Keep calm and carry on

Well, blimey. So I'm finally engaged. The Boy has gone and done it, he's popped the question, I have a beautiful ring on my finger and now it's time to start planning the day of my dreams, the party of the decade, the wedding of the century.

Except. Except.

My timing is impeccable. We're in the middle of the biggest recession of the last fifteen years - possibly the last fifty. People are taking pay freezes, pay cuts, anything to stop them slipping into the rapidly rising unemployment statistics. The reaction of my newly engaged friends is not that of joy - it's of blind panic. Unsure of the stability of their own jobs, they've just found out that the parents spent their inheritance on home improvements and holidays in Marbella in the heady, hedonistic late nineties. There's no wedding fund to secure the Asian fusion barbecue at the stately home of your dreams. There's no big bonus to be counting on to make a dent in those plans for your classic yet princessy dress and wedding breakfast in a chateau in Provence.

I think only a wartime sprit is going to get me through. It's going to be tight, we're going to cut corners, but by God ladies, there's eBay! We will fight them at the sample sales, we will fight the hotelier who suggests £150 a head menus, and most importantly WE WILL NEVER SURRENDER!

In the meantime, I'm off here to stock up on motivational items.

RB x