We are delighted and excited to tell you about a fab new book Thirteen Weddings being released on the 22nd May by the Sunday Times bestselling author Paige Toon – as its lead protagonist is a wedding photographer! But what is so special about that we hear you say? Well you know that Lina is especially excitable about all things wedding, but our love of our job isn’t just fuelling this excitement, as we can now reveal Lina was a research consultant to Paige for this book!

Here’s a little story for you. In Spring 2013 we were asked to donate to a Cambridgeshire charity auction of promises of which we were only too happy to oblige, so we donated a family photoshoot. We couldn’t attend the auction as we were shooting the fabulous wedding of Katie & Matt at Burwash Manor that day, but thought it would also be nice to look at the other lots and make a bid or two. Looking down the list, we spotted that Paige Toon was auctioning a named character in her next book, and having read a few of Paige’s books (they are PERFECT holiday reads don’t you know!) Lina thought this would be a hilarious vanity project, so we put in a secret bid.

When the organising team came round to give us the details on the winning bidder of our photoshoot, we were also shocked and highly amused to see we were also the highest bidder on Paige’s lot. Fast forward to a mutual friend seeing Paige in a coffee shop later that week and informing her that she knew us, Paige was gobsmacked to hear Lina was a wedding photographer, as her next book was about, yes you guessed it, a wedding photographer – talk about coincidence! After a great meet-up, Lina was honoured to be asked by Paige to assist with her research on the book, and loved telling Paige all about our jobs; the highs, lows and unglamorous details! The tag line for the book – ‘Always the Photographer, never the Bride…’ is a quote from Lina – of course you all probably now know that it is no longer the case!

Lina has really enjoyed helping Paige with the book and was thrilled to be the first person to read the first draft, which made for a very exciting accompaniment to a train journey one day. Even more exciting was seeing Paige’s decision to also keep Lina as named character in the most complimentary way! Tom also gets a mention too, naturally we do come as a pair! You’ll have to read the book of course to find out how – and keep an eye on the blog next week as we will be giving away some copies of the book thanks to Simon & Schuster  – so you can find out for yourself!

Thirteen Weddings by Paige Toon

Released 22nd May 2104

Simon & Schuster UK

Paige Toon was born in 1975 and grew up between England, Australia and America. A philosophy graduate, she worked at teen, film and women’s magazines, before ending up at Heat magazine as Reviews Editor. Paige is married, has two small children and lives in Cambridge. Visit her website at paigetoon.com, or you can follow her on Twitter @PaigeToonAuthor