You could say it was music that brought The Rock Star and I together - so who'd have thought that planning the wedding playlist would be the trigger for our first pre-nuptial row!
We were teenage indie kids back in the early 90s (when indie wasn't trendy and Doc-Marten wearers had to stick together). He was a DJ at the local indie club and all the girls fancied him. Not least my best friend (she was his girlfriend at the time*).
I admired his encyclopaedic knowledge of The Beatles from a respectful distance and he was impressed by my vinyl collection ("not bad for a girl" apparently). And that was as far as it went.
Then I went away to Uni and our paths didn't cross again... until 17 years later when it was announced on my Facebook page that The Rock Star was no longer listed as in a relationship.
What started with a few 'innocent' wall posts quickly moved to the privacy of our inboxes, and spiralled rapidly into a frenzy of flirtatious messages, culminating in him sending a link to a song he'd written... about me. And that was when I knew he was the man I was going to marry.
Fast forward 21 months and The Rock Star and I are standing in the lounge with our combined vinyl collections scattered all over the floor having a full-blown row about The Bee Gees ("Staying Alive? Over my dead body!").
We are discussing our wedding playlist. The Rock Star's argument is that your wedding day is the one day of your life you can be as cheesy as you like. My argument (fuelled by three large glasses of red wine) is that it's our day and if Auntie Irene doesn't want to dance to Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit, that's her problem.
In the end we came up with a compromise:
On the playlist:
Superstitious, Stevie Wonder
ABC, The Jackson 5
You Sexy Thing, Hot Chocolate
Sweet Child of Mine, Guns 'n' Roses
Jumping Jack Flash, The Rolling Stones
Jean Genie, David Bowie
Taxman, The Beatles
U Got the Look, Prince
Respect, Aretha Franklin
You Really Got Me, The Kinks
Atomic, Blondie
Wanna Be Starting Something, Michael Jackson
Off the playlist:
Everything I Do (I Do It For You), Bryan Adams
My Heart Will Go On, Celine Dion
Total Eclipse of the Heart, Bonnie Tyler
Anything by Nirvana (okay, okay)
The debate rumbles on:
Staying Alive, The Bee Gees
Next up is what to play for the first dance. Any suggestions ladies?
*We got together 15 years after they broke up. FIFTEEN YEARS, okay?