemum, and baby’s breath.“Go ahead, turn around, have a look,” a familiar quiet voice wh...

Read story

“Wedding Llamas” by Kristy Schnabel

Submitted to Contest #264

It took all my strength not to roll my eyes as Heather ambled into our family room, juggling three overfilled binders, which she flung onto the coffee table. Dad bristled at the thudding sound. Heather had been planning her perfect wedding for more than a decade. With her groom ensnared, she just needed Dad's bank account to realize her dream. Dad looked at Heather, "Don't we need David here for this discussion?" Dad sat rigidly, and his hands tightly grasped his Chicago Cubs coffee mug. I feared the cup would crack from the strain. Heather ...

Read story

“Her Plus-One” by Jennifer Luckett

Submitted to Contest #264

I’ve never been in love, and if I never have a relationship, I’m OK with that. I’m not one of those women of a certain age who hates men or shuns traditional values. Our parents were married for more than four decades, and both of my sisters have been wed for years-one more successfully than the other. I’m just not the marrying kind, and I'm perfectly content to fly solo. So when my friend Terri invited me to her summer wedding (her second marriage, by the way), I decided to accept the invitation, decline the “plus-one”, and support the woma...

Read story

“Mallory's Plan....” by Julie Grenness

Submitted to Contest #264

"I need to get rich!" Mallory told herself. It was time to start taking care of herself for once. She had arrived home in the pouring rain, exhausted from nursing a double shift in a geriatric unit. She realized she was propping up the health system, looking after other people's parents who had been abandoned by life, time and their failing aged health. As if that was not bad enough, her car window had been jammed on stuck wide open, she was saturated. Mallory sneezed, chilled and beyond hungry. Not a virus as well as having to locate an aut...

Read story

“Alone With My Daydream” by Lynne Holtz

Submitted to Contest #264

Here we are. The same story told over and over, of unrequited love. You see, as I sit here among these tables, each draped in colors of white and shimmering gold, as the scent of roses and the bride’s choice of honeysuckle wraps its spindly claws around my nose, I see her. The dress drapes at her shoulders like a blanket of snow falling atop the mountains on a cool winter evening. Her auburn hair, tied up in dainty knots, interlaced with dazzling white baby’s breath, sways with her body as she dances under the stars. Yet, here I si...

Read story

“The Match Maker” by Gina Schmidt

Submitted to Contest #264

"Excuse me! Excuse me, miss! Is this your hanky?" I slow my pace just a little and tilt my head slightly to the right, glancing over my shoulder. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the cutest little boy running towards me, waving a white cloth in the air. He’s dressed in the tiniest tuxedo I’ve ever seen, his crop of light brown curls bouncing as his tuxedo slacks swish back and forth, bringing him closer with every little step he takes. I stop and turn around completely to face the little boy as he draws nearer. Crouching down to his level,...

Read story

“Feral” by Aidan Romo

Submitted to Contest #264

NEW HOMEI take one last glance at the pack as my new life with pure, sweet Robin lies somewhere beyond these tall trees, which I have spent many lonely moons under. Despite all the grey my eyes beheld, a part of me feels guilty leaving them behind now. Strolling through the summer soil, Robin's beautiful form of flaming ruby red illuminating the way ahead, I feel the most joyful, painful tear of mourning flee my snout.Lacking the community of my pack, every step I take here is another step closer to my soul sinking into the Earth they frolic...

Read story

“Linked” by James Scott

Submitted to Contest #264

The aisle stretched longer than the last time Savarin had stood at one’s end. It’s exponential scaling was a testament to the enduring power of the love he shared with Destry; the radiation of which had encompassed so many others in its warmth, that they had needed several extra rows of chairs brought in. Each and every one of these people deserved their seat at this new ceremony. Savarin surveyed the distance between him and the double doors at the other end of the carpeted runway, forged between the walls of white folding chairs and adorne...

Read story

“How did you meet Mom?” by Ralph Aldrich

Submitted to Contest #264

It’s Saturday morning at Oscar and Dolores’s house. Their son Bill is installing a storage cabinet he designed and built for his mother’s craft room. Oscar is in his easy chair watching Matlock. Bill has just finished turning the last screw on the lid and sommons his mother to come take a look. When Dolores enters the room, Bill pulls the contraption out from the wall like a built-in draw. He flips up the lid and gesturs with his hand, “Well? What...

Read story

“The Gamophobe Blues” by Rebecca Hurst

Submitted to Contest #264

There are three very specific things I hate: Cologne Cathedral, bananas and weddings. Unlike pollen, it is possible to avoid these things, but weddings are the hardest. No one would be too offended if you said you hated a German cathedral or a yellow fruit, but you try telling someone who has invited you to their wedding that you would rather eat a toenail sandwich, and you get a different reaction. I’ve been lucky. The year of my birth must have coincided with a rogue spore in the native soil which left most of my p...

Read story

“Gray, starry skies” by Alice Brooks

Submitted to Contest #264

I had never looked at the ceiling of the subway before.Is it even called a ceiling? Or does it have a completely different name? It’s gray. There is an air vent almost in the middle of it, just slightly off-center. The grab handles dangle lazily from the ceiling panels. The ceiling of the subway is utterly uninteresting, and the plastic benches are uncomfortable. Hard under my spine, unpleasantly charging my hair with electricity. Whenever I decide to get up, it will start to float as if it’s been rubbed with a balloon. Nobody...

Read story

“I Fucking Hate Parties” by Luca King Greek

Submitted to Contest #264

Friday evening, straight from work, in two minds about the party. The tube train was approaching Richmond, south of the river, where I expected to find promenading gangs of boozy Henrys in blazers and straw boaters. Three-Men-in-a-Boat land. I hated the idea of the place.‘I say, old chap, which regiment?” I thought it must be some kind of joke, but the stooping man. slightly older than me, was a genuine toff. He was accompanied by a beautiful woman with a ski-jump perm. They were wearing matching Barbour jackets and faded des...

Read story

“A Ring at Rock Bottom ” by Chris Sage

Submitted to Contest #264

Content warning: domestic violence/abuse. I remember when I first met Callum, vivid and clear like it was yesterday. We were both at a semi-respectable bar with our respective friends, it was a sunny Saturday afternoon, the warmth had brought out the joyful summery mood that goes with drinking in the sun. I know what you're thinking, honestly I'm not like that. He just stood out; a head taller than most, a jaw you could set your watch to, a raucous, infectious laugh. He carried himself with an easy, unshakeable confidence that I just had to ...

Read story

“Crossroads” by Victoria West

Submitted to Contest #264

Wedding bells chimed, and flowers were thrown. She tore a leaf apart, bit by bit, piece by piece. When that was done, she gazed around the bushes, her eyes drawn to a bush smaller than the others. “Why was it smaller?” she wondered. She directed her eyes to the clouds and studied their texture. Someone nudged her, “The officiant is about to speak.” "Do you take this man to be your husband, to live together in matrimony…” Her eyes were drawn to a rustle, a little bird hopped out from the bushes and she found herself admiring its ...

Read story

Load more stories

$250

Prize money

288

Contest entries

105

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Aug 23, 2024 EST

Won by Lonnie Russo 🏆

Title: Men on the Moon

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

Explore more writing prompt ideas:

Adults Writing Prompts ⭢

Adventure Writing Prompts ⭢

Angst Writing Prompts ⭢

Character Writing Prompts ⭢

Christmas Writing Prompts ⭢

Dark Writing Prompts ⭢

Dialogue Writing Prompts ⭢

Dramatic Writing Prompts ⭢

Dystopian Writing Prompts ⭢

Fall Writing Prompts ⭢

Fantasy Writing Prompts ⭢

Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Fluff Writing Prompts ⭢

Funny Writing Prompts ⭢

Halloween Writing Prompts ⭢

High School Writing Prompts ⭢

Historical Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Holiday Writing Prompts ⭢

Horror Writing Prompts ⭢

Kids Writing Prompts ⭢

Middle School Writing Prompts ⭢

Mystery Writing Prompts ⭢

Narrative Writing Prompts ⭢

Nonfiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Novel Writing Prompts ⭢

Poetry Writing Prompts ⭢

Romance Writing Prompts ⭢

Sad Writing Prompts ⭢

Science Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Short Story Writing Prompts ⭢

Spring Writing Prompts ⭢

Summer Writing Prompts ⭢

Teens Writing Prompts ⭢

Thanksgiving Writing Prompts ⭢

Thriller and Suspense Writing Prompts ⭢

Valentine's Day Writing Prompts ⭢

Vampire Writing Prompts ⭢

Winter Writing Prompts ⭢