Sandra looked at the clock and almost broke down. It was 7.30 in the morning. She felt so helpless with everything spiraling out of control ever since she offered Jo to plan for her wedding. The bride-to-be had sounded so happy that Saturday but now she was definitely going to hate her. It never crossed Sandra's mind that a wedding planner had to take care of so many big and small details. She thought she was made for it. After all, she was a very experienced corporate event manager. But at this moment, she was completely overwhelmed by a cake crisis and a never-ending list of other details. Good thing the bride's gown had arrived... wait a minute! She had overlooked the additional beading for the gown's train!

In her next assignment, wait, don't be a fool. If things did not take a good turn this time, Sandra knew she would never get another assignment! She, of all people, should have known better. Weddings were not corporate events. People had higher expectations and that meant more pressure on the organizer. She did not know whether she had the courage and strength to go through the same things again. Deep down inside her, she was pretty sure no bride in her right mind would ever trust her to pull off a wedding.

But come what may, the show must go on. After much consideration of the various suggested wedding themes, the bridal couple had settled on hosting a Christmas wedding. What they had not counted on was how much more complicated that would make the wedding plans. With churches and most other popular venues during this season, fully utilised, the couple would have no choice but to hold the ceremony as well as the reception in the family's yard.

That was the least of Sandra's problems. The nightmare had just begun. Just last week, Sandra dashed to virtually every craft shop in town to get the supplies she needed for the wedding. It was not the craft shops' fault that they did not have enough supplies since it was at the height of the gift-giving season. The only thing Sandra could do was try to secure as many supplies as possible from each shop. As she was rushing in and out with both arms loaded with organza ribbons and tulle, it suddenly dawned on her she was wasting precious time playing Martha Stewart. She should have asked the professionals to be in charge but it was too late now.

How she thanked her blessed stars when she was finally able to secure the last of the much-needed wedding supplies from an online retailer. Now, all she had to do was to get together as many helping hands as possible to work on doing up the wedding favours. But with the holiday season around the corner, almost every close friend or family member of the bride was already neck-deep in the holiday preparations for their own families. However, after many harried phone calls and a dozen cups or so of calming herbal tea, Sandra eventually managed to gather a motley crew of inexperienced but willing helpers. And that would explain how she ended up alone in her living room that early morning, surrounded by yards of wrappers, ribbons and about a hundred or so potpourri pouches that had gone wrong and were spilling out their contents thanks to the wrong choice of material.

Sandra could easily fix the mess if she had time. And that was exactly what she did not have. There was still an endless list of things to take care of before the wedding. Not to mention the cake. The couple wanted a Christmas log cum wedding cake. It was a unique design and it took Sandra several phone calls in order to find the confectioner who was skilled enough to do it. Then there was the tricky matter of finding a wedding cake topper that was still available at this time of the year as well as fitting for the concept. To top it off, Jo's mother called the night before, complaining how unsuitable the design of the wedding cake was for the occasion. All of a sudden, Sandra was plunged between a very dissatisfied mother-of-the-bride and a wedding cake.

Soon after, the bride herself called. Jo was sobbing uncontrollably as she tried to explain to Sandra what catastrophe had happened. Only when she finally calmed down was Sandra able to understand that the gown rental shop had misplaced the designated set of bridal accessories that came with the gown Jo had selected. A new set was on the way but would not arrive in time for the wedding! No matter what, Sandra had to make an emergency shopping trip today and hope against hope that she would be able to find the extraordinary pair of bridal hair clips that Jo loved so much.

Yes, at 7:45am that morning, Sandra's day was already shaping up to be a most interesting one indeed.