Hello wedding lovers! I must start by saying how privileged I feel to have only minutes ago become a member of this busy wedding community. I suppose I best off introduce myself before I begin the waffling I always seem to when given the opportunity. My name is Ronald Summers and I found this forum while looking for advice for planning my very own wedding – the wedding where I will be groom and my fiancée will be bride.

My fiancé (the soon to be Mrs. Ronald Summers) was given the opportunity of working abroad for a couple of months – an opportunity which we just couldn’t turn down. Working at the treatment plant (sewage works) together as we do certainly has its stimulating moments but none so exciting as working in America. I proposed to her just two short days before she left.

Since she will be away for a while I have taken it upon myself to secretly organise our wedding – something Mrs. Ronald-Summers-to-be certainly won’t be expecting! Since we met on the internet two years, sixteen days ago the most she has let me organise was a day out hiking. Forgetting to pack her boots and the obvious embarrassment we suffered as a consequence when other ramblers saw my lovely lady struggling in heels gave her a good enough reason to ban me from really ever organising anything again. But I have set out to redeem myself by organising this – the most special day of our lives.

I don’t know if it is something that others here may have seen but I quite recently caught  'Wedding Stories' on the BBC Three television channel on television and upon seeing a ‘Rocky Horror Show’ themed wedding (with a coffin!) decided that while its obviously not to everyone's taste, presumably anything goes with weddings these days.

I was thinking t’other night that before I even start on the wedding I need to go and get a new ring (I proposed with a Haribo sweet) and send it to her. Obviously as a couple we have talked about getting married (albeit some virtually) and I distinctly remember Joan (Mrs. Summers) saying that she pictured her engagement ring being “that little bit special you know?”. Seeing as we are both as in love as we are and would see each other all the time if we could, I have been thinking whether I could somehow get hold of (or possibly part-construct) a ring with a miniature photo of me rooted where normally a stone would be. If this went down well with her (I so hope it does) I would go and get myself a replica (with her photo).

I have been having a bit of a read of this forum before I posted and my gosh isn’t there a lot to organise!? I have made myself a short-list of some of the things I think I may need to look into:

Ceremony, theme, venue, music during service, readings during ceremony, food for after service (Joan’s favourite is Spag-Bol but I am guessing it should really be party food?), transport for the bride and the groom (Joan and myself), band for the reception, bridesmaids, pageboys, ushers, best man, flowers, wedding dress (should I leave this one up to her?), veil, shoes, underwear (underwear?!), place to stay after wedding (not home then?), invitations, table decorations, table names, guests, numbers of guests.

Because of the sheer magnitude of what I have got to do I came up with a system where I have written all of the above on separate pieces of paper and currently have them in one of my hats ready to be picked out and considered. This morning I picked out ‘venue’ and ‘guests’. At the moment I really have no idea for the venue at all – could anyone suggest a good undercover venue (Joan isn’t a fan of the rain to say the very least) around the Hampshire area?

‘Guests’ is also going to be a difficult one for me – Even between us we haven’t an awful lot of friends. Is there a chance that anyone here would enjoy the day? I am not entirely sure but I think Joan may be happier with more guests, some of which she won’t know than she would with not so many guests (all known). While we haven’t yet had a chance to discuss and set a date for the wedding I have been thinking how special it would be if I could organise it for the day after she gets back - double-surprise! If I was able to do this then the date would be Saturday 14th July. Would anyone here be free on this date to join us in our celebration?

If anybody here is kind enough to offer some friendly advice with the mammoth task I now have before me it really would be greatly appreciated.

Ronald Summers