• 
  • Ellie gets married
  • One week to go
  • Three weeks to go
  • Seven weeks to go
  • Scary sex talk vicars
  • Buying the dress
  • The church and reception
  • Setting a date
  • Round the world in 18 months
  • Learner driver
  • Second year student
  • Me and M.E.
  • The Yemen diary
  • The tuk-tukkers
  • The young carer
  • Returning to the tsunami
  • Festival diaries
  • Action in Africa
  • Disorder diary
  • The Chinese gap year
  • The teenage dad
  • The med student
  • The fashionista
• 
• 
• 
• 

Three weeks to go

Ellie has been with David for three years and they've decided to tie the knot. She tells us how planning the big day can turn into something like a military operation.

As Ellie's big day approaches, strong doubts about the expense of the wedding start to creep in.

I don't know if this is normal, but I seem to have run out of steam. I'm failing to find the enthusiasm for ordering flowers or confirming hotels. I look and feel atrocious. I have millions of split ends, my skin is breaking out and, to top it all, I've put on weight. Yes, I had to be the bride that defies normality and gets bigger instead of smaller. This means I am now on a crash diet. Great.

"Yes, I had to be the bride that defies normality and gets bigger instead of smaller."

People are calling me up every day and I am having to resist the temptation to scream at them to just leave me alone and sort themselves out for a change. If I don't really give a shit about my own hair at the moment what on earth makes them think that I'll care what theirs looks like? I do know that this isn't good for me, but it's difficult not to feel down when you've spent thousands of pounds on a day where you are going to be the centre of attention and you look like Frankenstein's monster.

I've put in for more overtime at work but even so, I'm getting a bit worried about being able to pay all our bills this month. Being in a pensive mood, I'm wondering if spending so much money on one day can really be justified. After all, it could have been spent on the deposit for a house, or a new car, or put into savings. Every spare penny we have is being channelled into this wedding and I've got this horrible feeling that it might be a very expensive let down on the day.

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