I’m pretty sure whoever coined the saying about something not killing you making you stronger was referring most particularly to planning a wedding. And I’m positive that by the time Jason and I (finally) say ‘I do’ I’ll be a veritable super woman.
I say finally although in reality half of the stress is because we’re pushing to plan it all in just a couple of months, something I wouldn’t recommend even if, like us, you have the very best help that money can buy. This tight timeline, as everyone from my mother to by maid-of-honour, Katja, has told me, is not at all usual in high society weddings with budgets such as ours. But they don’t understand that Jason and I have good reason not to wait – and it isn’t a pregnancy no matter what the whispers might suggest.
The end of all this planning is in sight. Soon it will the weekend of our destination beach wedding.
I have one more work meeting here in the office with a gin distillery about their social media launch and then I’m completely in wedding mode. We have the bridesmaid’s final dress fitting at the poshest dress store I’ve ever been in on the other side of the city tonight. I’m not going to consider the prospect of what Katja is calling my no-show bridesmaid, Sophie, continuing her form and not turning up will do.
I get why Sophie’s struggling with this. After all, twelve years ago, everyone probably thought I was going to marry her brother but Ollie’s tragic death doesn’t mean the rest of us stop living. No matter how much the thought of him still makes me ache after all this time.
I close my laptop with a thud.
I have to get to the meeting room and be social media manager me for one last hour, before I can devote all my focus to the wedding. I can’t let thoughts of the past and worries about whether my bridesmaid will even come to the wedding distract me from doing my job. Yes, in a mere matter of days in marrying Jason I will never have to work another day in my life. The security of that is an absolute dream, but I pride myself on my own success and that is not going to change.
My phone buzzes and I check the time and the caller. I have two minutes to get to the meeting room. It’s Mum calling. That is never a two-minute conversation. She’ll want to talk about her dress or her hair or whether my budget includes the food and wine she’ll serve at her beach shack when we’re getting ready. None of which I have the energy for right now. She’ll have to wait.
I divert the call to my message bank and mentally promise to make it up to her later. Then, I brace myself and walk into the meeting room with a smile on my face. On the other side of this I can think about nothing else but the wedding party.
The Wedding Party
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Release: January 2025
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Purchase Link
Three families united by a terrible event must survive a deadly wedding in this latest gripping thriller from Rebecca Heath, author of The Summer Party and The Dinner Party!
A group of old friends. A grieving mother. A lying bride.
Adele and Jason are childhood sweethearts. Their wedding day on the sunny Australian coast is a chance to reunite and celebrate with friends and family.
But Adele isn’t telling the truth about her relationship. And some of the wedding party – still reeling from a tragic death in the group a decade before – hold secrets of their own.
What happened on the jetty all those years ago was an accident, everyone agrees.
Or do they?
Meet the author
Rebecca Heath studied science at university, worked in hospitality and teaching, but she always carved out time to write. She lives in Adelaide, Australia, halfway between the city and the sea with her husband, three children and a much-loved border collie. Her debut adult novel, The Summer Party was released in 2023 by Head of Zeus, followed by The Dinner Party in 2024 and The Wedding Party in 2025.