Wedding Books

Even though I should have thrown a few extra bucks the the dvd to be included the book is like my little pet (is that sad?) the pictures are beautiful and some of the advice is pretty good. Even though it has all ended for the two of them they were lucky to have such a beautiful wedding.

I bought this book in 04 in the midst of wedding planning. Very simple and a beautiful book. Not too much text but enough to be helpful. She actually goes into details on several good topics one of which was how to prioritize. For example she wanted real flowers so she spent a lot on them but saved by getting cheaper food. I found this helpful. Eventhough I spend way less on my wedding I found things like this through out the book that were helpful even if you weren't having a million dollar wedding. Just good stuff to know to help plan a wonderful wedding no matter how much you spend.

I'm from Mexico and I it was very difficult for me to find this book in San Antonio. When I found it, I really liked it. Not only for the tips she wrote, but also for the pictures. I recommend it if you are a Jessica's Simpson fan.

Not to jump the gun, but I recently came across this book and I believe it has potential to become a camp classic along the lines of Joan Crawford's "My Way of Life," Diana Ross's "Secrets of a Sparrow," and "Jim and Tammy Bakker present the Ministries of Heritage Village Church" (maybe it's not too early to add Star Jones Reynolds's "Shine" to this list, either). In other words - misguided attempts by the rich and famous to show off their "fabulous" lives, while still purporting to be "just like anybody else." "I Do" seems designed to help you to NOT have a wedding like Jessica Simpson's - *don't* order $30,000 worth of pale pink roses that have to be shipped in from Tanzania (or wherever), *don't* concern yourself with designing your own gazillion-dollar Vera Wang wedding gown - as Wang informs us in the book, "there's often sales - I've seen $10,000 gowns go for as low as $700!" Indeed.

If you salivate at the alter of the celebrity, this book is for you. If you can appreciate a good joke, this book is for you, too.

I wonder if she's going to "write" a second book called "Jessica Simpson I Don't: Achieving Your Dream Divorce".

I am enjoying this book more than I had intended. I bought it for my son but it turns out I've been doing all of the reading! It's the book I wish I had found fifteen years ago when I was first introduced to this sort of thing. The tone is playful without being irreverent. Zell's approach is appealing because he takes it seriously, but knows how to have fun. That makes it a great barometer for how much he loves what he does. And he makes it a point very early on that this isn't the type of wizardry you read about in fiction, a distinction I am glad to see. I would prescribe this book (and it's companion) for, at the youngest, kids in their tweens and also anyone new or curious about wizardry.

I recently bought the Grimmoire along with the Companion of the apprentice wizard and i must say i was dissapointed,this reveiw is for both of them, its a very nicely written book with a lot of nice info but thats it. Most of the book covers subjects that are, in my opinion, irrelevant to the art of magick or are just cheap conjuring tricks for entertainment..couple of hours after I started reading them i thought i was reading a field guide book. Sure its very useful to know how to start a fire without a lighter, or to be able to find North East West and South just ny looking at the stars, but lets face it, i will never need it! It wont enhance my magickal abilities either so, it useless. After all if i did want to learn how to do a ll the above things i would buy the SAS field survival guide! Now dont get me wrong , I believe Oberon is a great wizard and a passionate for his trade man, but he could do better than this. These books are both for people who have never before encountered spells, rituals, and believe witchcraft is what Harry Potter films show.

This book is filled with everything a beginner would want to know about Wizardry and becoming a Wizard. It really covers the A-Z. Anyone starting out in Magick should not be without this book.

Stand-alone, this book is an exceelent reference, coupled with its companion, its exceeds my expectations, and when placed in a triumverant with its online school, The Grey School of Wizardry [...], then it rises to to the category of an epic piece of writing. Essential knowledge to have for both the experienced practioner and the newcomers is found at every turn of the page. Whether its an overview look at magical times and clanedars, a quick reference on languages, or a semi boy scout handbook on nature (and beyond!) its all here. I reccomned using this with the companion and the school for maximum effectiveness, but this alone will get many started in the right direction.

This book is not only thorough it is well written. The references are extensive and well thoughtout and it would serve as an excellent introductory book for any young Witch or Wizard. The age range I would recommend would be between fourteen and up, although I am sure that some individauls that are younger would definately find it useful, it can be a little complex and insightful.

I found myself up very very late reading this book. The ending was ok, but overall a must read.

Davinci Code had an interesting beginning. I liked how he drew the reader in with his introduction of the curator, langdon, the bishop and albino. Initially engrossing, but BEWARE, the last two thirds drag. He regurgitates a good deal of his plot twists as the novel wears on. I had his 'twists' and characters figured chapters ahead of time. I even guessed the last cryptic clue APPLE pages and pages before Langdon figured it out. These characters with their Ivy league PhD's should be able to outsmart me - but they didn't!

As far as the religious controversy. Any intelligent, practicing Christian takes it with a grain of salt. Obviously, those most vulnerable to this kind of tripe are people of little faith, minimal worship and study of Christianity. Brown is so repetitive in his love of pagan rituals, sun dieties, and feminine goddess garble that it turns the reader off completely. He seems to be writing for a less intelligent audience. Why else would an author insist on such redundancy unless he felt his audience wasn't smart enough to grasp his message the first time around? Yawn.

Overall, I'd give the first 150 pages four stars. Brown could have easily shaved off 100 of the last 200 pages and still made this a pretty good read. The last third (two stars at best) really dragged on and the ending was highly predictible (if your inferencing skills go beyond a third grade level).

Loathed by elitist literary critics, wannabe highbrows and religious conservatives, The Da Vinci Code is by any measure a work of genius. To dismiss it as pop drivel is to overlook the fact that countless writers are striving to produce catchy pulp fiction that will propel them to stardom and riches - and few succeed. The book is riveting, fascinating, thought-provoking, surprising and a masterful work of entertaining fiction. If you feel above such light fare, fine, go read Dostoyevsky or James Joyce , but spare us your condescension. As for the religious opposition to the work, any book - in our postmodern day and age in which we are exposed to so many different realities - capable of stirring up so much passionate opposition and so much sincere interest in weighty topics like religion and philosophy and history, is frankly some kind of masterpiece.

I read the Da Vinci Code because..., well, I was traveling and everyone seemed to be reading it. After I finished it, I felt as if I had had a lot of warm beer: bloated with empty calories, left with mildly unpleasant taste and a slight headache.

The fact that this book is a bestseller can make one question the value of universal literacy. It is really badly written. I didn't expect Updike or Vonnegut, but Dan Brown makes even Clive Cussler appear a decent wordsmith. To add insult to injury, the Da Vinci Code fails the genre and becomes predictable halfway through.

The story is inhabited by "comic strip" -grade characters bumping around, solving absurd puzzles placed there for reasons which make no particular sense. From time to time, a character stops what they are doing, leans against a wall, or stares into space and thinks "deep thoughts", through which the puzzles are solved and the premise of the book is laid out. These are sprinkled with what passes for historical and religious factoids, often researched poorly enough for the errors to be apparent to a layman like me.

Before I stand accused, I am not religious in the least. I don't find the book offensive (other than by being so badly written): in fact political correctness oozes from it, as does the author's apparent desire to be liked by everyone and sell to everyone (and this includes the good Catholics among book buyers:-)

If you want a well written and well researched "conspiracy theory through the ages" tale, get Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. For a nice travel crime story, pick up P.D. James.

As for the Da Vinci Code..., I have played computer games that have higher literary merit than this. Really.

Dan Brown hit a homerun here. This book has an awesome story line and really keeps you wanting more. The action is fast yet easy to keep up with. Brown has a great way of making you feel like you know what's going on in the story, but still surprises you in the end. Read the book first, saw the movie second, and the book was MUCH better.

This is going to short, but I found the play below standards set by the author. There is weak imagery combined by poor, ineffective dialogue, yet there are nice character settings. There is a nice story line combining fire and passion in Leonardo's case with love for the bride, yet it is let down by the poor use of language. It is good for reading before bed, but other than that, I'd say "NO", like the "Just Say NO" drug ads.

This will be a very brief review, but basically we have chosen this book to perform for or theatre studies cat. It is a really good play, and I recomend it to anyone who likes reading plays.

Lorca is often called the 20th century's greatest Spanish dramatist, and his skill with poetry in images of knives, sex, love, blood, horses and the moon illuminates this English translation. While my knowledge of Spanish is limited, the conflict of a Bride longing for but yet resisting another man who has already fathered a child by his Wife is poignantly portrayed in this version. The other man (Leonardo) rides a horse nearly to death, and rides like mad to see his about-to-be-married love beyond the peering eyes of others. His driven horse stands "down there stretched out, with his eyeballs bulging, heaving as if he'd just come back from the end of the world." The conflicts of love and the Bridegroom's Mother, who has lost her husband and her other son to violence, and the building passion, hate, love and the continual imagery of the wild horse--representing Leonardo himself?--build in poetic images and language that begins in the real and subtly transforms to surrealistic images of the moon who exposes the hidden shadows, then returns to the poetically real. In some aspects, the images of horse and rider hint at the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, but a knowledge of them is unnecessary to experience the passion of this play written by a friend of the then young Salvador Dali. The play is worth reading for its visual imagery alone, but it also encompasses a powerful story of passion, betrayal, hate, violence and love.

My fiancee and I were planning an interfaith ceremony, and rather than find a rabbi or priest willing to marry us, we decided to have our non-denominationally ordained Aunt officiate. However, because she wasn't familiar with jewish traditions, we had to write our own ceremony - no easy task! But, this book simplifies the process by including many examples of interfaith marriage, and then a choice of readings and passages for each section of the wedding. My one concern would be that it only addresses interfaith marriages between jews and christians, but does not address interfaith ceremonies between jews, christians, hindus, buddhists, muslims, etc. However, that aside, I HIGHLY recommend this book if you are writing your own ceremony.

I am a Catholic woman marrying a Jewish man. We were very fortunate that my priest was supportive of our marriage and provided me with the standard Catholic booklet outlining the typical components of a Catholic wedding. But we were being married outside of the traditional mass and wanted to include my fiancé's Jewish heritage as well. The rabbi we were working with suggested this book. It is a great tool to help in the planning process. Rabbi Lerner provides an explanation of various traditions, gives a few sample outlines and then includes an appendix with various wording for each part of the ceremony. I could not have planned the Jewish half of our ceremony without this book!

This was a very helpful book with information about laws and culture that help make the ceremony inclusive and comfortable for families of different faiths. I highly recommend this book; I bought it for our children who will be getting married in the spring.

This book was great at providing structure and helping us understand our options when we wrote our own wedding ceremony (a Jew marrying a Catholic, with sensitivity to the pagans and atheists/agnostics attending). We lent our copy to two couples we know who got married after us (a nonpracticing Jew marrying a nonpracticing Christian; and a Jew marrying a Catholic/Quaker). I know that each of them has passed on the favor to at least one other couple, who also used it in their ceremonies. Anyone writing their own ceremony would get some value out of it, whether interfaith or not, though of course it is most specifically targeted to the Jewish/Christian union. We also supplemented with books specific to each of the religions we wanted to include, but I found this this book to be the best "how-to" of them all.

I was asked to officiate for my brother (who grew up Jewish) and his fiance (who grew up Protestant), as neither of them are religious, but wanted to have a wedding that both families would feel comfortable with. After getting ordained online, I had a huge challenge ahead of me - how to do something beautiful, personal, and would make everyone happy. Well, this book did it for me! It's about 1/3 explanations on wedding ceremonies and things to be aware of that could be sensitive to either side, 1/3 sample ceremonies, and 1/3 a whole bunch of suggested pieces/readings/explanations under each ceremony component - 7 ideas you could use here, 4 ideas here... It made creating their ceremony a breeze, eliminating many of the expected arguments/discussions, and led to a beautiful ceremony. Thanks Rabbi Lerner!!!

Every single page of this book has beautiful pictures and information with it. It tells you about your wedding style with all the different themes, assortment of wedding stationeries, dresses, flowers, your ceremony style, your reception style, cakes, photography and your getaway. Definitely a good buy especially for couples planning their wedding and a good engagement gift.

This is the best book on the market regarding planning a wedding. I used M. Stewart's book last time, and this is even better. Great photos, explanations and lots of ideas that really work for lovely weddings. Cannot recommend it highly enough!

A beautiful, informative book. It's great for ideas or to help you get started styling your wedding. A valuable resource for brides, wedding planners, or someone who simply loves weddings.

Susie Coelho's book is wonderfully comprehensive, lush, and practical. This is not simply a wedding coffee table book. Rather, it is a visual guide to help a couple envision what they want their day to be about.
Two aspects make this book a standout.
The first is the booklet which is designed to help you assess your style via a series of simple, insightful questions.
The second is a CD of some classic music pieces which accompany a ceremony.
As a non-denominational minister I work frequently with couples who struggle to envision what they want their day to look and feel like. While the weddings offered in the book are of higher end budgets, the themes easily can be created no matter the budget.
On a personal note, several of the photographers who've contributed to the book are folks I've had the pleasure of working with (Delesie, Cote, Joe Photo). The book's beauty is only enhanced by their work.
This makes for a wonderful engagement gift for a couple.
Rev. J.P. Reynolds

My son is getting married and this book has become a wonderful resource for future daughter-in-law. The book is HUGE and loaded not only with ideas, but illustrations and examples. The photos are exquisite and the ideas in this book are not only classy, but easy to implement.

Every facet of a wedding is covered in the book from the dress, to photography to invitations and everything in between. It is an all-in-one resource! And best of all, you can tweak the ideas to fit any budget!

Style Your Dream Wedding is well organized and is has the following special features:
Quiz booklet
Color palette booklet
Dress silhouette accordion pullout
Six 8-page gatefolds
CD of 15 traditional wedding songs
Postcards
More than 600 world-class color photographs

If you are planning a wedding, you must get this resource!

Not everything was my style but great ideas

This book was one of the better books I've read for providing useful ideas that I could actually do myself. I only ended up using a couple of the ideas presented in this book but it was helpful for me in my wedding planning.

I think the book is beautiful. I have a small wedding business that I run out of my home and this book gave me some great ideas.

This book would be cool if you had to plan different types of parties. There were only about 2 ideas we picked for our wedding. A lot of the ideas are kind of cheesey. They look very homemade. But there are good ideas in this for kids parties. Just my opinion! Good luck to everyone getting married!!

This book is helpful for the couple that is creating many of the elements associated with their wedding -- favors, centerpieces, items for the reception (chair covers, seating cards, etc.)

Each 2-page spread features a photo of the item and a list of supplies and instructions to create it.

I'd suggest checking it out in the library or bookstore before buying...

Was a gift for my sister and future brother-in-law. Had it shipped to them, but it was never received. Sounds like a good book though.

I was hoping the focus would be on planning an outdoor wedding. I am a very detail oriented person and thought this would give me all the details I've established and then the ones I wouldn't even think of, being I've not planned an elegant outdoor event. Unfortunately my own details far surpassed what is written in this book. Most of the advice mentioned in this book is common sense. I would have appreciated a bit more info on seating, on sand, deck, grass, a mountaintop...decor, and what will work where, and what to use in place of candles (being outside can be windy), Outdoor foods, maybe some budget ideas thrown in...a disappointment, sorry

We learned so much from this book! From the insider questions to the solutions to common weather challenges, decor ideas and great secrets about which types of menu items to use and not use...this book saved us a LOT of trouble with our planning, and we now have details that we're confident about. Instead of worrying, we're looking forward to the wedding because we were so well-guided by this book! We especially loved the ideas for planning an outdoor wedding aisle, and those will definitely be a part of the wedding.

Whether you are contemplating a big bash of a celebration, an intimate dinner, or an elegant afternoon party, this book has plenty of inspiration and ideas. I bought it in anticipation of a wedding potentially planned for a barn. We moved the venue, but still borrowed many ideas from the book for refreshments, flowers, lighting and other party particulars.

This book is way short on substance (based on what it's supposed to help you with) and way long on anonymous hype. Don't buy it.