Anna-Marie DeSouza is the editor of Ocean Media’s print magazines, Bridal Buyer – a trade publication aimed at bridal retailers and other industry professionals. Read the digital editions of Bridal Buyer magazine here. Anna-Marie is also the editor of Confetti – a consumer magazine aimed at wedding planning couples. Check out Confetti’s website here.

She’s been working on Bridal Buyer for a year now, and Confetti since October – overseeing its launch at the Spring National Wedding Shows. We caught up with her to find out what a day in a magazine editor’s life is like.

My Typical Morning

I am a morning person – I love mornings, especially when it’s sunny. I get up at around 5.45am – 6.15am, depending on which day of the week it is, and the first thing I do is go downstairs and see my dog, Elmo.

I let him out into the garden before having a pot of espresso and some watermelon for breakfast. Most of the time I work from home and will start working around 8am. I always write a to-do list first thing – they don’t always get completed but set me off on the right track.

A typical morning for me is spent researching and writing – this might be doing an interview, copy checking features from my freelance journalists or going through images and news from people in the industry.

I also usually have emails to go through and often try to reply to what I need to before 9am so that I can get on with magazine work.

My Typical Afternoon

If I’m at home, I take Elmo to the park and have lunch – and more coffee – in the café there. If I’m at the Ocean Media office in South Quay, I often treat myself to sushi and then work through. It’s not very exciting, is it? When I was younger I was the ringleader of the lunchtime ‘wine club’ but I’m old and boring now.

Afternoons at work are for design and layouts. My designer Carrie will have set the text I’ve sent over to her and taken in the design notes to come up with a concept for the pages in the magazine – I check these every afternoon, decide what works and what doesn’t and carry out any changes. In fairness, Carrie is so brilliant and talented that this job is extremely pleasurable!

Finishing work depends on the press cycle and if I am working in the office or not. I always try and leave the South Quay office by about 6pm – 6.30pm at the latest, but if I’m working from home, I’ll finish at 7pm.

My Typical Evening

Apart from fitness classes – which I go to with friends after finishing work – I usually go out for dinner a couple of times a week and catch up with friends.

Because my husband Jason works away 3 or 4 nights a week, I try and make plans to go out and do something in the evenings so I’m not rattling around the house. I’ve a terrible reputation for booking in more things than I’ve got time to do, and my friends call me ‘double book DeSouza’ because I’m always having to rearrange for this reason!

If my husband’s home we will take Elmo for a walk together and then make dinner. Sometimes we pop to the local pub for a drink (especially if the weather is good) or just hang out and watch Netflix!

I’ll go to bed anywhere between 10.30pm and 11.30pm and when it comes to switching off, gin is how I do it.

I’m a terrible sleeper - I wake up at even the smallest noise and it takes me forever to drift off. It doesn’t help that my husband’s snoring sounds like a pneumatic drill. I have to hit him with the pillow A LOT. I often think about pushing him out of the bed entirely. He even wears ear plugs because his snoring wakes him up – that’s not even a joke. As you can tell, I’m not bitter about any of this.

The Best Part of My Day

I love first thing in the morning when I am up and about but nobody else is. I can take Elmo for a walk without washing my face or brushing my hair, but it’s fine because nobody else ever sees me!

If I could change anything about my day it would be mid-afternoon… This is usually when emails start pouring in so I’m having to juggle a million things. That said, I really enjoy hearing from everyone and getting insight into what’s important to those in the bridal industry and from real brides too. For Confetti we are starting to hear from more and more brides who want to feature in the magazine and it’s lovely to see and hear about what they did for their big day.

If you’d like to be featured in next week’s My Diary, get in touch with us at bridalbuyer@oceanmedia.co.uk.