Diary of a bride to be

Meet Konnie Kara - wedding journalist by day; bride-to-be by night. With insider access to the latest bridal news, trends and planning advice she’s been called a wedding guru many times, but does she have what it takes to plan her own special day? Offering honest, frank and humorous insights, this is an account of one of the most exhilarating, and rollercoaster-emotion-filled years of her life

Wedding planning = nightmare!

By Konnie Kara on 17 Jan 2011 No comments

I woke up today after a barrage of unhealthy nightmares. The first was that I ran away from my wedding; the second was that I was on a honeymoon cruise boat that had started sinking while Vinnie and I were still on it, a la Titanic. I’ve been having a lot of these dreams recently.

The nice thing is that when I wake up there is always a reassuring, loving text from Vinnie. I call him, we chat for about half an hour. I try desperately not to talk weddings - but that is hard now, much of our conversation revolves around ‘have you called so-and-so?’ or ‘have you put the order in?’ or ‘why is such-and-such being so bleeding meddlesome?' Now we’ve decided to do wedding talk via email - I find it much healthier and as we take care of business that way it frees up time to talk about our normal lives on the phone. We haven’t seen each other for a week which has been testing because all I want is a hug! My phone is permanently glued to my ear.

What was great about today was discussing henna patterns with my henna artist. She said I should go for something with a more Arabic design influence as opposed to Indian (which is more intricate) because I have a lot of floral motifs on my Indian Sari. I love henna, but never get it done apart from at other people’s wedding and even then I only have a small strip of art work on my palm. This time I’m having the full works, although not all the way up my arm as is the current trend because I don’t really enjoy the smell and also I’ve got a rather skimpy honeymoon wardrobe which doesn’t match the Indian henna look! I’ve also upgraded the flowers for the reception today and gone in for a nicely decorated top table - this has eaten into the budget so I’ve shifted expenses so that Vinnie has to find good supermarket offers on litre bottles of spirits. I think he and both dads have been making a habit of popping into Asda, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Morrison’s every lunch time to check if the gin, vodka, rum, whisky and brandy are on offer.

The house smells of pot pourri too as I’ve taken to drying all the flowers from the registry wedding in the hallway (which is very airy and light and, most importantly, dry.) The Indian invites I have not got involved in at all and have left that task entirely up to both mums. My mother spends her evenings glued to the phone to my aunts, making plans, lists and sub-lists of items they need for the wedding ceremony - while writing invites and sealing invites. She has asked my sister not to get married for a long time because she needs five years to get over the mammoth affair my wedding has turned into.

I have left the wedding ceremony details up to her really and am concentrating on getting the reception finalised. She’s also organising the menu for the pre-wedding party with my aunt and cousin. I can’t wait for that meal - it’s going to be awesome.

Love Konnie xxx