The morning of our wedding, I woke up at The Portobello Hotel, rested after an extremely unexpected solid eight hours of sleep. Maggie JonesвЂ™s is dimly lit and deeply romantic named, supposedly, after the alias Princess Margaret used to book her and Lord SnowdonвЂ™s favourite table there.Д®llieвЂ™s wedding day was suitably romantic for a Richard Curtis devotee. Newly sculpted, I had dinner with my immediate family in the restaurant my parents dined at the night before their own wedding over 30 years ago. The night before the wedding, I saw my facialist Rhian Truman for a final treatment concentrating predominantly on facial massage, she chiselled my cheekbones and left me almost luminescent. Two years later вЂ“ on top of a mountain in Japan, surrounded by deer вЂ“ he asked me to marry him, and despite all the challenges Covid threw our way, and a вЂњwill they, wonвЂ™t theyвЂќ courtship to rival Ross and RachelвЂ™s, we were finally married in September of 2021. My favourite part? He brought enough glasses so that anyone actually waiting for a bus could join us for a glass. I got there to discover he had covered the whole bus stop in fairy lights and had a bottle of champagne waiting to be popped. So when, on our first anniversary as a couple, Max asked me to meet him there, it didnвЂ™t seem strange in the slightest. ItвЂ™s where we would awkwardly avoid eye contact as teenagers waiting for the bus to school, and later itвЂ™s where we would sneak out of the house to meet. Except you two.вЂќ So when the stars finally aligned, we were eager to make up for lost time, because вЂ“ to quote Billy CrystalвЂ™s Harry вЂ“ вЂњwhen you realise you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possibleвЂќ.Д®quidistant from both our childhood houses, thereвЂ™s a bus stop. I remember saying to one of my closest friends, вЂњDid you ever think IвЂ™d end up with Max?вЂќ To which she replied, вЂњYes вЂ“ everyone did. But if anyone had told me at that age that IвЂ™d be standing next to him at an altar, IвЂ™d never have believed it. Sometimes when I look at him, I see him aged 18 and feel the same giddy rush of teenage emotions I did then. In fact, I have fancied my husband for nearly 15 years вЂ“ almost half my life, and mostly from afar. Six weeks later, he was told he needed heart surgery and the night before, operation looming, she said, вЂњWhen you wake up, letвЂ™s get married.вЂќ Max and I didnвЂ™t move quite so fast.

She came to London for their second date and moved in that same night. My parents met at a party in Paris, my dad there on a work trip and my mum spending time in the city as an au pair.

It wasnвЂ™t a choice, romance is in my blood.

ItвЂ™s almost comedic in itself, then, that I was the only one who didnвЂ™t predict that IвЂ™d marry the boy next door. My favourite genre of music is Romantic Comedy Soundtracks (Shania, Ronan, and The Corrs included) and, for my sins, my biggest crush (husband excluded) is still Hugh Grant. Meet-cutes are my miracles, I worship at the altar of montages that span seasons and I faithfully believe in running across cities, over bridges, through airports, traffic jams, hospitals and press conferences, to give soaring, endearingly quirky declarations of love. Ever since I was a little girl, Richard Curtis has been my religion.

Master sun kiss scene