The Wedding Reporter ~

August 2011…Newcastle…sunset glittering down the Tyne as a rowdy barge passes by with exposed bottoms of revellers on board…the majesty of the BALTIC centre and the glamour of the wedding industry…my husband being forced to make small talk with a bunch of strangers from the wedding industry in varying degrees of sobriety…

“I like that girl,” he said, as we watched an elegantly tall young woman with a shiny bouf totter off into the bar to make some new friends in her little black dress that made her look not-so-unintentionally like Audrey Hepburn. “She seems like she knows what’s going on.”

“That’s good,” I replied. “Because I’ve got my eye on her for when The Wedding Reporter takes over the world.”

I can’t remember whether my husband scoffed because at that point he still considered this business a moderately harebrained scheme, or because he was on his seventh pint, but suffice to say that initial meeting left an impression on both of us.

At that time, I was still navigating my way through the murky waters of starting up a business and trying to work out precisely what that business entailed. For all the bravado and shameless self-promotion I was prepared to put myself through, I didn’t really know how quickly this rollercoaster was going to shuttle out of the station.

Fast forward a year and I must admit that whilst I don’t know a lot about maths, I do know that this summer I’ve run into some rather irrational equations. It was always going to happen, insomuch as there are over 240,000 weddings in the UK annually and there’s only one of me.

There are also only 365 days in the year and I can’t be at a wedding every day. Furthermore, after completing 5 weddings in 10 days and feeling like I needed to sleep for 2 weeks, the evidence was clear: I needed to get a sidekick.

In an effort therefore to make sure that there are enough reporters at the matrimonial frontline, enabling all those who wish to have a wedding report to be able to, I am incredibly proud to announce today that The Wedding Reporter is expanding.

I’m delighted to introduce to you a brand new associate writer at The Wedding Reporter in the form of the ineffably talented and stylish Franky Shanahan.

© Eliza Claire

We have developed a fantastic working and personal relationship since we met last August and I fully and completely endorse Franky’s writing skills, eye for detail and stylish flair to capture your wedding day.

I wrote about Franky’s own wedding earlier this year, so she really does know how both sides of the coin work in being both the reporter and the reported! Franky has recently graduated from her MA English course and is now working on the Love My Dress wedding blog – you may have seen some of her posts here - in addition to being a freelance writer and toiling away on her own blog.

Although I had thought this next step would be quite a few years down the line, the frequency of having to turn people away due to prior bookings had become untenable and so as a result, Franky has climbed aboard the good ship Wedding Reporter in order to accept those commissions on dates when I am already booked.

Franky will work in exactly the same way as me, being fully versed in my process and techniques, attending your wedding first hand and documenting the glory of the day in magical, memory-provoking prose for you to savour.

We will proof and edit your report together, in order to tailor it to The Wedding Reporter in-house writing style and make sure it is the very best account of the day that it can be before sending through the first draft in its fully formatted technicolour delight by Leah Spicer for your perusal and approval.

It’s incredibly exciting to have a comrade here in the wedding trenches with me and together, Franky and I hope to be able to increase the number of happy couples who get to receive their literary legacy in the years to come.