The Wedding Book: The Big Book for Your Big Day

I was looking for a wedding book that would help me with etiquette, planning, and staying sensible...but this book is almost guaranteed to blow your modest wedding plans out of the water. It's written from by a professional wedding planner, so it makes sense in retrospect that it would be really over the top, but when I bought it, I was expecting something a little more down-to-earth. If you are planning a huge wedding and cost is no issue, this book might be for you. It encourages you to design everything in your wedding to exactly what you want, and offers many suggestions that will complicate and expand your wedding plans. Horse drawn carriage? Go for it! $200 veil and custom altered dress? It's your day, go crazy! If you want that kind of cheerleader in your corner, this book is for you.

However, the scant few pages on keeping to a sane budget and the lack of really sensible advice made me return the book. A wedding is about the love and the partner, not about the outrageously expensive flowers, trumped up etiquette that was only invented in the last thirty years or so, or impression you'll make with expensive custom color schemes, etc. If you are a bride on a smaller budget, or a bride who cares more about her partner than whether the guests love the chair sashes or not, I recommend "Bridal Bargains" by Denise Fields or "A Practical Wedding" by Meg Keene. Both books will allow you to craft a wedding as big or as small, as simple or as fancy as you like while staying sane, saving money, and remembering what's really important about your wedding (and it's not the hideous bridesmaid gowns or lavish centerpieces you're only going to use once).

I wouldn't recommend this book for most brides, because very few have an unlimited budget or need someone telling them to do every little thing their heart desires, no matter how ridiculous, because it's YOUR WEDDING DAY, etc. etc. Keep yourself sane, and stay away from this advice! You'll have a much more meaningful, fun, relaxed, and beautiful wedding if you stick with "A Practical Wedding" and stop listening to what the industry says you should do.

It doesn't matter if you're planning a small wedding. She tells you how to cut down costs and all about contracts (which everyone will come across when planning their wedding). As the maid of honor, I now serve as the wedding coordinator (to save money) and this book is practically training me- teaching me to organize and prioritize lists to present to the bride.
This makes the stress of planning plummet because she warns you about problems you might encounter and how to get around them.
Some of these chapters include:
cakes, stationery, lingerie, tents, insurance, port-a-potties, party favors, the toasts, photography, tipping, invitations, top music selections, guest list, guest accommodations, etiquette, different religions, wedding traditions, menu planning, catering, florists, legal (license requirements), gift tracking and types of thank-you notes, dinnerware, china patterns, shower ideas, rehearsal dinners, Bride & Groom fashions including what looks flattering on different body types, what to do weeks before the wedding, ring styles and their meaning, etc! (This is not even half of what is in this book).

In the back of the book, it has a list of items where you can keep your budget notes, contacts pages for every element she goes over in the book (i.e. florist, make-up artist, transportation, music, hotels, etc) and lastly lots of pages for notes. So all the information that's important is all in one place and you don't have to keep scraps of paper in your purse.

IT'S WONDERFUL. If you have no clue what you're doing, this helps you find where to start and leads you through every aspect of planning up until your big day and then some. Itsead of dreading all the work, this will get you excited about the small details because she gives you choices and samples. I love this book and to be honest I think it's a pretty cheap price for what this book is worth. PURE GOLD. Good luck brides!!

Take a look at the reviews: 10 out of 10 reviewers give this book 5 stars. That's 100% satisfaction and a "perfect score."

I have nearly every wedding related book, guide and planner from Emily Post's Wedding Etiquette to Martha Stewart's Keepsake Wedding Planner, Real Simple Weddings, The Bridesmaid Guide, Emily Post's Planner and a few other, lesser quality products, a slew of online tools and of course every wedding-related magazine I can get my hands on - what can I say, I'm obsessed - but I really wish I would have waited for this book because IT HAS IT ALL AND MORE.

Just as much etiquette as Emily Post, just as much planning as Martha Stewart and most importantly detailed drawings and instructions on how to dress the men in every style, from tie to shoes, as well as the niftiest: a minute-by-minute countdown of the final days. Yes, a sample wedding schedule from rehearsal dinner to honeymoon. In fact not one but two sample schedules.

I know this sounds like an infomercial but it really is too good to be true, but it's true!

This book is a must for anyone involved in a wedding in any way.
It's beautiful, well written and most importantly, expertly organized.
You can start in the beginning (if you've just become engaged - congratulations) and you can read through as you need to. Or you can use the wonderfully detailed table of contents to navigate topically.

This book is a life-saver. I will be ordering more copies for those involved in my wedding and giving it as a gift for any friends that become engaged.
This books is PRICELESS.

BUY IT!

This book was HIGHLY recommended by several people when they heard I was getting married. So what do I do? I find it as soon as possible, get it in my cart, and purchase! I received it not too long after that and realized, this looks awfully familiar. About a year beforehand my soon-to-be sister-in-law had given me all of her planning advice and items she had used for her wedding. I started rumaging through the items she had given me and low and behold I found this book! I didn't pay an outrageous amount for the second one so I decided to keep it. Man did that turn out handy! My mother would keep a copy and I would keep a copy while we were planning and then just tell each other what page we were on if we wanted the other to look at something. Worked very well! So needless to say, this book is highly reccommended. Get it. Or go look on your bookshelf and make sure it isn't already there.

I bought tons of wedding books when I began planning and this one was by far my favorite. It explains different concepts with pictures such as different bouquet arrangements, trains, veils, etc. That way you know the terminology when considering what you want. It also gave me a lot of insight into etiquette and knowing what to do. This book really helped guide me and my mom when planning. Ours is loaded with sticky tabs that we placed for easy flip to. By far the best wedding book yet. It also gives you information about the history of wedding traditions and these were very interesting. Definitely an easy read to. I have passed it to friend after friend and they have loved it too!!! Definitely a must have!

Half the battle with wedding planning is just learning to trust your gut and stop worrying so much. Somehow, regardless of how much I knew and understood this I always felt like I was missing or forgetting something. The perpetual planner that I am, this book served as a great tool to not only focus my efforts, but more importantly, calm my nerves.

The text covers everything from picking a gown to laying a place-setting. From the 20 or so wedding based books that I accumulated, this has the most comprehensive planning calendar and to-do lists. I was able to amend them slightly given the smaller size of my wedding, but had a great starting block. At one point during our wedding planning I found my fiancé thumbing through the section on bands/music and dog-earring a few pages for later reference.

The tips outlined are realistic and actionable - which to me means much more than high dollar celebrity gossip wedding news or overly laborious crafty DIY projects. The examples given outline several price points in most cases and value can be created by taking on task of `wedding planner' yourself.

Through what can be a very trying (and exciting) process, this book was truly a blessing. I've recommended (and in many cases gifted) it to friends and family that are working towards their big day. Five stars all the way!

this book won't give you the specifics on how to personalize your wedding, but it's a comprehensive, start-to-finish, practical guide that has been invaluable for taking the complex, overwhelming (and slightly insane) process and helping you think about it in manageable chunks.

This is my new favorite engagement gift to give. All of the brides-to-be that I have given it to have LOVED it and say they can't put it down! What an amazing resource to help with every aspect of planning the perfect wedding. Mindy's flair and creativity make it fun to read, with all of her wonderful suggestions taken from her endless experience as a top wedding coordinator. I love that she emphasizes that each event should reflect the individual bride and groom so that they feel it's really THEIR Big Day!

Its large and intimating but worth it! Great for referencing questions. Small words but easy to read and understand also nicely organized.

Although I had been to weddings before I became engaged, I had never given much thought to all the details. When I became engaged to the man of my dreams I realized I would need to do a lot of reading. After scouring Amazon for which books were 'best' I chose this and a few others. Of the books I chose, this is the one I go back to again and again. It is a MUST-HAVE reference book. Time-lines, invitation wording, etiquette, things to ask each of your vendors, everything is in here. Did you know there were over 7 different styles of trains and 13 styles of veils? This book contains sketches of each of them. For each step along the way I have consulted this text like a guidebook. I don't know how I could plan our wedding without it. I highly recommend it for any bride-to-be!