Guest Post & Giveaway: What inspired The Vintage Summer Wedding by Jenny Oliver

Today it's my turn to host Jenny Oliver as part of her The Vintage Summer Wedding blog tour.

Spending the summer uncovering hidden treasures in a vintage shop, Anna can still vividly remember both her childhood dreams; the first was that she’d become a Prima Ballerina, and dance on stage resplendent in a jewel-encrusted tutu. The second was that at her wedding she would walk down the aisle wearing a collective-gasp-from-the-congregation dress.

Years ago Anna pirouetted out of her cosy hometown village in a whirl of ambition…but when both of those fairy-tale dreams came crashing down around her ballet shoes, she and fiancée Seb find themselves back in Nettleton, their wedding and careers postponed indefinitely…

Don’t they say that you can never go home again? Sometimes they don’t get it right… This one summer is showing Anna that your dreams have to grow up with you. And sometimes what you think you wanted is just the opposite of what makes you happy…

A question I’ve been asked quite a lot since The Vintage Summer Wedding came out is 
What inspired me to write about a vintage wedding rather than the usual big white
(optional meringue) fairytale? Well….

It's my absolute dream to be an antiques treasure hunter. I like nothing more than scouring car boot sales and vintage shops for a bargain. I'm always surprised when I find something that I absolutely love at a car boot sale and the person selling it can't wait to be rid of it - another man's trash is usually my treasure. Bargain hunting runs in our family - my parents took me to antique fairs every weekend when I was little and I'd sulk all the way round thinking it was so boring and just wait till we went to the cafe for a tunnocks bar and a coke. Sometimes they'd give me and my sister some money to buy whatever we liked so our house was full of games that were missing pieces and ornaments with broken bits and chips. I remember buying a weather vane (the type that the little man or woman comes out of the house depending on the weather) and taking it into school for a show and tell. Everyone laughed when I said it was from a car boot sale and didn't work and I couldn't understand why - to me this was very normal! Now I'm a little more discerning about what I buy, although I do still have cupboards full of things that I probably shouldn't have bought but was high on the thrill of a bargain. There really is nothing like turning up to a field full of cars on a Sunday morning, all the metal shimmering in the heat, the burger vans sizzling, people shouting and getting cross because you've parked in the wrong place, and heading through the throng to search through the trash to find the vintage treasure. So if you have nothing to do this Sunday I'd highly recommend flicking through your local paper, finding your boot sale or antique fair and heading on down armed with no more than a tenner to find your own treasure (you can always hide it in a cupboard if you get home and realise you've made a mistake!) 

So when it came to planning a wedding for Anna (heroine of The Vintage Summer Wedding) 
I knew she’d it was going to be a vintage themed one, despite her dream of a Vera Wang 
dress and high-society guest-list. I had so much fun creating a dream vintage wedding 
scenario that fitted the book and the characters, and I love the it’s not only the entire village 
that received an invite – but every single reader too! Don’t forget to BYO rose petals for 
confetti, and pack a (vintage) hanky. Every good wedding should make you share a happy 
tear!! 

Jenny xx

The Vintage Summer Wedding is current Read of the Week on Google Play http://bit.ly/1tnH0t5

To coincide with the blog tour, Jenny's publisher Carina UK are running a fab comp on their Pinterest page for the chance to win a luxury summer hamper from Fortnum and Mason, details below or can be found here.  

But that's not the only giveaway on offer as each blog stop has its own giveaway where the winner gets to pick one of the adorable vintage pieces on offer on the tours Pinterest page, take a look to see which one you would choose if you won.  http://www.pinterest.com/carinauk/the-vintage-summer-wedding-blog-tour   

a Rafflecopter giveaway