Everyone deserves the wedding of their dreams…

Synopsis

Even wedding planners struggle to get it right…

Jason is the best wedding planner around, known as the Fairy Godfather to the couples whose special days he plans. But coming up against workplace prejudice is taking a toll on his love for his job.

His mother-in-law, Mel, has just discovered her husband has been cheating on her with a younger woman. Nearing fifty, jobless and struggling, she needs to work out who she is aside from a mum and a wife, and get her life back on track.

Meanwhile, up-tight wedding planner Harriet is struggling to find her own true love – if such a thing exists. Between liars, married men, and disaster dates, she thinks she may never find the one. And her outdated attitude toward LGBT marriages make her even more bitter.

When Jason starts Extra Weddings – helping people marry whoever they like, in whatever way they want – he, Mel and Harriet find themselves coming together to help couples make memories to last a lifetime. But can they bridge their gaps, and be a unit when others need them most?

Fans of Casey McQuiston, Lindsey Kelk and Justin Myers are invited to the most heart-warming and extravagant wedding event of 2022.

My review

There is nothing impossible when Jason is your wedding planner. Of course with a nickname The Fairy Godfather, Jason always goes that extra length to give his clients everything they wish for their special day.
Despite how much he loves working his magic, he still has to fight against workplace prejudice, even at his new working place. He understands that not everyone is as open minded towards the LGBTQ – community but cannot believe how far people will go to refuse to host a wedding.
His new colleague Harriet, fellow – wedding planner meanwhile is also struggling. Not only is she still looking for true love, trying to find The One between liars, married men and terrible dates, but she also has old fashioned visions of how a wedding would look like, a man marrying a woman.
So it’s no wonder that Harriet and Jason don’t really click at work…
And after another setback, Jason decides to open his own business, Extra Weddings, wanting to help out whoever to get married however they want. But getting business rolling is not easy, and add some more drama on personal level, like his mother – in – law Mel finding herself suddenly single again at the age of fifty, no job and struggling…
But maybe Extra Weddings is exactly what everyone needs to get their lives back on track and reassess their thoughts about what a wedding should look like.

To be truly honest, this book was not that kind that I liked from the very start.
Not because of the story itself, but more because of the behaviour of a few characters (main character and some side characters).
I am a believer that it doesn’t matter who you love, man, woman, trans,… as long as you and your partner are truly happy and love each other unconditionally.

So while I totally embraced Jason being who he was, and adoring reading about his relationship with Pete, I truly struggled with completely liking Harriet.
I understood that, while she could have everything she wanted and have a nice job with her father’s business, she wants to do what she wants, make her own money and stand on her two own feet.
And yes, I even understood her when she dreams of a romance like in the books she loves to read. Because don’t we all want to find that totally consuming Love?
But Love never comes easy, and Harriet learns that the hard way…
And while I sympathized with her, her view over relationships and marriage were not something I could agree with. Being so young and old at the same time… I couldn’t understand why she couldn’t see that love comes in different shapes and colours.

However, seeing her opening he eyes, and throw all her prejudices through the window, was good to read about and also the only right thing to do.

Jason… can a man be more perfect in being himself as Jason? He is passionate about his work, understands what his clients wants (or don’t) and he cannot stand injustice and fights for rights that should be equal from the very start.
And when he cannot stand the ‘hostile’ work environment, he takes that leap of faith and starts on his own, just so he can give everyone their dreams.
He is kind, generous and even forgiving, as his relation with Harriet shows. And the love he has for Pete just sparks of the pages! Even if not married (yet?) with Pete, he sees Mel and her family already as his own family.

So when Mel is in need of help, there is no doubt that Jason and Pete will help anyway that they can. While Mel is obviously struggling after separating from her husband, I admired the courage she has. She dares to make not obvious choices, like starting to study again, and helping out Jason. But she also stands her ground when an opportunity rises and getting back to her old life would be easy.

Like I said earlier, this story was not an instant love for me. However, reading how people can redeem themselves, and see the world just how it is, changed a lot of the frustrations I had for those single – minded characters.
And reading how different weddings can be, from the cliché to the over the top, was putting an extra smile on my face!

This book is the perfect example to show that Love is Love, no matter what your prejudices are. Everyone deserve to love whoever they want. And the perfect partner doesn’t have to thick of 37 boxes on your list, or not having an own past and background.
No matter who you are, there is always somewhere worthy of your love and worthy of giving his/her love to you.
Just throw all prejudices out of the window and allow love to enter!