Anni’s Ideal Wedding

Today I’m delighted to have the lovely Anni Rose on my blog, talking about her latest book. Anni, it’s over to you…

Hi Kirsty thank you for inviting me on your blog today to talk about my new book Recipe for Mr Ideal.

It’s a pleasure. So what inspired the book?

I was a registrar and have conducted and registered many weddings. If course all the weddings in the book are entirely fictional, but I might have borrowed an idea or two. It was a fabulous job and I always felt it was a privilege to take people through such an important day in their lives. Every wedding was always so different and you learn very quickly to expect the unexpected but I loved every one of them, even when the couple chose the ‘Lovely Dinosaur’ reading. 

Wow that sounds amazing! What a fantastic job – I’m not surprised you got lots of inspiration from it. Have you personally ever had a Mr Less than Ideal?

A number – yes! There was one that still makes me cringe, just let’s say a birthday present of the single, “Never gonna give you up”, had me running for the hills, without the record I might add! 

That’s hideous! Although I did have a crush on Rick Astley back in the day, so I’m not sure how I would have reacted. Maybe I would have taken the record and ran. Have you ever ridden a motorbike like Josh does?

I’ve been on the back of many bikes and have ridden a moped, but never ridden a proper motorbike. I tried once, but just couldn’t get the balance right and after I’d dropped it twice, I wasn’t allowed to try again. My sister had a Triumph Daytona 600 for many years and that was yellow. At the moment I am flirting with the idea of an electric bicycle, we have quite a few hills round here!

That’s a good plan. I’m fine cycling on the flat, but throw a hill in and I won’t even try. I have fond memories of riding on the back of my dad’s Honda 50 when I was little. He’d sometimes pick me up from school on it. What’s the maddest thing you have encountered/have heard about at a wedding?

Now you’re asking. I took a wedding for a couple who were at school together. She’d had a bit of a crush on him and years later, she found him on Facebook. One night she’d been drinking but sent him a message saying “Get in touch if you want to marry me”. He did and they were married within three months. I’ve been asked to keep a check on football scores and announce any goals throughout the ceremony as they happened. Luckily, that time it was a Nil-all draw. But one of the most extraordinary occasions was when I was asked by a lovely couple to photograph their wedding. She was a brilliant seamstress and he was an actor, who’d always wanted to play the part of the Scarlet Pimpernel. They decided they’d have a themed wedding, and she made their costumes, but somewhere during the planning stage they decided they wanted a hand-fasting ceremony instead and decided to hold it in a local park. They asked all their guests to dress appropriately. Everybody really entered into the spirit of the event, it was great fun and truly memorable.

That sounds amazing. I’ve been to a couple of hand-fasting ceremonies myself and they are incredibly special, especially when people enter into the spirit of it. One of my friends was driven up the hill to the stone circle where the ceremony was to be, by a team of huskies as a surprise. I almost let the cat out of the bag by asking one of my other friends why the huskies were being brought around to us, and then I wondered why she jumped around waving her arms to shut me up! Funnily enough, I know someone else who is a retired registrar and she has beautiful handwriting from writing all those special forms out. How would you describe your own handwriting?

I was taught italic handwriting in junior school and still love using a proper pen and writing nicely. When I got to senior school, they told me to write on every other line because my writing was so big, apparently it was difficult to read. I sort of adapted it into more of a slanted scrawl and only went back to italic after I left school and needed to complete official documents. Handwriting was part of the interview process for the registration job, I had to copy out a marriage entry exactly, although, sadly nowadays the marriage registers are a thing of the past, and marriage schedules are printed from computers. All marriage certificates are A4 printed documents too, so good handwriting is no longer necessary.

I might be in with a chance of getting that job now, if you don’t have to handwrite. My handwriting is appalling and illegible. Finally, will we be getting more Recipes in the future and if so you give us a clue about them?

I hope so, book 5 is about a beauty therapist and a graffiti artist and is currently with Choc Lit for consideration. I am about half way through Book 6, which follows two of the older characters from Recipe for Mr Ideal and in this book, my heroine does learn to ride a bike! 

Sounds fantastic. Good luck with it all, and we look forward to reading more in your lovely series. Thanks for popping along.

It’s been lovely talking to you.

Book blurb:

Recipe for Mr Ideal

Would you settle for Mr Less-Than-Ideal for a chance at happily-ever-after?
Registrar Maddie Winter has overseen enough weddings to know that marriage is not just for Christmas (or Valentine’s Day) – it’s for life, and regardless of whether the ceremony involves specially trained owls, dinosaurs or the police, it should be only the beginning of a story that will end in happily-ever-after.
Saying that, Maddie’s own married life is far from perfect – her husband, David, is more interested in his phone than in her, and when he suddenly walks out, Maddie’s long-held beliefs are put to the test.
Except Maddie knows David was never really her ‘Mr Ideal’; that was sweet, funny, motorbike-riding Josh Diamond – although obviously not that ideal, as he did dump her to move to the States. Even so, when Josh unexpectedly rides back into town, Maddie begins to wonder whether her happily-ever-after could still be to come …

Book 4 in the Recipes for Life series but can be read as a standalone novel.

Author biography:

About Anni

Born and raised in Berkshire, Anni emigrated to Wiltshire six years ago, where she lives with her husband, sister and two dogs..

As a child, she could usually be found either reading or writing fiction, producing reams of stories over the years.

On leaving school, the need to earn a living sort of got in the way and her writing was limited to financial reports or employees’ handbooks, but a local writing course and an encouraging group of writing friends re-ignited the fiction flame many years later and Anni went on to have several short stories published in various magazines.

Anni would describe her writing these days as mainly modern romantic stories with a healthy dollop of humour thrown in. Away from writing Anni can usually be found behind a camera, walking the dogs, enjoying one of her husband’s curries or one of her sister’s bakery treats.

You can catch up with Anni on her website www.anniroseauthor.co.uk, on

Twitter – @AnniRoseAuthor, or on her Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/anniroseauthor

Book links: 

Amazon: https://amzn.to/40GjhKh

Goodreads: http://bit.ly/3I9KON4

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/recipe-for-mr-ideal-anni-rose/1142938464

Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/gb/book/recipe-for-mr-ideal/id6445286285

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/recipe-for-mr-ideal

Google: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Anni_Rose_Recipe_for_Mr_Ideal?id=Ve2nEAAAQBAJ&gl=GB

Choc Lit Website: https://www.choc-lit.com/?post_type=dd-product&s=Recipe+for+Mr+Ideal