Fancy a peek at some of the behind-the-scenes stuff of
A Beginner's Guide To Saying I Do? Here you go!
Bridesmaids
Apart from Erin, Lindsay’s bridesmaids are inspired by the character names from the film, Bridesmaids.
Victorious
The names for sisters Trina and Tori were inspired by the sisters in TV show, Victorious which my oldest daughter watched A LOT while I was writing the first draft of the book
Changing Names
Wedding planner Ingrid’s original name was Greta. I wrote the first draft of
A Beginner’s Guide To Saying I Do between drafts of
Everything Changes But You, which I realised also had a (different) character called Greta.
Drafts
I wrote the first draft in 2014, the second and third in 2015 and finally worked on the edits in 2016.
Points of View
While the book covers the POV of Ruth, Erin and Trina, the first draft covered Ruth, Erin and Jared’s POV. It didn’t feel right so I ended up cutting Jared’s chapters (around 1/3 of the book) and bringing Trina in.
[I'll be sharing a deleted scene from Jared's POV in my September newsletter - subscribe
here if you fancy a peek!]
Trina
Trina was a minor character who popped up only a handful of times, along with her sister, Tori. But she kept jumping up and down and trying to get my attention. When I knew I had to rewrite 1/3 of the book, I knew I wanted to fully explore Trina’s story.
Working Title
The working title was A Beginner’s Guide To Weddings.
Recurring Characters
Karaoke host Keith Barry can also be found in Everything Changes But You.
Three women. Three weddings. But who will say I do – and who will say I don’t?
Ruth can’t quite believe she’s managed to snag The One but when he proposes, she can finally accept that she’s found her happily ever after. But when Ruth finds herself booking her dream church for just six weeks away, she starts to panic. You can’t plan a whole wedding at such short notice. Can you?
Trina has only just walked down the aisle, but she’s already starting to question whether they can make their marriage work. Will they survive the honeymoon period, or have they just made a very big – and very expensive – mistake?
Erin has somehow found herself agreeing to be a bridesmaid for the tackiest wedding known to man. With drunk hens, ridiculous outfits and a terrifying wedding planner, just what has Erin signed up for?
