The Wedding Planners

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Something A Little Different - Part 2 (a note from Regina)

Hi, It's Regina. I stopped by and I saw that there was an earlier post about unusual weddings, so I decided to comment. I've spent a lot of my last few years attending weddings (the photographer is there for everything), so I've seen a lot, and what I haven't seen I've read about. I have to stay on top of what's going on in the world of weddings, you know. So, here are some of the weddings I've read about:

There have been pets as attendants:

There were weddings on skis:

And there were weddings on mountains, on ranches and near volcanoes. There weddings at castles, on sailboats and in an ice cathedral.

But what all of them had in common was hope and love and optimisim, and that's so wonderful. I love that about weddings. I love what I do for a living!
Best,
Regina

Labels: regina, unique weddings

Monday, May 26, 2008

A Secret Confession from Regina

I have to confess that even though Dell and I aren't in love (despite being married) that man just does things to my senses that…well, let's just say that Dell looks sooo good in an ordinary white dress shirt that it's just very unfair. A man shouldn't get to look so handsome without even lifting a finger.

So…being a photographer and having this amazing specimen of a man…I mean, a subject, before me all the time, I sometimes have to fight not to pull out my camera and start snapping photos of him.

I wonder what he would say to that. Most likely he'd wonder what in the world I was doing because I've never taken even one photo of Dell.

For a woman who practically sleeps with her camera that's saying a lot, but I just can't do it. He's such an aristocrat, such a private man.

How on earth did the two of us end up together? And what is going to happen to us?

Maybe I'd better take at least one photo so that I'll have something to remember him by when it's all over. It's too bad I can't go back in time and take a shot. If I could turn back the clock and take just one picture, I think it would be one of what he looked like that day when I came into his life. The mailman had mistakenly delivered some of Dell's mail to me and I rang his doorbell. When he opened it, he was dressed as formally as ever, but he hadn't yet buttoned his cuffs. There was something so sexy about that. And he was smiling. I remember him smiling. I wonder if he would have continued smiling had he known what a mess we would be in less than a year later…

Labels: Dell, photographer, regina, The Heir's Convenient Wife

Saturday, May 17, 2008

It's all about the shoes...

If you've read The Heir's convenient Wife, you know that Regina, the heroine, has a thing for quirky, fun shoes. So what kind of shoes would she wear with a wedding dress?

I was wandering around the Internet (of course) and found an article about how some brides, since they're wearing a traditional long gown that covers their shoes completely might choose to wear shoes beneath that dress that are just for fun, just for the bride.

So, of course I had to go looking for some shoes that might be fun (not necessarily practical) to wear as long as no one was keeping score on whether the bride's shoes matched her dress.

In some cases the shoes I found didn't look very formal.

But some of them were pretty.

One of them was encrusted with crystals.

And all of them were fun.

So...what color and style of shoes would you choose...if you didn't need to be practical about matching your dress length, I mean?

Labels: regina, shoes, The Heir's Convenient Wife

Monday, May 12, 2008

Dell Shows Up

Dell O'Ryan here, better known as Regina O'Ryan's "convenient" husband or more often as a wealthy blue-blood businessman. But, right now it's the husband part I'm concerned about.

People think that I know it all. I was born to wealth. I was raised to wield power and to run my family's business empire. But the truth is...where my wife, Regina, is concerned, I don't know a thing.

She dropped into my world out of the blue, the type of woman most members of my family would have called a nobody, and to be honest, I mismanaged everything with her from day one. Sure, I married her when my jerk of a cousin left her high and dry, but after that, I more or less ignored her. Because of...other things I'd rather not think about, she's had a heck of an unhappy year, and I thought she'd prefer a simple marriage of convenience with none of the inconveniences of a demanding husband hanging around.

But the end result is that...well, we barely knew each other when we married and we still don't know much more than we did on our wedding day. And now she's having second thoughts about the marriage. That got my attention.

The thing is that I understand why she's having those second thoughts. I'm not at all sure that our marriage stands any chance of surviving. Both of us have solid reasons for not wanting our relationship to become a romantic one, our goals don't even intersect as far as I can tell, and I don't want to harm Regina even more than my family has already done.

Knowing all of that, I probably should just admit that the marriage was a mistake and let her walk away and yet there's just something about Regina that gives me pause. Plus, a man like me doesn't just walk away from a deal without examining every angle. And anyway, shouldn't a man at least know who his wife is before they close the door on their marriage?

Labels: Dell, groom, regina, The Heir's Convenient Wife

Monday, May 5, 2008

Regina Stops By...

Hello, everyone. I've been here before, just to comment now and then, but this is my first true visit all my own.

I'm Regina, the photographer for The Wedding Belles and I absolutely adore my work (even more than I adore cute, quirky shoes). My cameras are cherished possessions, almost like old friends and I love weaving a story for a bride and groom on their wedding day. When the day ends, the photos live on, images and memories that they can cherish forever and show their children and their grandchildren.

That's why it's rather strange and a bit sad that I have no pictures from my own wedding day. Dell married me…well, because his cousin had deserted me when I was frightened and alone, and Dell felt I needed saving. He married me because he's a man of honor. The wedding was unexpected and sudden and I really don't remember much of it.

The thing is that almost a year has gone by and I'm feeling more than a little guilty now that he married me at all. Dell and I aren't in love. We're polite but we barely know each other, and the truth is that he should have been free to choose his wife. He should have had a stunningly beautiful big wedding with a woman from his own social class, a real wedding with a happy ending.

I think I'm going to have to let him go…

Labels: photographer, regina

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Coming Up Next Week…and The Five-Minute Wedding

We have some great things coming up this week. Regina the

photographer is planning to stop by, we'll have a visit from a real wedding photographer who has traveled all around the world and more (and don't forget to post comments to enter the contest--see May 3rd post).

But, in the meantime, and since weddings wouldn't be weddings without a little romance and fun, I thought I'd ask everyone to participate in a "five minute wedding" plan.

Remember when we were young, and girls would make those little folded-paper fortune tellers that you put on your fingers that asked such mature questions such as "who does Cindy like?" Other questions were "what's your favorite color, favorite song, favorite…I can't even remember all of them.

It was silly stuff, but it's Sunday, the flowers are blooming and I'm in that kind of "let's do something fun" mood. So…my challenge to you is this: come up with the basics for your "no restrictions" pretend wedding in 5 minutes (and just for the heck of it, let's assume we're all unmarried and whatever age we choose to be. Some of us—and I'm not saying who—are also going to pretend that our scale always reads 122 pounds).

Okay, here goes. This is FANTASY WEDDING – PART 1. Join in by leaving a comment answering the following questions:
1. What color are your bridesmaids wearing?
2. Where is the wedding being held?
3. Where will the honeymoon be?
4. You can have any singer or band play at your wedding. Who will that be?
5. And the biggie…assume that you could have a stand-in celebrity groom for a day (you get your true love back at the end of the day). Who would be your stand-in celebrity groom?

And yes! This is sooo very juvenile! (I'm not even going to wonder what that says about me).

I'll hop right in there and start. In my fantasy wedding:
1. Bridesmaids are in candy apple red with black piping
2. The wedding is in Bar Harbor, Maine standing on the rocks by the shore
3. The honeymoon will be in England (Lyme Regis)
4. The singer? Bruce Springsteen
5. The Celebrity Groom – Oh, it's still Pierce Brosnan – I'm still a Pierce kind of girl

Labels: Bridesmaids, contest, fantasy wedding, groom, guest blogging, music, myrna, regina

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Excerpt for THE HEIR'S CONVENIENT WIFE by Myrna Mackenzie

Book 2 in The Wedding Planners Series
Regina's Story

The minute Dell walked through the door of the mansion, he knew something was different. His wife, Regina, was perched in the hallway on a Victorian settee that had been in his family for generations and was just as uncomfortable as it looked. That in itself set off warning bells. Regina was never waiting for him when he got home. She rose to meet him now.

He looked into her concerned brown eyes. She was holding a sheath of papers.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"We need to talk." Her soft voice came out unevenly. "Have you seen this?"

He hadn't. The publication masqueraded as an event guide for the city of Boston, but the real draw was the bits of gossip sprinkled throughout its pages.

Dell lifted a brow. "Not my usual cup of tea."

She blushed slightly, and Dell realized that he'd rarely seen her blush. But then, he didn't really know Regina well. Their brief, necessary marriage had been entered into in haste, and they'd spent very little time together. But the delicate pink that tinted Regina's cheeks and dipped into the shadows at the vee of her white blouse definitely made him aware of her in ways he hadn't been when he entered that room. That was a surprise…and clearly bad timing.

Regina nodded, and for a moment Dell wondered if she'd read his mind. "No, I suppose a man like you wouldn't read this," she said, "but I've verified the facts."

She turned away, but she held her head high, her straight brown hair brushing her shoulders. Regina was a woman with generous curves, but she seemed thinner than he remembered her being when she'd entered his world just over a year ago. Was it any wonder? She’d been through a lot these past few months.

Dell rubbed a hand over his jaw. If Regina had suffered unhappiness, the blame was partly because of events he had unintentionally set in motion. "So tell me the facts." His voice came out too rough, and she turned to face him again.

"You were well on your way to marrying Elise Allenby when we—"

"When we wed," he offered.

"Yes, but you did that to help me. You were supposed to marry Elise. I didn't know. If I had, I wouldn't have—at least I hope I wouldn't have said yes."

Labels: myrna, regina, The Heir's Convenient Wife

Friday, April 11, 2008

Most Romantic Songs

When my husband and I got married, we were really concerned about the music at the reception and we wanted a band that could play a variety of types of music so that there was something for everyone.

But of course we're talking weddings and romance here, so if you could only choose 3 songs that fell into the category of "most romantic" which ones would they be? (And yes, I know this is a tough one. Narrowing it down to 3 is really difficult).

I'll start (even though I know that five minutes after I post this I'm going to think of at least one song that should have made it to the list). I took a minute to consult with my heroine Regina on this, because after all, she's one very romantic woman. Here are our choices:

1. I've Had the Time of My Life, theme song from Dirty Dancing by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes

2. When a Man Loves a Woman (either Percy Sledge or Michael Bolton version)

3. (And just to hit something more contemporary) You're Beautiful by James Blunt

Okay, your turn. What 3 songs would you choose?

Labels: music, myrna, receptions, regina, romance