Chapter 1
Where I was in my life
Set the scene. What was your life like then?
I was thirty-two, and my husband and I had been together for eight years. We’d lived under the same roof from the very first day. Before you imagine some wildly romantic decision to move in together immediately, we met in a flatshare. Later, we got a place of our own. Two years into our relationship, we had a religious wedding: a small ceremony, without our families. That wedding deserves an echo of its own. After almost five years together, we welcomed our first son. His arrival deserves another echo, because, come on, a surprise baby can be welcomed with all the love in the world and still turn your life upside down. Ours certainly did. But back to being thirty-two. Our little boy was three and a half, and I wanted to make our marriage legal. We’d already made our vows before God. Now I wanted the paperwork too. I wanted to share the same surname as my husband and our son. My husband didn’t see the urgency. As far as he was concerned, we were already married. So I got a little creative. I threw him a birthday party so successful that the next morning, he woke up, told me I was the woman of his life, and said he wanted us to get married in a year. There we go. Everything was falling into place. We told our parents, who were delighted. I asked my friend of twenty years to be my witness, along with my cousin, who happens to share my first name. We had a year to organise one of the most beautiful days of our lives. We contacted several venues but only needed to visit one. We loved it, and it was conveniently close to our caterer. One decision made without weeks of going back and forth. Lovely. My husband already knew what he wanted his suit to look like. And I knew exactly what I wanted to wear. A mermaid-style dress with a corset. That was the vision. I’d started watching what I ate as soon as we announced the wedding. I wanted to feel beautiful in that dress, and by the time my fitting came around, I was beyond excited. It was gorgeous. Exactly what I’d imagined. I stood there looking at myself, already picturing the day. The dress, the ceremony, our families finally there with us. It was becoming real.
