Ghosted: Wicked Wedding Planners Series

by Alyssa Parsons

  ‘Umm, he’s got a place here on Greenwood Park,’ she eventually cracks.

  I am in utter shock. My house is on Greenwood Park. Had I really just heard correctly that Caspar Danes is living on my estate?

  ‘I really don’t know anything else but I just wanted you to know because it’s highly likely you will bump into him at some point,’ Gemma tells me.

  The thought of that happening makes me feel sick yet strangely excited at the same time.

  ‘Come on then, let’s open that prosecco.’ Leanna stands up to get some glasses from my kitchen.

  The girls stay around to watch some reality tv with me but I am too heavily distracted and the prosecco goes to my head very quickly. The combination of shock and not eating while drinking too much has resulted in me passing out in the lounge.

  Chapter 3

  I wake up the next morning to find myself on the sofa where either Leanna or Gemma has covered me with my duvet. My mouth feels really dry and the reality of yesterday’s news hits me along with a fresh wave of pain and nausea.

  Most people would probably think that I should have gotten over something that happened 8 years ago. The reality is that I have never loved someone in the way I loved Caspar. I have yet to find someone that evokes the same level of passion I felt when I was with him.

  I manage to prise myself off the sofa and fumble around the coffee table searching for my mobile phone.

  Ughh!! It is already 8:00 am. I literally have about 20 minutes to get ready before I have to leave for work. Luckily I don’t suffer from massive hangovers even though I am a complete lightweight when it comes to drinking.

  After a nice hot shower, I quickly throw on some clothes and attempt to refresh my complexion with the illuminating foundation I bought the other day. My skin feels so dry and looks so grey. This foundation needs to have magical powers to restore my skin back to normal. Suprisingly, I do look a bit better after using it.

  Oh God! I suddenly remember that Caspar lives on Greenwood Park. What if I bump into him when I go out for a jog or go to the shops? Damn, I don’t think I am ready to see him. I was here first. How dare he think he can just come waltzing back and carry on with his life?

  My house is my pride and joy. It’s this gorgeous two bedroom house I bought 3 years ago. I spent months painstakingly designing each room. It also took many months to save up the money to pay for all the furniture and décor too.

  I’ll be damned if I’m moving from this estate, I tell myself. After downing a pint of water, I grab my handbag and am just about to leave the house. My heart is pounding and I start peering out my front door to see if the coast is clear. This is ridiculous, I can’t live like this.

  Right, I know what I can do. I quickly run back into the house and rummage through the drawer in the little table that’s in my hallway.

  I find my sunglasses and put them on as a disguise in case I see Caspar. I know its February and wearing sunglasses is probably totally unheard of. But the winter sun can cause quite a glare in the mornings so it’s worth wearing them on my drive into work. In theory this is true but on this particular wet and grey February morning, the chances of the sun coming out were very slim.

  I manage to get into my car with no Caspar in sight. I make it to the office on time. Every time the door opens, I jump, thinking that Caspar is about to walk in. Of course, this is highly unlikely. Oh no, I just had a horrible thought. What if Caspar is engaged and his fiancée decides to use Wedding Boss to plan their wedding?

  Stop it! I tell myself, you are just getting paranoid.

  Nicki or rather Nic as I call her, is going through the day’s appointments and calls me in to see her in her office.

  ‘Hi Sammi, how are you doing?’ she asks using that annoying concerned voice she uses on this type of situation.

  I love Nic to pieces and she is one of my closest friends. But whenever anyone of us has any sort of drama going on, Nic loves making a huge issue out of it. She completely overdoes it on the emotional support. To the point where you actually get over whatever it is you are going through just to avoid her overbearing smothering,

  I know I probably sound really ungrateful but I just won’t be able to deal with her sympathy today. Nic reads a lot of self-help books and she loves therapy. She has always been really unlucky in love and has yet to find her perfect man. I feel for her as I know she desperately wants to settle down. I know she will try to give me loads of pep talks all day. This will include telling me that ‘I am a strong woman’ along with loads of other psycho babble. I will also receive about 10 daily texts asking if I am ok for days on end.

  ‘I’m fine,’ I reply casually as I fire up my laptop to prepare for my appointments.

  ‘You don’t have to be strong around me,’ Nic is giving me the concerned look. ‘You know I’m always here for you hun.’

  ‘Honestly, it’s fine.’ I make sure to look her straight in the eyes so she knows I mean it. ‘I’ve moved on from Caspar, after all it ages ago. I was just a bit taken aback yesterday when I heard he was back but I’ve got over it.’

  I play down my feelings hoping to get her off this particular topic of conversation. Nic has been through her fair share of really traumatic relationships with men. She loves being in the company of anyone who is going through any type of relationship trouble.

  ‘Hmmm,’ Nic is not convinced, ‘we’ll talk about this later.’

  She goes off to prepare for her meeting with our website designer. We are about to create a blog and start using social media to market the business. Luckily Nic loves this type of thing and she is a techno genius, so I can leave that with her.

  ‘That’s strange,’ I remark as I am looking through my online diary.

  ‘What is?’ shouts Nic from her office. That’s another irritating thing about her, she hears everything. I should have shut my door.

  ‘Jasmine and Timothy are booked in for another appointment today and they were only in yesterday,’ I answer her back. I am baffled and double check the diary to look at the appointment.

  I spend the first hour of the day, trying to sort out more pineapple themed décor for Honey’s wedding. I am in luck as pineapples seem to be a real trend at the moment. I have found some twinkly pineapple shaped fairy lights which would look perfect in the courtyard at Honey’s wedding venue. We could even string some up inside the venue too.

  I check my emails and I see there is an email from Honey, the pineapple queen herself. Honey is one of those over the top brides when it comes to planning a wedding. I scroll through her latest email. She has decided that each course served at the wedding breakfast should have pineapple in it.

  I have already warned her, that if any of her guests don’t like pineapple, it could be a bit too much. She is having none of it as usual, so I need to go with it. I start to create some ideas for a menu. Food is one of my passions and I love cooking, so recipe planning comes easy to me.

  For starters, I think a pineapple salsa with Asian style chicken skewers could go down well. Roast gammon and pineapple with all the trimmings for the main should be a crowd pleaser. Any guests who hate pineapple could push it to one side and enjoy a roast dinner. Dessert could be a trio of pineapple desserts. I will work on those a bit later.

  I look at my watch and see that it’s 10:30am. I have an appointment with a new bride called Amelie. I walk out to reception and see an attractive woman with strawberry blonde hair sitting with an older blonde lady who I can only presume is her mother.

  ‘Hello, my name is Samantha Banks,’ I introduce myself to the two women and shake hands with the bride.

  ‘I’m Amelie,’ smiles the bride, ‘and this is my mother Linda Stevenson.’ Amelie points to the older woman sitting next to her. She looks like one of those haughty posh types who like to sneer at everything.

  ‘Hi Linda,’ I greet her and go to shake her hand which she returns rather limply. I don’t think this she is capable of cracking a smile.

  I take them d
own to my office. They sit down and I offer them a hot drink which they both decline.

  ‘So our first consultation is designed to get an idea of the type of wedding you would like,’ I explain to them.

  Amelie smiles happily and looks at Linda who doesn’t even react. She is just sitting there looking miserable which is quite off putting.

  ‘I have a checklist and we will go through it to get the full picture of exactly what you want for you wedding,’ I continue to run though the procedure.

  Amelie wants a pretty standard English wedding. You know the kind. A country wedding in a manor house with a vintage theme. Complete with a Kate Middleton style lacy wedding dress and a bouquet of pale pink and creamy roses.

  Yes this should be straightforward. Honey’s pineapple wedding was taking up a lot of my time, so I welcomed a wedding that I could plan on automatic mode. We go through the checklist and I set up a file for Amelie’s wedding on my laptop. I find out that Amelie’s fiancée is called James.

  Linda pipes up at this point to let me know that James is a high flying sales manager who jet sets all over the world.

  ‘So obviously everything must be top quality.’ Linda looks at me pointedly. After keeping quiet throughout the appointment, she has suddenly found her voice. And she is certainly not shy. She kind of reminds me of a meaner Hyacinth Bouquet character.

  ‘Of course,’ I smile at her.

  ‘That’s why I have decided to use a wedding planning service but I need to warn you, I expect the best,’ Linda’s expression becomes stern as she stares me out with her beady little eyes.

  ‘Well you’ve come to the right place, we pride ourselves on delivering an outstanding experience,’ I give her my best dazzling smile.

  She doesn’t smile in return and goes back into miserable mode. I can already feel that Linda is going to be one tricky customer. This dashes my hopes of having a low maintenance wedding to plan.

  I finish setting up Amelie’s file on my laptop and pull out the wedding contract for her to sign.

  ‘I’ll sign that,’ Linda stands up and reaches over to take the papers out of my hand. I am too quick for her and pull the contract out of the way,

  ‘Actually, the bride needs to sign these,’ I explain to her.

  Linda stares at me with those sharp beady eyes but says nothing.

  ‘It’s important that Amelie has the final say on each aspect of the wedding as she is the one getting married.’ I say assertively.

  Linda keeps staring at me looking totally unimpressed. She still says nothing.

  It saves a lot of misunderstandings in the long-term,’ I add.

  Finally she speaks. ‘As I am paying, I will sign the contract, thank you very much.’ She reaches out for the contract while continuing her glaring stare.

  I hold onto the contract, not willing to give in to Linda.

  ‘I don’t want Amelie to have to worry her pretty little head over these things,’ Linda is starting to get a bit irate.

  Pushy mother Alert Pushy Mother Alert! I can feel my inner alarm bells go off.

  ‘After all I am her mother and I know what she wants,’ Linda insists. She is not going to let up on the contract.

  Right, I need to show her who is the boss here.

  ‘It’s company policy that the bride or groom signs the contract,’ I smile tightly at Linda while handing the contract over to Amelie. Linda glares at me and I feel uncomfortable as she looks like she is sizing me up.

  ‘Of course you will be completely involved in all the planning, isn’t that right Amelie,’ I beam at the bride who looks like she wishes the ground would swallow her up whole right now.

  ‘I’m not really sure I understand why I cannot sign the contract? Surely the contract is between Wedding Boss and me as I am paying,’ Linda is not going to let the subject drop.

  ‘Yes I can see your point, but it is Amelie’s wedding, regardless of who is paying. I need her authority to sign off on every planning decision.’

  ‘Of course I would not make any decision without Amelie’s approval,’ Linda says but she does not sound sincere.

  Yeah right, I think to myself.

  ‘It’s very lovely of you give her the gift of a wedding planning service,’ I say firmly.

  ‘After all you, I’m sure you want her to have everything she has always dreamed of?’ I continue talking, determined to get my way.

  Linda still does not look convinced.

  ‘After all it is her big day and we both want Amelie to have the perfect wedding, don’t we?’ I throw in a little nugget of guilt.

  ‘Well I suppose,’ Linda says hesitantly. She doesn’t look too pleased at having been outplayed.

  I look over towards Amelie and notice she has relaxed. She smiles and I give her a little wink. Trust me, if Linda thinks she can orchestrate this entire wedding, she has got another thing coming. I have been doing this job for quite a few years and I have dealt with bigger control freaks than Linda Stevenson.

  After Pushy Mother and Amelie had left, I have an hour to get on top of some paperwork before Timothy and Jasmine come in.

  I am just putting together a list of potential wedding venues for Amelie when Jodie buzzes through to let me know they have arrived. Jasmine seems really excited as she enters the office. The same cannot be said about Timothy. He looks impatient and irritated. I really don’t see what Jasmine sees in him.

  ‘I can’t believe we are actually getting married in two weeks,’ Jasmine is beaming at me.

  ‘I know, time really does fly. Would either of you like anything to drink?’ I ask as I open up their wedding folder on my computer.

  ‘Yes I’ll have a coffee, white no sugar.’ Timothy sits down in the cream leather chair and stretches his legs out.

  ‘Ooh I’ll have a tea with one sugar please,’ says Jasmine. I notice Timothy giving Jasmine a disapproving look. I really want to slap him. I buzz Jodie through to let her know that they would like some hot drinks.

  ‘Right what’s up guys? Is there anything we missed when we went through final details yesterday?’ I really have no idea why they have come back for another meeting with me today.

  ‘Oh umm, Timothy said he had a couple of questions he needed to ask,’ explains Jasmine.

  ‘Sure,’ I smile at Jasmine and turn to Timothy. He starts shifting around in his seat and he looks a bit on edge.

  ‘I need to tie up a few loose ends,’ he says. He’s giving me this really intense stare and it’s making me feel awkward.

  Jodie knocks on the door and brings in their hot drinks. She places the steaming mugs on the little table between their chairs. I thank her and she leaves.

  ‘Ok, which loose ends are we talking about?’ I wait for him to fill me in.

  Timothy picks up his mug and takes a long sip of coffee. ‘What’s the cancellation policy on our wedding venue?’

  I look at him, a bit perplexed. ‘Right, let me have a look’.

  I find the contract from Cranleigh Hall, their venue and start reading through the terms and conditions.

  ‘Here it is, a full refund requires at least 8 weeks notice. A 4 week notice period entitles you to a 50 % refund of your total fee. Anything less than 4 weeks means that you are not eligible for a refund.’ I look up at him, waiting for his reply.

  Timothy says nothing. He sits there drinking his coffee while Jasmine starts to fidget a bit.

  It’s getting a bit tense as Tony stays silent for a few more minutes. I don’t know what to make of things right now.

  ‘Where are we with the cake and flowers?’ he slurps down the last of his coffee.

  ‘Well you’ve paid a deposit and the orders are under way. You are due to pay the balance on both by next week.’ I have already gone over this with him on multiple occasions including at yesterday’s appointment.

  ‘Up until what point can we get our deposits back from the cake maker and florist?’ Timothy says to me in a slow patronizing way.

  ‘Unfortunately,
once there is less than two weeks to go before the wedding you won’t get any deposits back,’ I answer him back in an equally slow and patronizing manner.

  Timothy looks at me like I am talking a load of rubbish. ‘I’m sure there is something you can do after all that’s what we are paying you for.’

  ‘They have already placed the order for the flowers and ingredients for the cake have been bought. The cake designer has most likely started making the decorations for your cake,’ I tell him.

  He stays silent, cradling his coffee cup in his hands.

  ‘Can I ask why you are asking all these questions?’ I need Timothy to get to the point.

  ‘I want to cancel the wedding,’ he says suddenly and turns to Jasmine.

  Jasmine and I are both too stunned to talk.

  ‘I don’t wish to get married anymore,’ he tells her. And just like that with absolutely no emotion, he drops this big bombshell on her.

  What the hell? This type of thing has never happened in my whole career as a wedding planner. Sure weddings have been postponed or cancelled but I usually get an email or a phone call from the couple. Not once has the groom broken off an engagement with the bride in my office. I didn’t know what to do.

  Jasmine has turned as pale as a sheet and starts shaking.

  Timothy just sits there calmly. ‘Yeah I changed my mind, I don’t want to do this anymore.’

  ‘But whhyyyy’, Jasmine starts to wail. It’s horrible seeing her so upset.

  ‘It’s simple really,’ he says in a serious tone. ‘You don’t fit into my life plans anymore. I don’t feel you are suitable as my life partner. I find you too unstable and emotional.’

  I am about to launch into an ‘everyone gets cold feet before their wedding and it’s perfectly natural to have some doubts’ speech. But I see the cold look in Timothy’s eyes and I know it is futile to even attempt to change his mind.

  ‘Samantha, I trust you will cancel everything on our behalf. If you do manage to get any money back from the vendors, I would appreciate it if you could let me know.’

  ‘Of course,’ I reply back tersely.