Roo Green's wedding tips

The 36-year-old self confessed ‘Bridget Jones’ will be tying the knot with Damian Pegutter in Fownhope, Herefordshire, in the next few months.

It was at St Mary’s Church in Fownhope that Roo’s parents were married and where Damian got down on one knee after midnight mass last Christmas.

Roo, who met Damian on mysinglefriend.com at the end of 2007, said preparing for the big day has been a real eye-opener.

But despite the subsequent stress-induced biscuit addiction Roo said she can’t wait to say ‘I do’.

“Damian is a fantastic man, he really is. He is quite a private person so goodness knows it hasn’t been easy for him with me talking about him on air.

“But for all the listeners know about us as a couple, our wedding is just for us, just family and friends around us, and that is what’s important.”

Here in her own words is her list of ‘things no one ever tells you about weddings...’ Everyone has advice for you...

The minute you announce you are getting married clearly means a beacon goes off, and women that have previously barely spoken to you, will now corner you and give you advice on everything from dresses to floral decorations.

As a singleton you were clearly wearing a cloak of invisibility, but once that sparkler is on your left hand, it’s open season on wedding chat. It’s not all good either – just like pregnant women get labour horror stories, you will also hear close to a million tales about wedding disasters. You’ll be treated to stories about grooms not turning up, wedding cakes collapsing at the reception, and brides being so big for their gowns, they had to Vaseline their thighs and get winched into by crane. After each of these conversations you’ll think about putting down valium as a wedding gift.

Romance is not the key word...

It’s compromise. Yes, I know the word ‘compromise’ doesn’t conjure up mental images of soft focus cherubs and love-hearts in the way that ‘romance’ does – but the stark reality is that the day is NOT all about you.

People will bang on and on about how you should just do ‘exactly what YOU want,’ but if I did exactly what I wanted, my mum would be getting death stares from disgruntled, uninvited relatives for months to come.

I’m prepared to put my foot down about certain things – but sometimes you have to accept that you are part of a family, and if you don’t invite aunts you never see, and cousins you secretly loathe, your parents will have to deal with the backlash. None of these aggrieved individuals will approach you (you haven’t seen them for years remember, they don’t know where you live), but they will pull a strop while your dad is buying an oven-ready chicken in Morrisons.

Grooms DO have opinions...

Now when you first get engaged, those women who come up and tell you the wedding day horror stories will also tell you that their grooms did nothing... nada... diddly squat.

This is a lie. Grooms want to get involved, but sometimes their wife-to-be becomes what is known as a Bridezilla, and will not allow them to have any input on the big day.

My fiance has made key decisions about the venue, entertainment and his suit. We’ve both seen it as ‘our day,’ whereas the Bridezilla sees it solely as hers. I once had a friend who turned into this scary creature and made her own family, and even the Best Man send RSVP cards, so she had ‘the complete set.’ Her focus was on out-doing everyone else, rather than just having a lovely and loving day – and it damaged our friendship for good.

Little details count...

Before I started planning my wedding, the idea of having a one-hour conversation about flowers would have sent me on a one-way journey to yawnsville.

Now, I can’t get enough of this kind of chat.

You suddenly start to care about things you previously had zero affinity with before: napkins, chair covers, the colour of paper in wedding invitation inserts, and pew ends.

Once it’s your big day, there is no detail too small to obsess about. You do however have to take care that you retain some sense of perspective – if you have a three-hour sulk with your fiancé because he prefers pale blue card to ivory, (hands up, that was me) you have to have a word with yourself. It’s very easy to switch from meticulous bride to Bridezilla (see above) and you need to guard against it. Thank goodness for my loving fiancé, who pointed out I was getting too worried about petty little things.

Ninety nine per cent of wedding dresses look the same...

Yes, really. Before I went looking for my dress I bought lots of wedding magazines and surfed the net, and was shocked to find that practically every single one of them was a strapless dress with some sequins on it.

There’s nothing wrong with that, but it was just shocking that bridal fashion was so ‘samey.’ I’ve tried on designer strapless dresses, off the peg strapless dresses, and high-street strapless dresses and can barely tell the difference. Yes, the fabric is sometimes more superior with the designer ones, but not always, and it seems silly to spend three grand on something when you can get practically the same dress for lots less.

Weight loss is no easier...

I’ve lost count of how many women have told me ‘the weight just dropped off me the minute I started planning my wedding.’ I hoped that once I had a diamond on my finger I’d start shedding pounds like Ricky Hatton on a fight deadline.

I have actually put weight on. The stress of juggling budgets and trying to be organised means I am consuming digestives at roughly the same rate that McVities are producing them. When I ordered my dress, the owner of the bridal boutique looked me in the eye and told me that now I’ve selected a size, I can’t lose more than a stone. Fat chance.