The Wedding Planner Diaries:

This was one of my first big weddings running under my own companies brand - and I was required for planning, on the day coordinating, and decorating. The bride and I had been working together for months. She was based in Qatar, so our planning sessions happened over video calls, often involving time zones, coffee, and the occasional moan about the venue’s lack of cooperation (not naming names!!)

The venue was just outside London, and I knew I needed flowers from the Battersea Flower Market - so geographically, it all lined up perfectly. I recruited my sister and my best friend, promised them a “fun weekend away” (and some cash), and off we went.

We set off on Thursday night, my sister and I, trailer hitched, heading straight into London. Luckily for us, my boss had a flat in Chelsea we could crash at - one of those rare logistical wins you cling to when you’re juggling a million details.

We drove straight through central London, determined to park up at Battersea flower market for the night. Miraculously, the security guard let us stay overnight after we explained we’d be collecting flowers at 4 a.m. He even promised to keep an eye on the trailer until his shift ended - our first strike of luck!

We hopped on the Tube to Chelsea and collapsed into bed, alarms set for an ungodly hour.

And then came the morning I’ll never forget. My sister and I decided to take electric bikes to the market. Two half-asleep girls cycling through the deserted streets of London at 3:30 a.m., laughing uncontrollably at what an earth we’d got ourselves in for. It was one of those moments - pure, ridiculous, and kind of magical - right before the beautiful chaos of wedding day kicked in.

We arrived at the flower market at 4 a.m. sharp - and were instantly rewarded with the sight of our car and trailer still safely where we’d left them. A small but glorious victory.

Inside the market, the air was cool and heavy with the scent of fresh blooms. The bride wanted blues and whites, so we wandered through the stalls like kids in a candy shop, picking out armfuls of gypsophilia, roses, and whatever else caught our eye. My grandma had kindly lent me her gardening buckets so we could keep everything hydrated - a truly glamorous setup, as you can imagine.

Once packed, we hit the road for the venue. My best friend met us there, and we waited for the bridal party to arrive. I’d already tied string onto all the chair bows the night before (a tedious task), so we were ready for what I call Operation Friday Setup.

The goal: get as much done as humanly possible to make the actual wedding day run smoothly.
The task: tie 160 bows onto 80 chairs.
The feeling: eternal.

Once the chair marathon was over, we moved on to the flowers. We needed eight vases for the aisle, six floral foams for the arch (which would later be repurposed for the top table), and all the arrangements for the round tables. We’d let the foams soak while doing the chairs - I’d learnt all my “foam science” and flower tricks from TikTok, obviously - and then got to cutting and arranging in the clock house, a cool space by the marquee, to keep everything fresh.

By early afternoon, it was time to start setting tables, placing linens, and checking catering supplies. My years of wedding catering came in handy - I knew exactly where everything needed to go and when. Everything was running perfectly… until the ice bucket incident.

I called the supplier to check on the ice buckets, only to discover we didn’t have any.
We had ice coupes. For ice cream. Tiny bowls. Absolutely useless.

Now, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from weddings, it’s this: when something goes wrong, you don’t tell the bride. You find a solution. So that’s exactly what we did.

It was mid-July, blazing hot, and by some miracle, there was a massive Asda just ten minutes away. The three of us piled into the car like women on a mission. And there they were - in the BBQ section - eight (yes, exactly eight!) large metal ice buckets, gleaming like the Holy Grail. We wiped the shelf clean and left victorious.

We finally wrapped up around 6 p.m, sweaty but satisfied. The setup looked beautiful, the flowers were holding up, and I went to bed with visions of gypsophila and ice buckets dancing in my head.

But the arch… oh, the arch.

It was the one thing that nearly broke me. Hanging the floral foams meant drilling them onto the structure while balancing on a ladder. Luckily, my best friend turned out to have a secret talent for power tools (who knew?), and between the three of us (including my sister who by this point now had a horrendously stinking cold), we managed to build a floral masterpiece - white drape, flowers, logs, vases, the works.

An hour later, as guests began arriving, a woman with a pram approached us looking concerned. She’d stayed the night before. “One of your flower foams has fallen off the arch,” she said.

My heart stopped. I pictured it happening mid-ceremony - foam in the aisle, chaos, petals everywhere. We sprinted back to the ceremony area, and sure enough, one foam had slid right off. Turns out, I’d left them soaking too long, and they were waterlogged and heavy. Lesson learned. Thanks, TikTok.

We quickly repositioned the fallen foam onto a lower log, pretending it was “on purpose” (my finest improvisation to date), and the ceremony space looked perfect again.

Then came the final moments: I ran up to the bridal suite, checked a million last details, handed off the iPad for the music, and before I knew it, bridesmaids were walking. I hid in a bush - yes, literally - to make sure I wasn’t photobombing the ceremony shots.

Because sometimes, being a wedding planner means running the show… from behind the shrubbery.

On a serious note though, once the ceremony was over and everyone had taken their seats, the groom began his speech - and to my complete surprise, he gave me a special mention. He said the day wouldn’t have happened without me.

It was such a proud moment. After all the planning, the sleepless nights, and the behind-the-scenes chaos, hearing that made everything worthwhile. It reminded me exactly why I do this - to help create a day so seamless and joyful that no one ever sees the mayhem happening quietly in the background.

I’ve learnt so much since that wedding, and I still look back on it with the fondest memories. It was one of those defining moments in my career - the kind that makes you stop, smile, and think, yes, this is what it’s all about.

Here are some photos of our work - a little glimpse of the magic that came together after months of planning, a few lucky breaks, and a whole lot of heart.