Wedding Planner or Author/ Author or Wedding Planner

People often ask me, “Did you decide to write a cozy mystery series about a wedding planner because you got an idea for it from your wedding planning business? The answer is… sort of.
 
Hello, I’m Mary Karnes, and I write ‘The Wedding Planning Mystery Series’ – a cozy mystery series published by Level Best Books. I always wanted to be an author. My mother helped me obtain the first of many rejection letters when she submitted a series of my poems to “Redbook Magazine” when I was six. I did not, however, always want to be a wedding planner. That was born more out of necessity than desire.
 
I have four daughters. When daughter number two got engaged twelve years ago, my husband said, “Let’s get a wedding planner!” I said flat out, “NO! We are not wasting good money for that!” I won’t bore you with the details, but it was a grave mistake. After daughter number one’s wedding the following year, I thought, I can be a wedding planner. I did just that. I built a website, with the help of Godaddy.com, advertised on the knot.com and my business has been in the black since day one. All I needed to start was advertising, a computer, a clipboard, paper, and some pens – no overhead.
 
Has it always been easy? Heck no! I was dealing with young women planning the biggest day of their lives. But I have been lucky. In ten years of professional planning, I have had only one ‘bridezilla.’ I now have a team of three ladies, and in the 2024 season, we did thirty-nine weddings. I planned them all but wasn’t always the ‘Day of Coordinator.’

I had written three books before I started the wedding planning business, in fact, I had written one wedding planner book before I had even started my business. ‘Why not write a wedding planning series now that I’m in the biz?’ I asked myself. So, I did.

Friends say, “It must be so easy to write your series! You must get so much fodder from your brides!” Actually, the opposite is true. I have to work really hard to make my stories not resemble my couples, as I guard their privacy very closely.
 
My first book, WEDDING BRIDE AND DOOM, was published in September 2023. Here’s a brief synopsis:

WEDDING BRIDE AND DOOM
 
KATE LUDLOW has moved back home to New England with her daughter, ELLIS, and her little dachshund, Hannah. Her husband, the cheating louse, left her for their next-door neighbor back in California. Finding herself in need of full-time employment, Kate turns her part-time wedding planning business into full-time event coordination.

Home a little over a year, Kate lands a big society wedding, (it could be her big break!), and she’s ready to do anything to make the wedding a success, including finding a missing family heirloom ring. Kate is unsure why the family thinks she can find it when no one has been able to locate it for decades, but she’ll give it a shot.

As she begins to get all the society wedding vendors in place, Kate stumbles upon the body of her best florist, LORI-SUE JOHNSON. Lori-Sue and Kate weren’t friends back in high school, and they aren’t friends now. And just like that, Kate is the police’s number one suspect.

Even though Kate is the police’s only suspect, Kate sees potential murders all around her, including her best friend from high school, JEN COOPER. Back in the day, Jen was worried Lori-Sue might steal her boyfriend, and she never got over it. Was there another layer about their relationship that Kate is not aware of?
To compound matters, BRIAN MCALLISTER, Kate’s high school boyfriend, and breaker of her heart, is the lead detective heading up the murder investigation. Are there still strong feelings between them?

After the police search her home, Kate realizes no one is going to help her except for herself. She starts her own investigation, beginning with searching the deceased florist’s shop and finding a wrapper to a peanut snack, (Lori-Sue had a deadly peanut allergy), and Brian finds her. Brian tells her, “Kate you are your own worst enemy.” But still Kate carries on with her investigation. She doesn’t know who killed Lori-Sue, just that she didn’t.

It could be any of a number of people from old friend, Addalee Baker, who provides Kate with an earful on why she’s not sorry Lori-Sue’s dead, to Brian’s former high school girlfriend and Kate’s archenemy, Sarah-Grace Deloro, the town’s top real estate agent. Why were pending  ‘Board of Realtors’ charges dropped as soon as Lori-Sue was murdered? Even society Mother of the Bride, JOYCE SIMPSON, looks guilty.

 As if Kate doesn’t have enough on her plate, her daughter, Ellis, confides that she has been receiving nasty anonymous texts. Ellis guesses it is the relative of the deceased Lori-Sue, and daughter of Kate’s business rival, KENDRA JACKMAN. Kate goes to Kendra’s house and confronts her, telling her she’d better stop her daughter from harassing Ellis. But Kendra goes to the door to accept a delivery and Kate snoops on Kendra’s phone. It was Kendra who was sending the anonymous texts! Through further digging, Kate finds out Lori-Sue was blackmailing her own cousin, Kendra. Another murder suspect?

Kate’s clients begin canceling her planning services, afraid she will be arrested for Lori-Sue’s murder. Kate is panicked. What will she and Ellis do if her business crashes or worse, she’s arrested for murder? Kate’s sleuthing has produced little, so she decides she might as well try to find the socialite’s missing family ring. The search takes Kate from a local jewelry store to a farm to the town’s historic landmarks. She has an unlikely ally, her old high school beau, and police detective Brian. Sparks fly, and it’s obvious there are still lingering feelings between the two. The strongest lead sends Kate to a local wedding cake baker who has purchased the antique ring at a farm tag sale. Where has the ring been all these years and how did it end up at a tag sale?

After visiting the farm, Kate goes to a local retirement home to question a resident about the ring’s origin. As Kate investigates, she discovers a long-buried mystery that involves JOYCE SIMPSON, mother of the bride. Kate finds, at the risk to her own life, that Joyce has a deep secret she would do anything to keep, including killing Lori-Sue (and Lori-Sue did die by peanut allergy). This all comes to a head when Joyce realizes Kate is too close to the truth and kidnaps Kate to ultimately silence her. Kate’s unlikely savior is arch-rival Sarah-Grace.
Kate discovers her other suspects’ secrets and why they had motives to kill Lori-Sue. The dead florist had been quite the blackmailer and used her friends and family’s secrets against them.

The arrival of Kate’s ex lends another layer to her already chaotic life when he makes it plain, he’d like her back. Will Kate reunite her family, or seek what will make her happy, Brian?
 
SAVE THE FATE was published in October 2024. Here is a brief synopsis:

SAVE THE FATE
 
Wedding Planner Kate Ludlow is back with her fun circle of small-town New England friends. Life is clipping along well for Kate. Her wedding season is off to a great start; she has reconnected with her former high school boyfriend, and her teen daughter is happy and looking forward to a fun summer.  At the town’s traditional kick-off to summer party, “Strawberry Moon,” Jack Malone, the town’s parodical son, surprises the population with his appearance. He’s the best baseball player the whole of New England has ever produced, and he now plays professional baseball in Los Angeles. He hasn’t been home in years but has returned home to marry a local girl. He taps Kate to be his wedding planner, and she couldn’t be happier; what a boon this will be for her business!

Jack reconnects with old friends, and apparently old enemies too, as his body is found in the Connecticut River on his third day home. Jack’s high school girlfriend, and Kate’s best friend, Jen, is the prime suspect. She can’t or won’t give an alibi for the time of Jack’s death. But she’s not the only person who looks guilty. A new business partner has come to Eastbury looking for Jack, claiming Jack cheated him in a business deal gone wrong. Then there’s the high school rival who lost everything in a decade’s old confrontation with Jack. The state police leading the investigation into Jack’s death feel certain Jen is their killer, so Kate has to act. If Jen won’t help herself, Kate will have to step in to save her; but this won’t help her fledgling relationship with her old/new love, Brian, who is Eastbury’s lead detective.
 
The third in the series, UNVEILED SECRETS, will be published in October 2025. All books in the series are available wherever online books are so, in print, eBook, or audio formats.

​Mary Karnes is a mother of four who raised her family through six corporate moves, but always dreamed of being an author. Once the kids were grown, she started a wedding planning company and decided to simultaneously chase her dream of being a published author. The ‘Wedding Planner Mystery Series’ was born, with her business
providing much subject matter for her books. Mary resides in New England with her husband, Ken, her mini-dachshund Lucky. Her door is a revolving one with her kids and grandkids visiting frequently.

The Author's Four Daughters