Editor's letter 7 June 2020: My very small big day Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Sign in Welcome!Log into your account Forgot your password? Password recovery Recover your password Search Sign in Welcome! Log into your account Forgot your password? Get help Password recovery Recover your password A password will be e-mailed to you. YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Home Life Editor’ s letter My very small big day By You Magazine - June 7, 2020 The lovely story in this issue about Keeba Critchlow having to drastically alter her wedding plans at the last minute – thanks to, you guessed it, the wretched coronavirus – brought back memories of my own semi-chaotic wedding plans. I wasn’t thrown into disarray by a global pandemic, but UK working permits for Australians do not recognise ‘I’ve fallen in love with an Englishman’ as grounds for an extension. We’d been together six years and I’m not sure we’d have ever had a wedding ceremony if the Home Office wasn’t telling me it was time to pack my bags. But now we had a deadline – always the best way to motivate two journalists. Another thing that bonds two young journalists? A distinct lack of expendable income. We were much more interested in scraping money together for our first flat than a wedding. So our big day became one organised in great haste and on the cheap. Every decision was made in a harried state: the date, the venue – a local bar/restaurant with the right licence. We booked catering for around 75 of our friends and ended up inviting 100. Oops. I honestly thought that was it, job done. Friends, colleagues, even strangers lined up to disabuse me of that notion. ‘Who’s doing your dress?’ (‘I haven’t looked in the shops yet.’) ‘Who’s doing your invitations?’ (‘Um, I will design something and get it printed at maybe Snappy Snaps?’) ‘What’s your moodboard for the flowers?’ (‘Do we need flowers?’) I still have no idea what a ‘wedding favour’ is. I really came to loathe being asked about my wedding because my answers always horrified the inquisitor. I didn’t mind that it wasn’t royal level, but everyone else sure seemed to. We took about six weeks to get it all together. A stylist friend helped me find a nice off-the-peg dress (Joseph, quite posh). I relented on the flowers and a local florist helped me out two days before the big day. I must admit, they did jazz up the bar area for our ceremony. On the day, the celebrant asked Ross who his best man was. He yelled across to his best friend, ‘Oh blimey, Paul, can you do that?’ Everyone took photos all day and night. I suspect several of you need the smelling salts reading this. But it was truly one of the best days of our lives. We were so happy and the joy for us beaming from our friends was palpable. And that’s the same, whether you remortgage the house to pay for a big wedding or, like us, spend about £1,000 all in. Keeba’s wedding got a little bit thrown together for different reasons. While it wasn’t the one she imagined, there is true magic in realising how little it takes to create precious memories. Enjoy the issue. Editor’ s picks These gorgeous, comfy dresses are all over Instagram and I can see why. Dress, £129, dilligrey.com My favourite season is cheery espadrille season. Sandals, £55, charleskeith.co.uk Goes on like a dream and really lasts. Self-tanning mousse, £19.95, boots.com RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR Everything we know about The Crown season 5 Aldi s exercise equipment is on sale with up to 50% off The best Halloween events for 2022 across the UK Popular in Life The You magazine team reveal their New Year s resolutions December 31, 2021 Susannah Taylor The TLC tools your body will love January 23, 2022 How to stop living in fear February 6, 2022 Susannah Taylor My pick of the fittest leggings February 27, 2022 Women’ s Prize for Fiction 2022 winner announced June 17, 2022 These BBC dramas are returning for a second series June 30, 2022 Susannah Taylor gives the lowdown on nature s little helper – CBD April 17, 2022 The baby names that are banned across the world April 27, 2022 The Queen has released her own emojis May 26, 2022 Sally Brompton horoscopes 27th June-3rd July 2022 June 26, 2022 Popular CategoriesFood2704Life2496Fashion2240Beauty1738Celebrity1261Interiors684 Sign up for YOUMail Thanks for subscribing Please check your email to confirm (If you don't see the email, check the spam box) Fashion Beauty Celebrity Life Food Privacy & Cookies T&C Copyright 2022 - YOU Magazine. All Rights Reserved