Ah, weddings. Who doesn’t love a good one? This September, I had the amazing excitement of having my first continental wedding. My sister and I packed our bags, several outfit options and set off to Italy. If that wasn’t fun enough, I also had the added thrill of feeling like a Mills & Boon heroine for a weekend! A wedding in Italy, the home of the original Alpha male? For a romance editor, surely life doesn’t get much better than that!
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I read about so many weddings for work – dramatic ‘stop that wedding’ ones, shotgun weddings, marriages of convenience – that my overactive imagination was having a field day before we arrived. What if something happened?! But the whole day was even more perfect that I could imagine. The Italian village looked out over a beautiful lake, the church was stunning, and even though I didn’t understand any of the service (my Italian is limited to oft-edited phrases such as ‘ti amo’ and ‘mia cara’, none of which would have been remotely appropriate conversation starters with the Italian guests), I still shed a few tears as the bride floated down the aisle looking totally stunning in her vintage dress. Turns out that language really isn’t much of a barrier to understanding when two people are in love.
Pleasingly for me (from a purely professional standpoint, of course!) there was an embarrassment of potential heroes as well. I kid you not, there were even millionaires. Although they were Swiss bankers, not self-made Italian tycoons… And much as I LOVE that someone flew to the wedding on their private jet, and screeched up to the church in their Porsche, I’m a traditional Mills & Boon girl at heart – the Italian accent wins out every time J. There were also, bizarrely, several estate agents from the UK, who I liked to reimagine as property tycoons a few drinks into the party. Although, I must confess, it’s hard for any wannabe Alpha male to retain those credentials when dancing to that ultimate cheesy wedding party song, the YMCA.
It was an amazing weekend, celebrating and delighting in the power of love, friendship and family. And whilst it might have felt like I was a Mills & Boon heroine, above all, it was a reminder of why one Mills & Boon book sells worldwide every 3 seconds. Even if marriage isn’t your personal idea of the perfect Happy Ever After, what could be more magical than watching two people publicly declare their love and devote the rest of their lives to each other? However many weddings I read, edit or attend, it never gets old. So, to celebrate this amazingness, let me know your favourite wedding stories – the good, the bad, and the had-to-be-seen-to-be-believed!
