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Miss Janine Maya-Smith, 38, and Mr Dusan Bozic, 35, will marry on June 30th
2007 in a civil ceremony at Eastbourne
Town Hall. The couple have been engaged for over three years, and booked
their wedding at the end of March because “it just seemed like the right
time”. They met in April 2000, but romance did not flourish until December,
after machinations on the part of a colleague. The bride grew up in
Ollerton, a small mining village in Nottinghamshire, the groom on a farm in
the equally diminutive village of Moravci, Serbia. They live together in St
Leonards-on-Sea in East Sussex. Janine works as a broadcast assistant for
the Chris Evans Show at BBC Radio 2, while Dusan is a mail service manager
in the same organisation. They will enjoy a month-long honeymoon in Serbia
and plan to start a family as soon as possible.
How did you meet?
J: “We met about seven months before we started going out.”
D: “I had started popping by her office to make sure the last collection of
post had been done.”
J: “It became quite obvious to my colleagues early on that I had a crush on
Dusan, as I would blush and become quite silly when he came into the room.
Once I had plucked up the courage to talk to him, I tried anything to keep
him hanging around longer. On the odd occasion, I even pretended that I had
urgent mail to send out at the end of the day to keep him in the office,
although being near him made me nervous and I would often behave slightly
strangely - laughing too much or getting completely tongue-tied.”
D: “Even though I really fancied Janine, I thought she wasn’t interested in
me. I once offered her a lift to the station because it was raining very
heavily. She declined saying that she didn’t really mind walking in the
rain. I thought she was a bit nuts.”
J: “It was apparently very obvious to all concerned that we had feelings for
each other, but we were both too shy to do anything about it. Finally, after
about seven months, my colleague Jane passed on my number to Dusan because
she couldn’t bear it any longer.”
D: “Funnily enough, we had both just been transferred to Broadcasting House in
central London when Janine’s friend gave me her number and said that Janine
would appreciate a call. So I did. We had our first date around Christmas
2000 and have never looked back.”
What were your first impressions? Instant infatuation or sexual-tension
spiced antipathy?
J: “I fancied him from the minute I saw him. I couldn’t wait ‘til the end of
the day to get my five-minute fix.”
D: “I thought: ‘Who is this wonderful, crazy, smiley girl.’”
How would you describe your romantic history? In what ways does this
relationship buck the trend?
J: “Dusan is the only man who has ever made me shy and tongue-tied and given
me butterflies and weak knees. I honestly thought that kind of stuff never
happened. He blew me away.”
D: “Janine was the first girl that I felt totally comfortable with. Just being
with her made me happy.”
Details please: who asked whom?
J: “I had been dropping boulder-sized hints for ages, then we had an
opportunity to go on a romantic weekend in the Yorkshire Dales.”
D: “We had been on a long cycle ride and I was planning to propose at the top
of the hill with amazing views. I got the ring out of my pocket and was just
about to get on one knee when a bunch of bird watchers appeared in the
clearing, so I pretended I was stretching.”
J: “We had a lovely dinner planned at the hotel and as we were on our way
Dusan suggested a walk across the lawns, which I thought odd as we were
running late. Then he suddenly dropped to the floor and I thought he’d
fallen over. He pulled out the ring and asked me to marry him.”
D: “Janine’s first response was laughter which was a bit unnerving, but
luckily she soon said: ‘Yes.’”
Talk us through the big day.
D: “We are getting married in Eastbourne Town Hall. There will be a reading by
our friend Sarah and we will write some personal vows. The town hall is a
wonderful building with a majestic staircase and stained glass windows. We
will be sharing the day with a handful of our closest friends and family.”
J: “The wedding is going to be very small and we are doing it on a bit of
shoestring as we have a mortgage and so are tight for cash. So far, we have
been really lucky with help. All in all, the entire event will cost us less
than a thousand pounds. After the ceremony, we head across the road to have
a champagne reception followed by lunch at a gastro pub called Bibendum.
“Afterwards we all head back to our garden. We’ve been working hard to make it
look wonderful. Dusan has even built an arch which will be draped in vines
and flowers so we can have photos under it. The trees will be decorated with
lovely lights and bunting and we are going for a simple blue and white
colour scheme for our tables. We have requested that no one buys us gifts,
but that they make a small contribution towards food and drink. We have a
friend who is going to DJ for us and have managed to get all the drinks
wholesale in France. I am making my own wedding cake with the help of my
Mum. It’s going to be a cupcake cake with butterflies which will look
perfect in our blooming garden. I have borrowed a beautiful wedding dress
from a friend and another of our friends will be the official photographer.
Our families are helping with the buffet and providing the transport. The
chairs, tables and gazebo are being provided by our lovely neighbour. So
it’s a bit of a collective affair, but it’s going to be really brilliant.”
Will the bride wear white, or is off-white less likely to provoke heckling?
J: “It’s got to be the off-white option as my friend has lent me a gorgeous
dress to wear.”
What will the best man say to humiliate the groom?
J: “We aren’t having formal speeches as we are avoiding everything
traditional. Dusan and I represent two cultures meeting in the middle so we
aren’t having a top table, but will sit surrounded by our friends and
family. That said, knowing our friends and family, there will lots of
humiliating stories to be bandied around.”
Who will wear the trousers in this marriage?
D: “I think we both wear the trousers, but at different times.”
J: “Yeah, but mine are slightly bigger.”
What motto would best describe your union?
D: “Together we are stronger.”
How long do you give yourselves? a) Forever and a day? b) A bog-standard
11.6 years? c) A Britney-esque 55 hours?
J: “Let’s hope it’s forever and the extra day will be a bonus.”
