And you thought your days of being told
what to read were over after school? Well, the good news is that we are not
going to force you and we will not quiz you if and when you’ve finished
reading. We know that there are a lot of books and articles out there that tell
you how to plan your wedding, how to decorate, what music to play, and what to
wear. If you could read them all, you would be full of ideas and know everything
there is to know... if only! But, you have things to do, places to be, and a
wedding to plan!
We have found a few books that we think could
be both fun and/or helpful for you as you create the wedding you want. Meg Keene’s
A Practical Wedding will help
you narrow down what means the most to you and tune out all of the voices
generously offering advice to the contrary. (You can find a longer description of
each book and a link to Keene’s blog below.) Taking a different approach and
suggesting that the wedding is not all about you (ouch!) Jacobina Martin and
Judith Martin explain how to keep the wedding simple and dignified in their
book, Miss Manners’ Guide to a Surprisingly Dignified Wedding. Maybe, for you, the wedding
celebration is all about the environment! Eco-friendly is definitely “in” right
now and Wenona Napolitano’s, The Everything Green Wedding Book is a great
guide to “going green.”
Not in the planning mood and tired of the
etiquette advice? If you aren’t so sick of it all that anything wedding related
will send you over the edge (or maybe if that is exactly where you are) you
might want to try Laura Wolf’s novel, Diary of a Mad Bride. Or, take a
break from the traditions driving you crazy and learn about the customs landing
someone else in the same state you are, somewhere far, far away. Marriage
Customs of the World: From Henna to Honeymoons by George Monger offers
information on the origin and evolution of wedding ceremonies as well as the
commonalities and differences of marriage celebrations worldwide.
A Practical Wedding: Creative Ideas
for Planning a Beautiful, Affordable, and Meaningful Celebration
By:
Meg Keene
Description
(From Amazon.com)
An Insanity-Free Wedding:
It Can Happen!
Getting engaged is
exhilarating…until it sets in that a wedding costs three times what you
thought, and takes five to ten times the effort it reasonably should. And then
there are the expectations: from calligraphy invitations to satin chair-covers,
all those things that Must Be Done or everyone will be
Horribly Offended. Or will they?
A Practical Wedding helps
you create the wedding you want—without going broke or crazy in the process.
After all, what really matters on your wedding day, what you’ll remember ‘til
you’re old and gray, is not so much how it looked as how it felt. In this
refreshing guide, expert Meg Keene shares her secrets to planning a beautiful
celebration that reflects your taste and your relationship. You’ll discover:
·
The real purpose of engagement (hint: it’s not just about the
planning)
·
How to pinpoint what matters most to you and your partner
·
DIY-ing your wedding: brilliant or crazy?
·
Affording a wedding without having to cut your guest list
·
How to communicate decisions with your family
·
Why that color-coded spreadsheet is actually worth it
Wedding Zen can be yours.
Meg walks you through everything from choosing a venue to writing vows,
complete with stories and advice from women who have been in the trenches, the
Team Practical brides. So here’s to the joyful wedding, the sensible wedding, the
unbelievably fun wedding! A Practical Wedding is your complete guide to
getting married with grace.
Miss Manners’ Guide to a
Surprisingly Dignified Wedding
By: Jacobina Martin, Judith
Martin
Description (From Amazon.com)
Bride and mother-of-the-bride rebel against today’s monster
weddings and explain how weddings can be charming, affordable—and
excruciatingly correct.
Today’s brides are bombarded with wedding
advice that promises perfection but urges achieving it through selfishness
(“It’s your wedding, and you can do whatever you like”), greed (choosing the
presents that guests are directed to buy), and showing off (“This is your
chance to show everyone what you’re about”). Couples wishing to resist such
pressure see elopement or a slapdash wedding as the only alternatives to a
gaudy blowout. But none of these choices appealed to a bride who happened to
have been brought up by Miss Manners. Judith Martin and her newlywed daughter,
Jacobina, explain how to have a dignified ceremony and delightful celebration
without succumbing to the now-prevalent pattern of the vulgar, money-draining
wedding that exhausts families and exploits friends. 6 illustrations
The Everything Green Wedding Book: Plan an elegant, affordable,
earth-friendly wedding
By: Wenona Napolitano
Description
(From Amazon.com)
Increasingly, brides and grooms
are spending their wedding dollars on environmentally friendly products and
services. From the dress to the dinner, there are more green options available
today than ever before. This book will teach the happy couple just how easy and
affordable it is to: choose a stunning environmentally friendly location; create
beautiful invitations printed on recycled paper; find the perfect eco-fashion;
enjoy a gourmet organic caterer; find the right romantic honeymoon retreat, and
more! This fun, informative guide provides all the steps to a beautiful wedding
- without leaving a footprint!
Diary of a Mad Bride
By: Laura Wolf
Description
(From Amazon.com)
Once I was a sane,
levelheaded professional woman. Then I said “yes.” Now I am the lunatic bride I
always made fun of!
What is it about getting married that turns normal people into total freaks?
A savvy, riotously funny novel, Diary of a Mad Bride is for anyone who
has ever been a bride, is about to become a bride, yearned to be a bride, or
suffered the sheer indignity of appearing in public in the world’s ugliest
bridesmaid dress....
My wedding was starting in less than twenty minutes, and I was stuck in a
7-Eleven parking lot with popcorn kernels wedged in my gums and vanilla ice
cream melting on my dress. It was a disaster too large to comprehend. After an
agonizing year spent planning my wedding, could it really end like this? The
voices chronicling a year of wedding hysteria swirled in my head....
— My grandmother upon viewing my engagement ring:
“What do you mean he gave you an emerald! Diamonds are eternal, emeralds say,
maybe five years.”
— My future father-in-law on the night of my engagement party:
“To a happy marriage and, if necessary, a painless divorce!”
— My best friend, Anita:
“Oh, screw congratulations. Of course I’m happy for you. Stephen’s a major piece
of ass and he’s got a sense of humor. Just as long as you’re certain this is
what you want.”
Would I survive this day after all....?
Marriage Customs of the World: From Henna to Honeymoons
By: George Monger
Description
(From Amazon.com)
Marriage
Customs of the World: From Henna to Honeymoons
cordially invites you to explore the rites, rituals, and iconography of
weddings from around the globe. In more than 200 alphabetically organized
entries, an accomplished folklorist describes the key components and beliefs
related to marriage across a representative selection of the world's cultures.
Tracing
the evolution of wedding ceremonies from their beginnings to their contemporary
forms, Marriage Customs of the World dispels many myths and uncovers a
number of intriguing connections and variations across different peoples.
Readers will learn that the church wedding was not practiced in Europe until
the 16th century, that the white bridal dress is a 20th-century development,
and that the canopy associated with Jewish weddings is also commonly used in
Sri Lanka, Egypt, and Finland. Engaging, authoritative, and insightful, Marriage
Customs of the World is the ideal reference for investigating both familiar
and exotic practices and for exploring what is both specific and universal
about the role of marriage in societies everywhere.
