should probably mention that too. The whole wedding is being paid for by Fantastic Magazine. All we have to do is let them cover the whole thing for the serialised wedding feature they’re running.
If only that feature contest hadn’t been so tempting, so perfect for us. Who wouldn’t want to be chosen as the most romantic couple of the year, win ten thousand quid and get an entire series written about them?
I’ll tell you the answer: a dumped fiancée, as it happens.
Sighing, I open the email again on my phone.
From: [email protected]
Re: Release forms and prelim schedule
Dear Nelly,
Just a quick one to say again how excited we are to start the series. It’s going to be a total inspiration for Fantastic Magazine’s readers! Attached please find the release forms. An electronic signature is fine and we’ll need them from everyone who’ll be involved in the interviews and the photographing/filming. No rush to get them back.
Here’s a rough outline of what we’d like to photograph and interview about, but please do let me know if you have additional ideas – this is very much a collaborative effort, and it’s your wedding after all! Like you said in your pitch, the more loved-up couple-i-ness the better, and the candid ‘outtake’ filming is such a great idea for the website! I’m sure we’ll have more than enough for all three months’ stories.
your falling-in-love story
the dress (you said your mum will be there – anyone else?)
decorations – will your friends/family help at all? That would make a great story
flowers
cake
Other ideas:
wine tasting?
will you do dance lessons?
maybe bridesmaid’s dresses? It might be interesting if they’re different sizes and shapes
We’ll plan to be at your flat on the 27th. Is 10am too early?
See you sooooon!
Martha x
As if it’s not bad enough that my fiancé might actually be calling off our wedding, I’ve got this to worry about. What am I supposed to do when Martha and her team turn up, expecting to follow us around for the next three months? Pretend Matt’s in the loo the whole time?
This seemed like such an amazing opportunity, right when I’d been planning an entire life change. But I can’t even face thinking about that right now.
It’s not that I’m overly loyal to Martha, although I would feel terrible pulling out now. It’s that I’ve also already spent the advance money for the feature on deposits for the wedding. I can’t pay them back if I cancel the series.
Which means I also can’t wait around for Matt to make up his mind.
I don’t expect him to answer. I tap his name on my mobile again, trying not to be embarrassed by how many times it’s said I’ve already rung.
‘Hi, Nelly.’
‘You answered! I mean, how are you?’ My mouth has gone dry.
‘Okay. Still trying to figure things out,’ he says. ‘That’s why I haven’t rung back. I did say I needed space.’
I can hear people in the background. Obviously he doesn’t need space from everyone. ‘Who’s that?’
‘Just some people I’ve met here.’
‘Here? Where are you?’
He hesitates. ‘Tarifa.’
Tarifa? As in Tarifa, Spain? ‘You’re on holiday while I’m worrying myself sick about our relationship?’
‘It’s not like that, Nelly,’ he says. ‘I told you I needed time to think. I had to get away from London. Everything reminds me of us. I took a sabbatical to sort my head out.’
‘While you’re on a beach.’
‘It doesn’t matter where I am. And it’s not a holiday. I’m in an apartment.’
‘You’ve moved there?’ How has this happened? One minute we’re making our guest list and the next he’s making Spanish omelettes in his new apartment.
‘Nelly, relax, of course I haven’t moved. It’s just that an apartment is cheaper than a hotel. I’m not having fun here, you know. I’m trying to figure things out.’
‘If that was true, you could have gone to … I don’t know, somewhere that doesn’t have twenty-four-hour sangria and wall-to-wall bikinis. Who are you figuring things out with anyway?’
‘No one! Nelly, this isn’t about anyone else. It’s about me. Us. Besides, I’d never do that to you.’
‘But you would leave me three months before our wedding.’
‘I haven’t left you.’
‘Matt, you’re in a different time zone. What’s your definition of leaving? Can you blame me for being worried? I don’t even know if you love me anymore.’
‘Of course I do. That’s not the issue.’
‘What’s the issue, then? Because I’m more than a little confused. The last time I checked, we were in love and about to get married. Now you’re partying it up on a windsurfer.’ That Kleenex and Gordon’s binge is fast looming on the horizon. ‘The magazine is coming on the twenty-seventh. Exactly what am I supposed to tell them?’
‘I don’t give a damn about the magazine, Nelly, though clearly that’s still uppermost in your mind.’
I’m so sick of this argument. It’s not my fault that Matt doesn’t get the whole social-media thing, or that I’m trying to build a career out of it. He thinks I’m Instagramming pouty selfies and photos of my breakfast. He can’t see that this is how I’m finally going to make a success of myself.
You see, I’ve got this blog. So far, so shallow, but hear me out.
It started as somewhere to dump all my thoughts. Hardly anyone read it and that was fine with me. My friends were sick of hearing the same stories over and over. I wanted to offload into an anonymous void. It’s what helped me be brutally honest about my life. About myself. And finally, instead of feeling awful, I actually started looking for ways to be happy.
Well, apparently I’m not the only one looking, because what started as a few people commenting on my posts has, four years later, turned into a community of thousands who read the blog every single day.
We gee each other up on Instagram. We’re there for each other. And though we’ve never met in person, some feel like real friends – they are real friends, and I love them. They’ve been with me through all the ups and downs, and the ups again when I met Matt. They’re looking forward to our wedding almost as much as I am. #superromantic!
It was easy to start posting on Instagram – and I admit that there was a bit of trout-mouth and breakfast-snapping in those early days – but once more people started engaging with the blog, my account really built up.
Then one day I got an email from a company. They wanted me to feature their inspirational tote bags! Well, things sort of took off from there.