Everyone loves weddings, right? I am a sucker for a beautiful, well-planned wedding. For more than 20 years, I worked as a wedding and event planner. While I enjoyed planning events such as corporate holiday parties, product launches, conferences, extravagant baby showers, and other milestone celebrations, weddings have always held my heart. There’s something magical about witnessing two people and their families meld lives together and celebrate that with all those near and dear to them.
I won’t say that it was easy. Weddings are special, but also fraught with high emotions. Often, tension ensues. Sometimes, the families do not mesh, and because of all the big decisions being made – both for the wedding and the looming marriage – conflict happens. And weddings are complex, requiring myriad details to bring each couple’s vision to life. But over the years, most of my weddings ran smoothly throughout the planning process all the way until the happy couple’s send-off at the end of the reception. The worst mishaps I can recall happening during my weddings are things like:
- Missing bouquets or boutonnieres
- A catering truck driving over the front lawn of a client hosting an elaborate home wedding reception
- An absent letter in a word on a groom’s cake
- Glitchy AV
- Inclement weather (a Plan B is crucial for outdoor events!)
- Missing or incorrect menu items
But as an avid cop show fan and suspense/thriller novel enthusiast, I always wondered what would happen if something more dramatic or sinister occurred. Thus, the idea for my current work in progress was born. I began with the question: what if a wedding planner discovered a murder victim during a wedding? And because I adore a book with some romance: what if that incident brought the wedding planner’s first love, whom she parted with over extreme circumstances and misguided intentions, back into her life? Add in some past trauma, emotional baggage, and a dash of humor, and hopefully, the end result will be an engaging and heartwarming story with a few twists and turns to keep readers turning pages.
Only time will tell, as I am slogging through a complete rewrite. The process of weaving together the lovely wedding world that I know with the sketchy realm of organized crime and violence is arduous but rewarding. I will post updates here occasionally on my progress, so please subscribe to my blog and newsletter to stay in the loop.
Do you enjoy your contemporary romance sweet or spiced up with a bit of suspense? Have you ever attended a wedding where a catastrophe occurred? Or can you share a favorite wedding memory?