Wedding Books

It's difficult to recommend one book of wedding vows over the dozens of others, as, for the most part, they contain primarily, the same material. It's sort of an "If you've read one, you've read them all" scenario. However, Diane Warner has certainly established herself as one of the most prolific writers in the wedding genre, and I believe also, one of the best.

So what makes this book better than the others? More and more weddings today are moving away from "traditional" vows. Warner has assembled here, a broad mixture of vows from various categories. Though the first chapter does indeed provide examples of traditional vows ranging from Jewish, Hindu and numerous Christian faiths, the other ten chapters are devoted to non-traditional vows, e.g. second marriages, including children, older couples, ring vows, theme weddings and so on.

At just barely over 200 pages, the book is hardly all-inclusive, and the reader may not find precisely what they are looking for, but this book gives countless good starting points. You may be able to slightly alter something you find here to make a perfect fit for your wedding, or you may find further useful resources in the bibliography.

There are dozens of books available, anyone of which may contain exactely what you're looking for, but if you want a single volume to point you in the right direction, this one is better than most.

Monty Rainey
Wedding Ministry by Design

This book is a wonderful help for couples choosing the correct wedding vow and ring vow. We enjoyed reading it and learned fascinating traditions about weddings. A good read.

This is one of the books that has been on my shelf for years, and that I use regularly when writing a ceremony for one of my couples. It's a good resource and sparks ideas. Along with Diane's Contemporary Guide to Wedding Ceremonies, Judith Johnson's Wedding Ceremony Planner and a couple of others, my wedding ceremony-writing library is complete.

This "Wish Upon a Star" Baby Journal is a great product and would be a great gift for a mommy-to-be. It includes all the important milestones like: first tooth(including a tooth chart), rolling over, sitting up, walking, first words and so much more. It even includes a growth chart and 'corner stickers' for you to use to put your own pictures in the designanted areas. It also has pages for information about family, the day the baby was born, the homecoming, thoughts from mommy and daddy, and goes all the was up to 3 years of age. I loved this baby journal and how I was able to keep track of everything for my son. I know that it will be a great thing to look at down the road when he is all grown up.

This a great baby book for the first three years of life. The only thing I would change is that there was more space to write about the pregnancy.

This is a really cute baby book. The illlustrations on each page are precious. The book covers everything you could possibly want to record for your child's future reading. I can't think of any thing that was left out. I highly recommend this book.

We meet Rachel Sinclair and her brothers Henry and Jay. She is a feisty, innocent but determined eighteen year old who means to take care of her brothers, no matter what.

Enter Cord McPherson, owner with his brother Jake, of a ranch just outside of Green Rapids, where Rachel and her brothers has taken over one of the McPherson's line cabins [actually a shack].
Their introduction to each other is tantalizing and Cord falls in lust with Rachel.[grin]
He decides to solve one of his many problems by hiring Rachel to do the cooking and laundry and he lasts all of three days before approaching her with his proposition. Never telling her about his brother Jake, a wounded war hero with a nasty temper.

Ah, but the story progresses with the meeting of Rachel with Conrad Carson, owner of the mercantile store, an eligible bachelor who becomes quite smitten with Rachel.

You really must read to find out how Rachel handles the hellish temper of Jake -- Cord's bungling proposal and the wonderful every day life she made for herself and her brothers on the McPherson ranch. And how she and Cord brought Jake's love back to him.
Definitly HIGHLY RECOMMENDED and a P.S. - We meet a Mr. Beau Jackson, whose story is in MAGGIE'S BEAU -- should be another excellent one.

Green Rapids, Kansas 1867

THE WEDDING PROMISE is a tender romance of a young lady with the burden of the world upon her shoulders. The love her life is a man burdened by some emotional and physical scars. Together, they make the best life possible and find happiness for the others who love them.

This is a tender tale that's quick and easy to read and will touch your heart!

I think this was the best storyline I have ever read. I fell in love with all her characters and they were so believable. I'm a huge fan of historical fiction, so to enjoy this book is not out of line! Even though it is a romance book, it could also be listed as suspense. This is a real page-turner!!

Rachel Sinclair was an 18-year-old girl trying to care for her two younger brothers after their parents died along the trail west and the trio was left in Green Rapids. At first squatting in an abandoned shack, Rachel is desperately trying to provide food and shelter, but she knows it will be only a matter of time before they run out of money. Then Cord McPherson, the owner of the land she is living on, shows up one day and offers her a job as the cook and laundress for the ranch he runs. Rachel thinks he's an answer to her prayers.

Cord McPherson is attracted to the feisty girl who is so determined to provide for her little family. She's beautiful, she has a mind of her own, she's loving, and she can cook and clean well, to boot. So when the preacher's wife demands that Cord marry Rachel to protect her from the gossip circulating around town, it's definitely no hardship for Cord to walk down the aisle! Cord has no idea what love truly is, but perhaps in time he will find out what it means with Rachel :)

I really loved this book. Rachel was my kind of heroine - independent, smart, and strong. She wasn't clingy or the type who couldn't live without a man in her life. Cord was a pretty good hero, although he was a little too cocky and possessive of Rachel for my tastes. The two main characters interacted well with one another most of the time, and they didn't fall in love as soon as they met one another - also something I liked. The author gave them time to develop their relationship and love for one another.

The cast of secondary characters was excellent. There was another romance in the book - that of Jake (who was a skilled pianist before he joined the Union army and lost his legs in the war) and Lorena (who had been Jake's fiancee before the war, but now Jake avoided her). Jake could be a beast, but Lorena stood right up to him, so she wasn't spineless either. Also, fellow rancher Beau Jackson was briefly introduced in this book, and he has his own book (Maggie's Beau by the same author).

Altogether, a wonderfully tender romantic read that I would definitely recommend.

I must admit that I wanted to step into the pages of this book and become Rachel Sinclair McPherson! This book is a page-turner from the very first scene because the characters are so likable. The story is set in Green Rapids, Kansas a few years after the War Between the States. Rachel and her two younger brothers were traveling west on a wagon train with their parents until their parents died along the trail. The wagonmaster refused to let them continue their trip and dropped them off in Green Rapids. Rachel soon finds her brothers and herself a home in one of Cord McPherson's shacks. It doesn't take long before Cord finds them living on his property. He is immediately attractd to Rachel. He soon asks Rachel to take over as the cook at his horse ranch while his regular cook/housekeeper is away. Running out of food and money, Rachel decides to take the job. Rachel works from dawn till dusk and soon becomes the center of Cord's world. Cord is over the moon when the preacher's wife comes calling to check out exactly what's going on between the two of them and it is hurriedly decided that he and Rachel should marry. I'll leave Cord and Rachel there except to say that they have great chemistry;-) A tender sub-plot is created with Cord's brother Jake who lost part of both legs during the war. Rachel helps bring him back with his long-time love, Lorena Claypool and also makes it possible for Jake to use his love of music to become a productive individual.
And a joyous ending for all! (Just the kind I like;-)

While this was a good book, I would definitely *not* categorize it as a romantic comedy. So if you are looking for something light and funny, there are plenty of (other) authors to try. I would categorize this book, rather, as an issue-based contemporary romance - sort of women's fiction, if you will.

I liked this book. I like Ms. Carr's writing style, it's light, easy to read, and she has the gift of making her characters seem real. But while the writing is light, the issues she explores are not. So this is a hard-to-categorize book - light reading because of the easy-to-read style, but heavy reading because of the many characters and heavy issues that they are dealing with.

I found that while I didn't particularly like the heroine, Charlene, I found myself liking her a lot more at the end, when she finally gets all the pieces of her life together and realizes where she went wrong in the way she was living her life, and looking back, says to herself - I know I made a lot of mistakes, but they were inevitable at the time - and I think that that's very, very realistic. Yes, that's real life - most of us haven't figured everything out at twenty (like some Regency heroines seem to do), but rather, we figure things out slowly, bumblingly, just like the heroine did.

I happened to have really liked Grant, her daughter Stephanie's boyfriend. I know that we don't get to know him too well, because we don't get to see him too much - but isn't that just the point, isn't that what Stephanie is upset about as well. But I do like the way he's sure of himself, knows where he's going and what he's planning on doing with his life, unlike Stephanie? And Grant is a hero through and through, even to the end - when he said good-bye, it was a classy good-bye (I'll pay your rent until you figure out what you want to do), I thought he was very mature, and I liked him. (By the way, don't you think it's funny the way they keep on insisting what a *wonderful* job they did raising their daughter when it's so obvious she's a little screwed up?)

I also really liked Jake - I sometimes felt like shaking Charlene at how she was treating him, isn't it great to have someone so in love with you that he stays around even after the divorce - and she treats him like dirt, and he still loves her...

I wouldn't give this book five stars, it wasn't great riveting reading, but on the other hand I did enjoy it, and I really liked the ending, I think it wrapped things up very well. I would even say that the ending bumped up this book from being a three-star pleasant read, to a four star, better than average read.

If you enjoy ensemble comedy with a wide cast of characters, you will find a lot to appreciate in this riotous book. Charlene, the 45-year-old heroine, finds a host of obstacles in the way when she attempts a long-avoided walk down the aisle with her boyfriend of five years, including: her mom going off the deep end, her daughter angsting about growing old and ending up alone like her mom, her fiancé hanging out far too much with the wedding planner, and the her sexy ex husband stepping forward with the craziest behavior of all, a demand for another chance.

Robyn Carr keeps a lot of balls in the air with this story, but all the colorful characters and their competing needs add excellently to the frenetic pace which is a main source of the book's humor. The various story lines leap and skitter, ultimately feeding into each other for a strong climax. In addition, the romance with Charlene's ex husband is sexy and adds a lot to the humor as well. I also really appreciated encountering a well-lived-in older heroine for a change.

Unlike a couple of these negative reviewers, I actually read the book. From cover to cover. In two days. And Charlene's daughter is named Stephanie. And her boyfriend is a physician's assistant, not a doctor. But maybe I'm just used to reading nice, long books and keeping a variety of characters straight--Carr's special gift. Obviously not a gift shared by some of these reviewers...

This might be my favorite Robyn Carr book yet; it's certainly a bit lighter than some of the others (no domestic violence, for one thing). Charlene decides to get married, but to the wrong man. Charlene's mother is losing her mind, and her daughter is a spoiled brat. The men in this book are virtually all heroes; they just need to be matched up with the right women. Which, of course, takes 377 entertaining pages to work out. The only problem with Carr's books is that I keep finishing them!

My title is basically my review. I didn't like Charlene. There are strong women and then there are self absorbed whiny people, Charlene fits the latter. Why the author describes Dennis as being loyal and wonderful is beyond me. He didn't have the gumption to break off his "engagement" before he starts an affair with the wedding coordinator. Charlene needs some snappy dialog and some female friends to get her on the right track but then that would be a Jennifer Crusie novel.....the premise for this book showed promise it just wasn't well executed.

I was so excited to read this book that I started reading it as soon as I got it and then began to frown a little, then more, then realized I was frowning so much because the heroine was not only irritating, but she was flaky and cold. I got about 100 pages in and was wondering when it was going to pick up finally and the again realized that the book was 377 pages. It should've been very involved at this point, but all I got was bored and confused.
Confused because the jumbled plot was filled with too many people all talking at once and information into their lives when they had nothing to do with the story, or, the 'wedding party'. What party? There was no funny and quirky wedding party with crazy characters that will make me laugh until I ache or touching moments where I sigh and shake my head. Too much insight into the main character Charlene's friend's life, Pam and Charlene's 25 year old daughter Samantha. Also more looks into the lives of a single mother's life whom Charlene is representing in court, a couple that is divorcing, her ex-husband, her elderly mother,her present boyfriend and future husband Dennis-with whom we're supposed to see in the wedding party as the groom, ha!, Dennis's dead wife, his sister...I can go on. My point is, is it too confusing. Too many plot developments that lead nowhere.
In short, this story was supposed to be about, and I stress the word 'supposed' because it came nowhere near it; a 45 year old woman who is sucessful at being a family lawyer and is happy with every part of her life, even with the long-term relationship she has with her boyfriend who is a doctor. The problem comes in when her daughter says she doesn't want to end up like her, single and alone and then her mother seems to be losing her mind when she gets lost in a grocery store parking lot and to top things off her ex still loves her and says she can't commit. To fix the problem she decides she wants to marry Dennis,(the doctor boyfriend).

This is where we're supposed to have the wedding party, but we don't. The entire book is a mix of her life's setbacks and letdowns and how she hated her father and how he caused her to shrug off relationships. How her fiance is her 'rock' and her staunchest supporter, but he starts an affair with the wedding cordinater. She doesn't seem to care either way. Her spoiled daughter gets way too much time in the book and we were introduced to her boyfriend Grant too late.
All in all, we are faced with a flaky 45 year old heroine who is having some sort of mid-life crisis and it definately isn't funny, lol, a spoiled 25 year old daughter who is just as flaky, a quirky ex husband whom we never really understand, a cheating doctor fiance and an elderly mother who keeps upsetting Charlene. I am still waiting for the 'hysterical wedding fiasco' that I was promised on the jacket back... save your money on this one....

Tracy Talley~@

There is some good solid history and folklore about rings and weddings in this book.

The problem is, the facts are jumbled up with lots of drively feel-good writing about the romance of weddings. At times it seems like this book was written mainly to get people to spend more money on their wedding ring in the name of history.

I would give this book 5 stars for giddy brides-to-be and sentimental mothers, 3 stars for anyone else. There is enough history here for it to be useful, but it's a lot of trouble to get to it.

I found this book to be beautifully written and extremely informative. The images from around the world are gorgeous! A perfect book for a bride to be!!!

I bought this book on impulse, as it came up when I was finalizing another purchase; and of all the books that arrived together this has been the one I have read, and thumbed through most often.
It offers a clear, concise Wedding-Ring History and Traditions, with clear, color pictures. The reading is easy and entertaining (it will be even more if you are planning your own wedding). If you buy it together with "With this Ring", you will get a great sense of the traditions (and fun) around wedding rings and their selection.

This jewel of a book tells you all you could hope to know about the history and folklore of wedding rings, and does so in a delightful highly readable fashion. The book is strewn with literary quotes and has an ample supply of beautiful photos and illustrations.

This book was certainly not what I expected. I'm always on the lookout for new ideas and creative invitation samples. This book fell short of my expectations because it had very few actual pieces featured. If you are looking for a beginner's calligraphy manual, and have lots of time to spend on your wedding placecards, this book would be a great resource for you. Unfortunately, I didn't find the inspiration I was looking for.

I recently purchased this item thinking I could get some great ideas for wedding stationery. I found that this book is strictly a calligraphy instruction manual. The title does not really reflect the contents of the book. If you are looking to learn calligraphy I will assume this book may be of great use to you. But if you are looking for some creative ideas for stationery this is not the book for you. There is no "and more" just calligraphy styles.

With this book -- and a lot of practice -- I was able to do the calligraphy for my daughter's wedding.
The book includes a number of romantic alphabets in styles from Celtic to modern, forms for invitations, many examples of custom woprk, and step-by-step instructions for projects ranging from favors to menu cards to guest books. There are also suggestions for working with a professional calligrapher.
This is a practical book for anyone planning a wedding.

I think this book has great ideas and styles for everyone. Some of the ideas are very simple that anyone could do (I am not an artsy/creative person at all), while other ideas are for the more crafty person.

This book was so helpful to me, I saved a lot of money and my invitations are much more personable and more my style than anything I could have bought at a store.

I have found that I am obviously not very crafty. The book tries to lay out the details on how to make the invitations for those of us that are crafty challenged. I decided that there was to much work involved with making your own invitations. There are very nice designs in the book for those people that are willing to put the time and effort into making the invitations.

This book has a lot of creative ideas for sending out your standard wedding invitation. None of them are extremely hard (though I would skip the one that has your photo plastered onto some sort of zippered card).

This is a nice book. However, it would have been even better if there were more invitation styles included in the book.

I was looking for more formal invitation options. The term "artful" is correct in the title, for they were crafty. I did not find them to be "stylish" according to my taste.

Author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing the Fiddle (Complete Idiot's Guide to)

I was impressed with this book - you might think it's full of stuffy, old-fashioned notions, but it's not. It's basically about one thing: Miss Manners feels that the "this is my day, so I can do WHATEVER I want and should get whatever I want" idea held by many modern brides is way out of line.
This book reminds you that weddings should be about marriage, family and friends. Everything else is really unimportant window dressing, and no, everyone that comes to your wedding is not obligated to bring a gift. Fun reading before a wedding, and perhaps mandatory should spending or expectations begin to get out of control!

She's got some pretty interesting--sometimes unbelievable--letters from readers to share, too.

I really enjoyed her points of view and all of her thoughts on having a wedding. I think it reminds a guest of what an honour it is to be invited to a wedding. It is a quick read and I would recommend this book to anyone.

My mother-in-law gave me this book prior to our wedding 27 years ago, and because of the timeless information it provides we found it very helpful in doing our part in planning for the 2007 wedding of one of our daughter's best friends! My daughter, husband, and I were responsible for writing, printing, & addressing the invitations & reply cards, and this was invaluable for sample invitations, correct forms of address, and lists of the appropriate way(s) to do things. (Remember, if in doubt err on the side of properness & tradition to keep those wagging tongues silent - for some reason everyone thinks your wedding is about THEM.) My husband was the official wedding photographer (with me as his assistant) and it was a godsend to have Miss Manners' suggested lists of photographs to be taken. Not only did it help us think of everything the bride and groom might want but it made us much more confident that we were not neglecting relatives, special friends, parents of special friends, etc.

What can I add to the glowing reviews left by other readers, except to say that I am so glad I read this before I even started planning my own wedding? It is a thoroughly enjoyable book, with plenty of laugh-out-loud bits that had me reading aloud to my roommates. Miss Manners is now helping me to maintain my sanity through the planning of my own wedding. Every time someone tells me something I "must" do, I have her to fall back on rather than panicking about the expectations of others. I've already bought a copy for my sister, and I'm thinking of buying more for my and my fiance's parents. I really cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Love, love, LOVE this book and Miss Manners! Lots of the basic questions that came up in planning my wedding were covered, but more important is the philosophy she espouses. After you read this book you will find it hard to flip through all those bridal magazines without rolling your eyes at the fuss they make over trivial topics. Miss Manners reminds you what's truly important. We had a lovely wedding that was universally described as "perfect" and no stress whatsoever in planning it. I give this book to all my friends as soon as they get engaged.

As the caravan heads for Oregon, members become like extended family and these four talented authors have used this setting to weave their narratives into one intriguing whole. The characters are fresh and believable. Their problems ring with authenticity and each narrative blends into the next with quiet style. I enjoyed "Wildflower Brides" from the first story to the last. If you like mystery and intrigue mixed with romance you will enjoy book.
Beverly J Scott author of "Righteous Revenge" and "Ruth Fever." Reviewer for Intriguing Authors and Their Books...

"Wildflower Brides", was actually 4 books in one. I enjoyed all four stories. I enjoyed the plot, as I have a soft spot for history and pioneer life. For I was once a member of an Old Order Amish sect. The book had just the perfect mixture of romance and mystery. I also recommend "The StoreKeeper's Daughter", by Wanda Brunstetter.
Sicily Yoder aka Teresa Phillips
Author of, "Leaving Lancaster County."

This book contains four separate stories about people on a wagon train heading for Oregon. The style of each author is different, but each includes characters from the other stories. This gives the total book some continuity. However, the shortness of each story was frustrating to me and would have rated higher if expounded upon and made into four complete books. Although the last story was my favorite, there was a bit too much drama and all four short stories were much too predictable. More suspense would have proved interesting and would raise my stars ratings.