Hitting 40 was the turning point for four Oxfordshire friends who decided there would never be a better time to launch a business venture. The bridal industry was an obvious choice for former TV presenter Sarah Haywood, who had begun a new career as a wedding and party organiser, while Oxford photographers Susie Barker and Harley Evans had been working at several celebrity weddings.
After Ms Haywood failed to find a suitable book to help her organise her own wedding, the trio decided to team up with designer Yvonne Macken to produce their own book The Wedding Bible.
This is a series of tips from celebrities and professionals, and tricks of the trade' from everyone from flower arrangers and couturiers to voice coaches and financial experts, sandwiched between sumptuous photographs to spark ideas for budding brides.
The book has yet to be published, but they have obviously struck a rich seam, selling hundreds of advance copies. In fact, demand has been so great that they are already having to arrange a reprint.
It created a storm at trade show The London Book Fair, where Ms Haywood's stepdaughter Charlotte walked the aisles with new husband Gary Worden.
The couple he the publisher for the Royal Navy, she a student of politics and international relations at Oxford Brookes University are the real-life models gracing the cover of the book.
After reading the news for Central TV for seven years, Ms Haywood, who lives in Drayton, near Abingdon, changed career almost by accident after giving up her job when her father was ill.
She explained: "I started organising parties for friends and got more work by word-of-mouth. I started earning a few quid and it just snowballed.
"In many ways, organising a wedding uses the same skills as producing a TV programme. You have a series of events which have to happen at a certain time and if they don't, what's your fallback plan?
"Organising a wedding is not hard but it does require organisational skills, the ability to work to a budget and a bit of creativity.
"Very few people possess all these skills and some people don't enoy it and want someone else to do it. I met my husband at a 70th birthday party I had organised for some friends.
"I had five months to plan my wedding and, although I had organised my friends' weddings, I decided I needed a book. I went to buy one and the books were not aimed at today's bride.
"The average bride is 29, financially independent and sophisticated, and wants a wedding that reflects her lifestyle.
"As a journalist I thought: Why not go out and talk to the top people in the wedding industry' and turn their ideas into a book.
"I took the idea to a publishers and it was accepted, but they wanted to charge people to be in the book, which wasn't acceptable. I wanted the advice to be impartial.
"I thought: How hard could it be to set up a publishing company?' It has been very hard but we have done it. At one point we were thinking of producing it ourselves and selling online."
Ms Barker and Ms Evans mortgaged their house and Sarah sold her pre-marital home to raise the £40,000 to start the company a huge risk for a do-it-yourself publisher.
Ms Haywood said: "I have worked on this for two years. It's a huge gamble."
In fact, the four women eventually decided to piggyback' on a Welsh publisher called Accent Press, and the distribution is being done by publishing giants Macmillan, which has secured deals to sell the book at major supermarkets, as well as high street bookstores.
The success of the first book means that they can already cash in on their brand name, with plans for The Wedding Bible Planner, The Bridesmaid's Bible, Best Man's Bible, and Groom's Bible.
They are also negotiating a deal with a greetings card company, aiming to turn the photographs into a series of cards under the title Romance'.
Ms Haywood has also appeared on a TV show called Wedding Doctor on Five and done a pilot for a daytime series for ITV.
Despite all the publicity, they believe many sales will be by recommendation just like the work they get as wedding organisers and photographers.
"Weddings is a word-of-mouth industry. There is a time in a girl's life when everyone is getting married and you go to other people's," Ms Haywood said.
"A woman gettting married will receive loads of advice from her friends. That keeps us on our toes because the knock-on effect of anything going wrong could be disastrous."
Ms Haywood's next job is to organise the wedding of her second stepdaughter a marriage ceremony at Magdalen College, with the reception in a marquee at the bride's home. That will be followed by punting and an open-top bus tour of Oxford, plus a pig roast.
Ms Haywood said: "Nobody has a one-day wedding now. They are always two or three days."
However, she added quickly: "Weddings are about people, not about the pounds and pence. All we are saying is: Here are some ideas'."
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