The Bridegroom's Secret. Melissa James

       The Wedding Planners

      Planning perfect weddings... finding happy endings!

      It’s the biggest and most important day of a woman’s life—and it has to be perfect.

      At least, that’s what The Wedding Belles believe, and that’s why they’re Boston’s top wedding planner agency. But amidst the beautiful bouquets, divine dresses and rose petal confetti, these six wedding planners long to be planning their own big day!

      But first they have to find Mr Right…

      This month: Melissa James THE BRIDEGROOM’S SECRET

      Planner: Julie’s always been the wedding planner—will she ever be the bride…?

      And don’t miss the exciting wedding planner tips and author reminiscences that accompany each book!

      Melissa shares her own unique wedding and honeymoon experience with us:

      ‘As far as weddings go, mine was very simple. We were pretty poor, and it seemed a waste of money to me to buy an expensive dress. So I bought an ex-rental at a store for $50. We had the reception at my grandfather’s bowling club. The whole wedding cost less than $2000. We started our married life in a small apartment near a prison, and our first house, a year later, was a tiny one in a run-down area. None of this made the marriage any the worse, since we’ve now been married almost 25 years, with three children and still going strong.

      ‘It also seems I followed in the best tradition of The Wedding Planners authors and had an unusual start to my wedding, when a sudden storm broke out as we pulled up. It was blinding rain, and the chauffeur carried me into the church!

      ‘We also didn’t have the usual honeymoon destination. In a country where almost everyone chooses Bali, Fiji, The Gold Coast or the Whitsunday Islands on the Great Barrier Reef, we took a driving tour along the Bushranger Roads of our state. We hid behind Captain Thunderbolt’s (“the gentleman bushranger”) Rocks, stood where his woman, Maryanne, was caught, visited his folk museum and the prison he was housed in, and where his gang holed up. We also stayed in a tiny cabin in the middle of nowhere in a National Park. Romance in rustic surrounds!

      ‘In THE BRIDEGROOM’S SECRET, you’ll discover Julie’s hidden talent for finding unusual honeymoon destinations. This talent changes her life…thanks to Matt. Most of the places mentioned are places I’ve been blessed enough to visit in my life. Since we moved to Europe, I’ve definitely found many new and unusual places…and amazing people wherever we go. I hope you find a few of those places and people enriching the story.’

      Catch up with Melissa and her latest news at www.melissajames.net

      Visit http://harlequin-theweddingplanners.blogspot.com to find out more…

      THE BRIDEGROOM’S SECRET

      BY

      MELISSA JAMES

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      Julie is an aspiring honeymoon planner at The Wedding Belles—here are her ideas on ways to plan a truly memorable holiday with your husband-to-be!

      A memorable honeymoon need not be expensive. So many people build their expectations so high that when the ‘perfect’ honeymoon doesn’t eventuate, tears and fights do (especially over expenses)! So think about planning for what you both like to do, instead of a traditional five-star resort on an island or on the beach. A honeymoon is only a week or two—your life together lasts much longer. So choosing the destination for you is more important than merely ‘perfect’. Your life together has already begun—if you can’t afford perfect, be happy with the reality you can afford.

      Go for happy comfort over cranky glamour. Wear shoes that fit, sunscreen and hats, and protect yourself against wildlife/bugs.

      Remember, like the wedding day, the honeymoon’s soon over, but the memories remain for a lifetime…good or bad. The famous saying ‘there is greater happiness in giving’ applies especially to your partner in life. You want to look back on your wedding/honeymoon and smile with love. And remember to laugh!

      CHAPTER ONE

      SO THIS was how it felt to be a queen….

      Her engagement party was being held in Celebre, Boston’s best restaurant—the place where Matt had first proposed to her. The champagne was flowing. There were red roses by the dozen on every table, and fairy lights lit the satin-draped walls. She wore a watered-silk dress of softest silver green and the McLachlan family diamond necklace, earrings and bracelet set, all supplied by her adoring fiancé.

      Given the stress of the past nine months, after Matt’s father’s death and the near collapse of both his business and hers, it felt amazing that they were here now.

      Well, amazing that she was here, anyway. Matt fitted into this world perfectly.

      The cream of Boston society—all childhood friends of Matt’s—filled the room and spilled out onto the terrace. Her own family hadn’t been able to make it from Sydney at such short notice. But her friends, affectionately known as The Wedding Belles, because they ran a complete-wedding-package business in Boston, were here either with their own wonderful men or working the room. They were creating new business just by being there, because they were responsible for this “wedding of the year.”

      Her wedding.

      Julie shook her head, as if to clear it. She, plain, publicity-shy Julie Montgomery from Rockdale, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, was the bride in what the media had dubbed Boston’s Wedding of the Year. She, just a simple general assistant for The Wedding Belles, had captured the heart of Boston’s most eligible bachelor. Why they’d chosen her wedding, she didn’t know, any more than she knew why a man like Matt had ever fallen for someone like her.

      Why she’d fallen for him was no mystery. She looked across the room at him, and her heart almost burst with pride and love. Tall and lithe, he wore the tux as though he’d been born in it, which, given his family background, he probably had been. His dark hair curled just enough to look sexily mussed; she loved the light streaks of early grey about his ears and temples, which always made her fingers ache to plunge right in there. His eyes—what woman could look into that ice-blue perfection and not do what she’d done the first minute she’d seen him? Intelligent, kind and strong, he could never see someone in need without doing something about it, whether helping out at charity events or donating funds to needy causes. If she’d fallen in love with him at a glance, she’d fallen even deeper for the man beneath, the man of integrity and generosity. He worked hard, had true creative genius, and a heart that never stopped giving.

      And those hands…what he could do to her with a touch!

      He’d been so busy lately, and, oh, how she’d missed him. But tonight was theirs, their engagement party, and he was hers alone. Needing to be near him, she smiled and detached herself from her future mother-in-law and began to go to him.

      “Miss Montgomery, could we have a minute for a few questions?”

      Julie held in the sigh. This was one part of her engagement she found less than appealing. As the love interest of Matthew McLachlan,