Wedding Books

This is my go-to wedding organizer. It is comprehensive and full of worksheets and checklists so that you do not forget a thing when it comes to planning and orchestrating your wedding. The author is experienced in planning large-scale events so some of the tips may not apply to your wedding. However, since I had no idea where to even start planning when I got engaged, this book has been a lifesaver. I use this book with theknot.com planning checklist as well as a checklist from realsimple.com in order to make sure nothing is overlooked.

Your wedding vision is the starting point in Your Stress Free Wedding Planner - Expert's Best Secrets to Creating the Wedding of Your Dreams by Judy Allen. After couples complete an independent questionnaire, they will have a better understanding of their thoughts and dreams about creating a custom wedding. This planner gives careful attention to all wedding tasks, therefore, leaving no assignment unaccomplished. The only drawback for this planner would be difficulty removing the pages from its spiral binding as the planner recommends for copymaking.

I bought this book/organizer because I can be a little [...] retentive with details and I wasn't sure exactly where to start since I'm the first in my family to plan a wedding in the last 20 years. it has been extremely helpful in both information and organization. It does work! Plus, there are a ton of worksheets in it that think of things I would normally have forgotten about until it was too late. Very helpful!

This gift has given a great deal of well deserved advice to a very special bride-to-be!

This book covers every detail you can think of and those you can't think of. You can tell the author has experience and she offers great advice about contracts and financial matters. Something that I think tends to get overlooked in the whirlwind of wedding dreams. She also walks you through the entire planning process and combines all the sections at the end to form a flow plan for the day of the wedding.

This is the second Anniversary Memory Book I'm giving as a gift. Everybody that saw the first one just loved the whole idea of it. It's very nicely done and an item to be cherished.

My mother-in-law gave this book to us when we got married. I LOVE IT! The artwork is simply beautiful, each page different from the others -- with thoughtful quotes as well. But most of all, I just love the whole concept of having an anniversary book! I never even knew something like this existed. But, it has been so wonderful to add our memories to this book each year on our anniversary. I love looking through it -- reading the "Memorable Moments" from that year and seeing the picture we included. We'll be celebrating 10 years this month and I can't wait to open up our special book and review those 10 wonderful years in such a beatifully recorded way. I've given this book as a wedding gift to others because we've enjoyed it so much.

I received this as an engagement gift 3 years ago. I love this book. It's a simple way to keep a record of memories and anniversaries. It's like scrapbooking for people (like me) who don't have the time, patience or artistic ability to scrapbook. I love the paper quality, the photo holders and the straightforward way it allows you to reflect on the past year. Because of the simplicity, it isn't one of those things I put off until I have time and then feel guilty for not doing. With years one and two complete I look forward to a lifetime more.

This is an absolutely gorgeous book! I wish I had received one 34 years ago! I will now pass it on to three nephews and their brides who are marrying this summer as the simplicity of the entry pages makes this a simple but meaningful way to record the most important day of each year!
The quality of the heavy pages will help it last for a lifetime, just as marriages should!

I attended a bridal shower recently and this was a gift that was given to the bride. I thought it was such a cute idea that I decided to order one for my husband and me (ok..so it was more for me than my husband but he feigned excitement).

On the first page of this book is an Apache wedding prayer, which is followed by a space for you to include a wedding picture and details about your wedding. In the following pages, there is a space for you to include a picture (3x5 or 4x6) of the two of you for each year you are married. Opposite the space for the picture, is a place for you to write about where you are living and 'memorable' moments that may have occurred during each year of your marriage. Also included, is information about traditional and modern gifts for each anniversary. There is a space to document every anniversary for the first 15 years and then it jumps to your 20th, 25th, 30th, 40th and then your 50th anniversary.

The book is a little '80s' in terms of styling but I still love it. The pages are made of a fine quality, ivory card stock and every year has its own colorful, pretty design (all of which is in calligraphy).

This would make a great gift for a bridal or wedding shower or for a couple's first wedding anniversary.

Amazing, Elisa Strauss is very talented. This book will inspire you to higher levels of cake decorating!

The cake recipes are the best. Great tasting and easy to carve for sculpture cakes. Easy to follow recipes and instructions on how to do each cake. Out of all the cake decorating books that I own, this is the one I use the most. Must have for cake and cookie bakers. Will make you look like a professional each time.

i was given this book by a friend who believes it contains the "best ever" recipe for red velvet cake. i have made many and find them ironically either too oily or too dry. this one is quite good, i admit, albeit not the best ever. in any event, the cooking time was wrong! having done a considerable amount of baking myself, i knew i would not need to bake 3 9-inch cakes for 45 minutes. i set my timer for 30 minutes and bingo, that was perfect. had you not known that? bummer!

I was kind of dissapointed in this book. I thought it would have more exciting things to make in it than what it did. I also thought more cake would be featured instead of so many cupcakes and minicakes. I guess if you're just starting out, you may like it, but I thought it would be better.

I think there are some lovely things in this book. I think that most decorators could benefit from having it. I am an experienced decorator (30 years) and a cake decorating teacher. The instructions are nice.

One of the best light readings since Shell Seekers. A story of three generations of women that can be identified by women of many age levels. It gives the reader an in-depth look into each of the character's lives and personalities. Personal events make up their histories and this is told well by the author. A book the reader doesn't want to put down.

I was drawn to this book by its lovely cover; a pretty quilt draped over a cozy porch swing. When I read the back flap and saw it was a story about relationships I knew it was going to be my kind of book. What I didn't know was how stirring the novel would be, and how very deeply it would touch me. The plot is as intricate and well crafted and the characters as colorful as the wedding ring quilt around which the story centers. Ms. Richards has truly created a work of art, and one that I enjoyed from beginning to end. Wedding Ring is a must read for any woman who has ever questioned her life decisions. It is a tribute to any woman who has journeyed through sorrow and found within herself the courage to make it to the other side.

This was an excellent read. I loved the way Richards showed how important one quilt was to three different women. It was a very moving story of three generations that finally got to know one another. I am recommending to all my friends and fellow quilters.

The product arrived with considerable damage that was not included in the description from the advertiser

This was my first Emilie Richards book. I thought it was going to start out as just a book about the problems a young couple were having, but it quickly turned out to be so much more than that. I loved the twists and turns and flashbacks to the the previous generation. Richards has a wonderful way of weaving human emotions, families, and mystery all together. I could hardly put the book down.

I got this to give to my boyfriend and filling it out was so much fun. There are still many pages to go but, I let him read it. He said it was a very touching gift and he was so greatful that I thought enough of him to do something like this book.

This book is only any good if you and your partner are super lovey dovey and sugary sweet. I bought it for my husband for our 1st wedding anniversary and I struggled through the first 20 pages or so and then it got so ridiculous that I just gave up. I told my husband about it, read off a few of the questions, and he agreed that it was pretty darn stupid. It was supposed to be super sweet since for our very first anniversary I bought us the book All About Us and we loved it. I wanted to follow up with What I Love About You, and I do love my husband very much, but I don't know what kind of fruit he would be.

I absolutely love this book. I bought it to fill out for my fiance to give to him as a wedding present. You shouldn't be able to fill it all out at that time, so it can be an ongoing project that the two of you can do together. I highly recommend this!

There is nothing ground breaking about this book, and it asks many cliche questions. But hey, it's cute, sappy and romantic, and sometimes you need that in a relationship.

I used it as a reaffirmation of everything I love about my significant other, while he was far away. It helped him while we were apart, especially when we argued :-P . It is something that is great to pick up every so often after it has been done, just to reaffirm things to your SO and to yourself. Have fun! (note: it is very time consuming!)

I bought this for my wife and I didn't expect all of the writing and time it would take to fill in the pages. There are a bunch of questions, maybe things you have never thought of answering and it would look quite embarrasing to just leave them blank. You also have to remember alot of stuff about your past with her or him so be sure you are accurate because putting wrong info down in writing can put you in the doghouse for a very long time making you wish you had just gotten the roses and candy. There are places for pictures too, so you will need to dig those out of the cedar chest or attic wherever you keep them to paste into the book. I think women could complete these pages more easily, but if you are really emotional and/love your spouse more than life itself you can probably manage it. If you however aren't really super in love, on the fence, or just hanging in there for the kids, don't get this book thinking it is an easy gift because you will get sick of writing down all of the lies you will need to write to complete the pages and move on to the next and the next and the next. FYI, I do love my wife and I struggled with some of these questions, but she loved the book anyway.

Carson McCullers twists and wrings every prickled feeling out of her young protagonist into a disturbingly entertaining one-day read. The Member of the Wedding is a slow, detailed painting of only two days in the life of twelve year old Frankie Addams: the miserable, sour August day in Georgia when she hears that her brother is getting married, and the eventful hours she spends roaming her town on the day before the wedding.

McCullers does a compelling job of coaxing the reader into the frustrated, tortured world of Frankie's mind. We mourn with her on the subject of her unfortunate height and hideous crew haircut, which cast her from the petty adolescent society. We alternately resent and pity her pathetic six-year-old cousin John Henry West, and strain with her to win even a fleeting moment of respect from her distant watchmaking father. It is her relationship with Berenice, the family's cook and babysitter, that is the most vivid and human. If not for Berenice's sensible and tart remarks, I would have lost patience with Frankie and the book quickly.

The few complaints I have could not be remedied without taking the unique edge off of the book's message. At times it is difficult to follow Frankie in her delusional dreams of becoming part of her brother's new family. In reality, the book has very little to do with the wedding; it is glossed over in a page or two, the concentration being more on the great expectations and the subsequent downfall. I do wish that there had been more background with the relationship between Frankie and Jarvis (her brother), which would have made her fantasies of running off with him more understandable. As it was, they were very nearly strangers and I was frustrated with Frankie for being so stupid that she thought there was even a possibility of being a part of their post-wedding lives. The title is a bit misleading as well; member of the wedding connotes actually being in the wedding party, and Frankie was merely an observer. There are also incongruities in relation to Frankie's age throughout the book, which may actually serve more to highlight both the child and the teenager in her. For instance, the tantrum she throws when she is not included on the honeymoon seems ridiculously childish, yet she remains composed as she drinks beer in a seedy bar with a drunken soldier. It's too bad the book deals in such delicious subtlety and psychological darkness, or it would be wonderful for readers who are closer to adolescence themselves. As it is, the book is more suited to readers older than sixteen, at least.

All in all, this piece conveyed beautifully many of the painful themes of humanity and the life of a young, freakish girl desperately trying to find her place in the world. A tasty read that you won't be able to put down if you enjoy gnawing on rich, real human themes.

As I age and read more--wondering always why, in this contemporary America, did it take me so long to enjoy reading; worrying always why, in this even-newer America, is this next generation reading, and enjoying it, lesser still--I understand better a just past world. I understand it better because of the reality reading reveals--the truths of both non-fiction and fiction.
J.D. Salinger's daughter once remarked her father couldn't keep straight the people in the world from the people in books with the people only in his head. Lucky man. . .(Lucky me. . .I do know Holden Caulfield; I know Holden Caulfield better than I know. . .
. . .and now, I also know Frankie (F. Jasmine) Addams and her closest adult companion, Berenice Sadie Brown. Thanks, Carson McCullers, for peopling up my world.

It seems that nobody can write about desolation like Carson McCullers. The sense of not being part of something is common to her stories. "The Member of the Wedding" is her third novel, published in 1946, six years after her début with "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter". Shorter in scoop than that other book, nevertheless as deep, this little novel is an unforgettable tale of a misplace childhood.

Frankie is in her early teens. Her older brother, who lives abroad, is getting married, and this is the biggest excitement of her life. The girl sees in the event the chance of abandoning her boring life, populated mostly by the servant, Berenice, and her cousin John Henry. Her father is virtually an absent figure, and this is the family link missing in her life.

The girl seems to have spent all the time trying to connect with something or someone. "This was the summer when for a long time (Frankie) had not been a member" is stated at some point. The way of overcoming this problem is growing up, becoming an adult, therefore, a member. On the other hand, she expects to become very close friends with her brother and sister-in-law when the three of them would travel all around the world all the time. Frankie seems to fail to recognize that a couple doesn't want a third member.

Since she is not happy with herself, the girl chances her own name to F. Jasmie and later to Frances. However much the surface is different, her interior is in the same state of discontentment. Throughout her journey, the girl will come across half a dozen characters who will affect her somehow. A soldier tries to seduce her. It is a victory to the protagonist, since only women - and not teenagers - get involved in such an affair. In "The Member of the Wedding", McCullers deals frankly the sexual awakening of her character, and the loss of Frankie's innocence.

Colors are extremely important in McCullers' prose. The very first line states that it was a green Summer. We are frequently remembered that Frankie has gray eyes, and Berenice, one blue and another one brown. Other senses are also touched when the girl, the maid and the cousin listen to a tuner working on a piano.

Early in "The Member of the Wedding" Frankie says that `it looks to me like everything has just walked off and left me'. This sense of not being part of anything accompanies the character the whole time. In the end, this is a feeling that we all have in our lives. And writing about this specific girl in the 1940s, McCullers is talking about the world and time in history.

This is a book about Frankie Adams, a twelve year old girl coming of age in the South during World War II. We see her world through her eyes, so that the reader gets a skewed version of the world around Frankie. Clearly all is not right with her, as her brother is getting married and Frankie thinks that she will be going off with her brother and his bride. Frankie spins a total fantasy around this concept. She does not think that two is company and three is a crowd.

Why does she do this? There are many reasons. Some of them are rather dark. Frankie's mother died giving birth to her. Her father has remained a widower, letting Frankie sleep in the same bed with him until she was about twelve, when he finally gave her the boot. Her best friend is her six year old first cousin, John Henry. He likes to sleep over, and when he does, he sleeps in the bed with Frankie. She caresses him when he sleeps, and even takes to licking him behind his ear while he slumbers. She also has apparently had a sexual encounter of some kind with a neighborhood boy, an incident about which she will not speak. The author weaves these details into the story, glossing over them, leaving the reader feeling shocked. This feeling is exacerbated by the almost casual interjection of these details.

There is so much emotional trauma in Frankie's life that it is amazing she can function at all. Also distressing to Frankie is the fact that she is isolated from children her own age. The neighborhood girls, who are just a little older than her and whom Frankie envies, shun her. Her father pretty much ignores her, leaving her upbringing to the housekeeper, Bernice. When it comes time to buy her a dress for her brother's wedding, she is sent off to buy the dress by herself. It is little wonder that the dress she ends up purchasing is totally unsuitable. Her feeling of isolation is palpable to the reader.

Although Frankie is somewhat of a tomboy, she likes getting dressed up, slathering on lipstick, and taking a walk through the town, calling herself F. Jasmine, looking older than her years. In this guise, she meets a soldier, who takes her for being much older. It comes as no surprise when it all goes horribly wrong. Yet, Frankie is evidently a survivor and manages to fend for herself.

The moment of truth for Frankie arrives when her brother's wedding finally takes place, but by then that event is almost anti-climactic, as events continue to buffet Frankie, leaving her more isolated that ever before. Still, she continues on, not seeming to have learned anything all from her experiences, an emotionally troubled child suffering a severe disconnection from the world.

This is a thematically complex story told through the jagged fragments of the life of a young girl, one who views the world in a disjointed, unrealistic way, her world view clouded by inner demons that are never given a voice. It is a story that is dark and melancholic, leaving the reader to ponder upon a life so young, yet so despairing.

This is my very favorite book and, in my opinion, far superior to "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter."

I was not an adolescent when I read it--I was 23--but I was astonished by how often McCullers was able to perfectly describe what I had believed to be indescribable experiences. In some ways I think that my attachment to the book grew from my ability to relate to Frankie's anxiety. The pace of the book, which all takes place during one stereotypically oppressive southern summer, becomes more frantic as Frankie's anxiety mounts. Her efforts to belong, to be a member of something, push her to force attachments with others even while she knows they are superficial. I'm certain that, on this point alone, readers who remember the desperation to belong during their adolescence will relate to the novel. McCullers also conveys Frankie's longing for something to happen, to take her beyond the repetetive tedium of her young life and infuse it with adventure. When Frankie takes this task into her own hands, the results are harsh and startling.

What truly makes McCullers and this slim novel so amazing is her prose, which is both so sparse and crisp and yet so eloquent and expressive. Every word seems so deliberate that I couldn't believe there could be a more perfect way to depict the scene. At the novel's start, I will always remember the sentence, "At last the summer was like a green sick dream, or like a silent crazy jungle under glass."

I wish I could convey how much this book gripped me. It made me feel that my experiences were shared in a much deeper way than I ever could have imagined or hoped. "The Member of the Wedding" is funny, distressing, and deeply sad: as perfect a novel as I've ever read.

This book was a great help in keeping everything organized for our wedding. They had some great advice and very interesting information. I suggest it to all brides!

This binder has been very helpful for keeping things neat during this crazy planning time. Every time I meet with a vendor they always comment on how organized I must be. The pictures and checklists in the binder are helpful, but most things you can easily find online. The included hole-puncher is super helpful for immediately hole-punching contracts!

i love the content. useful and well organized. i wish the pockets had a way to keep the documents from falling out. the book was slightly damaged (torn on spine) from amazon. given the price savings from storefronts, the damage is no big deal.

I found this book online and really liked it, and I actually checked it out in a bookstore before buying it on amazon (which saved me $10!) It's high quality with a sturdy cover and thick divider pages with pockets on either side to hold things. I really like that it has a bunch of pictures, but they're all in one section in the front, so they're not in the way. The hole punch (which works even though it's not super-fancy) and three ring binder have allowed me to add and remove things as I want. I've taken it with me to meet with vendors, and they've all said that the questions in it are great questions to ask. I think the cover is cute, too! I would definitely recommend this to someone who wants helpful tips and information in a pre-organized binder that they can customize.

From my Fiance: I am very happy with this wedding planner. I think that it is very comprehensive and has some great ideas. The budget spreadsheets are very helpful... I also like that you can insert your own pages or folders to keep all your wedding related documents in one place... I highly recommend this book!

I really love Martha Stewart Living and her wedding edition is incredible! This collector's edition was a little more than I wanted to spend on a magazine but it's totally worth it!

I PURCHASED THIS BOOK FRM AMAZON LAST WEEK.I GAVE 4 STAR AS THERE ARE ONLY VERY FEW COLORFUL PAGES IN THE BOOK.THE RECIPE ARE EASY BUT IT WOULD BE MORE APPEALING WITH MORE PHOTOS OF THE DELICIOUS N YUMMY CUPCAKES AS DESCRIBED IN THE BOOK.I WOULD RATHER SPEND MY MONEY ON ANOTHER BOOK CALLED "HELLO CUPCAKES".MORE GORGEOUS N INVITING N DELICIOUSLY DONE CUPCAKES.EVEN MY 5YRS WANTS TO MAKE ALL OF IT.

My first cupcake recipe book and I LOVE it. The recipes are easy to follow and my chocolate cupcakes turned out to be exceedingly delicious.
The only thing missing for me personally are pictures. I love to see a picture of EACH cupcake described in the book - I think here are only 10 in total.
Still - a MUST have for any cupcake addict

I got this book a week ago and have already made 4 recipes. The first one was the banana cupcakes, which were deliciously moist and the texture of the cupcakes just made them melt in my mouth. I also tried the Kahlua cupcakes and shared with a friend who now wants me to make them everyweek. Again the result was very moist and melt in your mouth cupcakes. The other two were kids cupcakes, and of course my daughter and her friends gave them an A+. I recommend this book, the instructions are easy to follow as 1,2,3 and the results are great.

I love this book, each recipe has frosting suggestions underneath & a sidebar that contains tips and variations. I've baked over half the recipes in the book, whether it's pumpkin, banana, very vanilla chocolate chip, mango coconut, pineapple or chocolate all the cupcakes are quick, easy and delicious.

I love this recipe book, I use it all the time. The Best Chocolate Cupcakes and the French Toast Cupcakes are amazing.

I was hoping that this book would help me get creative and plan my idea wedding. Some of the photos were nice to choose color schemes, but I really found more luck with that on the internet. The book is geared toward helping you choose the type of wedding that you want. I had already chosen my venue, so most of the book was not applicable. I found the text to provide really common sense descriptions and I don't think that I would have found it to be helpful at any stage of wedding planning.

The title says it all, lots of pictures, ideas and suggestions to host your own simple and stunning wedding. Gives good comparisons of different types of weddings, ie hotel vs tent vs home. I highly recommend it!

This book is good for the gorgeous photos. It tells you how to make your wedding look great in different kinds of venues (ie. hotel, tent, barn, etc.). This book should not be used as a wedding planning tool--it's not that.

In all seriousness this book isn't really that ingenious. Everything that's in this book revolves around the advantages and disadvantages of your "reception location". Although it does provide some good advice, it's quite lackluster. I went off the reviews of this book and I'm not impressed.

I must mention that I'm an artistic & strong minded person who knows what she likes. For those of us who have a clear idea of their reception, skip the book, it's not worth the money.

If you have no idea how or what you want your reception to be like, this book will most likely come in helpful. It has the run down on the "typical" types of wedding reception locations. I stress the word typical. It does not include reception/banquet halls whatsoever.

Even if you fall into the catagory above, I strongly recommend you save your hard earned cash for something actually useful.

I get the most inspiration from visuals and this book is chock full of em. The tips and ideas she gives are relevant for any size wedding. Let's hope some of those tacky brides pick this one up!