Sandra looked at the clock and wished the ground would just open and swallow her up. It was already 7.30am! Nothing had gone right after her phone call to the happy bride-to-be last Saturday. Jo was giving Sandra the chance to show that she could be a wedding planner as well as a corporate event manager and oh, how she would regret it. Sandra assumed that her work experience would be an advantage. Never did she expect there would be so many details to take care of for a wedding. First, there was a problem with the cake. Then, among other millions of things, the bridal gown needed additional beading… oh dear! She had almost forgotten, she hadn’t bought those beads yet!

Her performance so far was so disastrous that Sandra was pretty sure there would be no more second chance for her. She should have realized that corporate events and weddings were two distinctly different functions. Weddings came with a whole lot more expectations and pressure than she had bargain for. She was quite certain after this no sensible bride would ever dare to risk their wedding plans with her. Anyway, Sandra did not think she would have the vigour to go through this bundle of stress all over again.

Still, no matter what happens, this wedding had to take place. After much discussion about the wedding themes, the marrying couple decided to tie the knot on Christmas. That was the beginning of Sandra’s troubles. As it was a festive season, it was absolutely impossible to book a church or any other popular venue to hold the wedding ceremony and bridal reception. In the end, the couple could only settle for the family’s yard.

That alone would not have brought Sandra down had the other arrangements not gone wrong. For one, the craft shops were under stock with Christmas around the corner. Sandra was not the only person after the décor materials. Everything from organza ribbons to tulle was in high demand, making it almost impossible to get enough supplies. Which was why, for a whole week Sandra was rushing in and out of shops, trying to beat other customers in getting what she needed for the big day. As she was darting between shops, she suddenly realized she could have let the experts handle this end of the job. Did she think she was Martha Stewart?

How she thanked her blessed stars when she was finally able to secure the last of the much-needed wedding supplies from an online retailer. Now, all she had to do was to get together as many helping hands as possible to work on doing up the wedding favours. But with the holiday season around the corner, almost every close friend or family member of the bride was already neck-deep in the holiday preparations for their own families. However, after many harried phone calls and a dozen cups or so of calming herbal tea, Sandra eventually managed to gather a motley crew of inexperienced but willing helpers. And that would explain how she ended up alone in her living room that early morning, surrounded by yards of wrappers, ribbons and about a hundred or so potpourri pouches that had gone wrong and were spilling out their contents thanks to the wrong choice of material.

Sandra could easily fix the mess if she had time. And that was exactly what she did not have. There was still an endless list of things to take care of before the wedding. Not to mention the cake. The couple wanted a Christmas log cum wedding cake. It was a unique design and it took Sandra several phone calls in order to find the confectioner who was skilled enough to do it. Then there was the tricky matter of finding a wedding cake topper that was still available at this time of the year as well as fitting for the concept. To top it off, Jo’s mother called the night before, complaining how unsuitable the design of the wedding cake was for the occasion. All of a sudden, Sandra was plunged between a very dissatisfied mother-of-the-bride and a wedding cake.

Soon after, the bride herself called. Jo was sobbing uncontrollably as she tried to explain to Sandra what catastrophe had happened. Only when she finally calmed down was Sandra able to understand that the gown rental shop had misplaced the designated set of bridal accessories that came with the gown Jo had selected. A new set was on the way but would not arrive in time for the wedding! No matter what, Sandra had to make an emergency shopping trip today and hope against hope that she would be able to find the extraordinary pair of bridal hair clips that Jo loved so much.

Yes, at 7:45am that morning, Sandra’s day was already shaping up to be a most interesting one indeed.