Wedding Books

This is a very thick book... and for good reason. It has photos (albeit black and white ones) or photo-rendered sketches of many potential wedding and reception venues. Each venues' pages come with the stuff you need: the seating capacity and approximate prices. There are also other sections of the book focused on vendors for flowers, etc. I recommend this book if you're trying to get a feeling for "what's out there" with regard to venues. It's a great place to start, and you'll probably feel like you've covered a lot of ground once you've gone through this book.

Wonderful book, a must have!

This has been an invaluable book during my wedding planning. When I got engaged in December 99, a girlfriend suggested that I buy the SoCal edition immediately to start finding reception and ceremony locations. I did buy it, and whipped through the whole book one evening. Sitting there reading, I quickly dismissed reception site after site and determined that the book just couldn't help me. I put it aside.

Then I started actually going out, visiting places, and realizing that it wasn't so easy to find the perfect place! I quickly realized I was going to have to work a lot harder than I thought to mesh the right church location, my number of people, and a convenient indoor reception site. So I came back to the Guide--time and again! Soon I had it dogeared and filled with notes as I reconsidered the options I'd been so quick to skip past earlier. The statistics on each site helped keep me focused and helped me and my fiance consider new places when others fell through, and keep the attributes of each place in mind. The descriptions of the reception sites are detailed, positive and generous-but-not-misleading. We ultimately booked a site listed in the Guide and are thrilled to have found it.

Now that I've moved on to choosing a photographer, I went to the Guide again. First I read through each photographer's profile in the book, then went on the Guide's website! It's so easy to use - - it allows you to jump to photographers' websites and see their portfolios, all without making appointments or driving around! I feel satisifed that I don't need to look beyond the professionals listed in the Guide, since the authors have already done the legwork in finding people with high standards and good customer service.

If you really want to explore all possible options for your ceremony, reception, and event professionals, you will love Here Comes The Guide! The hardcopy book and the website are thorough, pleasant to read, and - - most importantly - - really helpful. My mom keeps saying, "I had no idea it was this complicated to plan a wedding in this day and age!" Here Comes the Guide goes a long way towards relieving the complication!

While the bulk of the Guide is dedicated to reception site listings, the vendor listings in the back are very helpful. The listings are not mere "paid advertisements." If you read the book, The Guide explains how each vendor undergoes a thorough screening process--something even the most persistent bride likely wouldn't have the time or ability to conduct.

As The Guide states on Page 483, their process "involves interviewing 15-20 other event professionals. We call every single reference and ask about the professionalism, technical competency and service orientation of the advertiser in question. ... Those candidates who received consistent, rave reviews made it into The Guide."

Using The Guide as a starting point (combined with the internet, magazine ads, and friends' recommendations), I conducted exhaustive research of my own of wedding professionals in Los Angeles and beyond. I wound up hiring three vendors who had been featured in the Guide (caterer, band and florist, 11-11-00 wedding). All performed beyond my greatest expectations, and my guests cannot stop raving about the "fabulous," "amazing," and "out of this world" food, music, and flowers. Clearly, The Guide got it right.

So don't be fooled by the relative size of the vendor section compared to pages allotted to reception sites. The vendor section may be small because they are the cream of the crop, thanks to the Guide's legwork.

I am so glad that a friend told me about this book. I was so daunted by the search for a location for my wedding, I didn't know where to start. This book (and their fantastic website by the same name) made it really easy. They give great descriptions and the pricing information helped me narrow down the places I could afford. It saved me so much time, I was able to actually enjoy looking for a reception location. Thank you, Here Comes the Guide.

This book I found was very fussy. I just felt it was a bit over the top for a bride. I did love the colour's and flower's though.

Keep in Mind that this book is going on 15 years and it is still relevant and beautiful. This book has been part of my collection since 1995. I work in the industry and still draw from this book. It is a thin book, but it has a strong impact.

Great work - I'm a florist and I am constantly gathering information for my artistry.

You'll get beautiful ideas for your bouquets, for the mothers' flowers, for decor and spotlight pieces. Maria McBride Mellinger has created a timeless collection of gorgeous images and explanations that will help you create your own perfectly personalized floral pieces.

This book would be a terrific engagement gift, as well.

As a professional bridal consultant, I keep an extensive library of wedding related books on hand to help my brides design their own weddings. Ms. McBride's Bridal Flowers is one of my favorites. It is full of wonderful ideas - not just the traditional "must have" wedding flowers such as bouquets & boutonnieres, but the out-of-the-ordinary (but inspiring) boas, decorated lampposts & gilded calla lilies. Ms. McBride shows that flowers are for more than just being carried or worn. The large color photos are fantastic. So many other books have little or no photos, or hand drawn diagrams that leaves the reader wondering. Ms. McBride's book lets you see exactly what she is talking about. It doesn't claim to be a how-to book, but perfect to take along when visiting your floral designer.

It's Christmastime for Queen Betsy and the gang, and she's in for yet another rough week. She's trying to plan a wedding (which her fiance may or may not want to go through with), figure out how to tell her beloved she can hear his thoughts during sex, get to know her half-sister (who happens to be the daughter of the devil), and baby-sit her half-brother (while not killing his mother). Oh, and figure out another streak of murders plaguing the St. Paul area.

The series is still a fun piece of fluff, but this book didn't quite have the pizazz of the previous installments. Maybe it was Sinclair being all mopey (when he wasn't screwing Betsy's brains out), or maybe it was the ever-annoying Jon. I don't know. I'll still keep reading the series (heck, I've blown through the first four books in 48 hours), and have my eye on one of Davidson's other series, The Alaskan Royal Family.

Christmas is approaching and Betsy is busy preparing for her wedding to
Sinclair. She is surprised when she is approached by one of the older vampires to write a "Dear Betsy" column for a new vampire newsletter, but quickly finds herself getting into the swing of things. Nick, the cop, is investigating the Driveway Killer, a killer who targets women who just happen to look like Betsy. When a ghost of one of the killer's victims appears to Betsy, what choice does she have but to help? From that point forward, things just seem to go down hill for Betsy. Her sister Laura, Satan's daughter, seems to be having parental problems, and Sinclair finds out that she can hear his thoughts during "intimate moments" and doesn't take it well...Is the wedding off?

Betsy's back! Once again, MaryJanice Davidson's Queen of the Vampires returns with another side-splitting story in Undead and Unreturnable. If MaryJanice Davidson has written a book that has not caused me to wake my husband up giggling uncontrollably, then I haven't read it. Although I enjoy every book that she writes, I have to say that her continuing series about Betsy remains my favorite. Betsy is shallow one moment, and wise the next, all of which makes her such a fun character to read. The continuing development of her relationship with Sinclair is one of the reasons I eagerly await each book. In this fourth book, things have finally really heated up between them. After watching them circle around each other with hit and run encounters in the previous books, it was a pleasure actually reading them having a relationship. I'm already anxiously looking forward to the next addition of the Undead Series!

Melissa
reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

I love this series by Mary Janice Davidson, she is a great author! And she makes her stories fun and exciting! I fell in love with Betsy, Queen Vampire after the first book.
I'd recommend this to anyone who is a vampire fan and interested in the new romantic, comedy twist!

This is a review on the Audio Book version of Undead and Unreturnable by Mary Janice Davidson, read by Nancy Wu.

I really loved the first book of this series, Undead and Unwed, I liked the idea of a Vampire Queen who was Blonde and Tall and the ultimate girly girl, complete with a shoe fetish. The first two books were basically there to lay down the premise, to have Betsy discover her powers and her duties to both those she surrounds herself with (vampires and humans alike) and to those she is Queen of, although in my eyes she never gets beyond her own hang ups regarding her love life and her love for shopping. By the third book, Undead and Unappreciated all Davidson has done is introduce new characters and make them trod through boring storylines until you get to the end and wonder how a book series could spend so much time...on nothing. Onto the fourth book, I still had high hopes that Betsy would grow beyond banal sex scenes, shopping for shoes, berating her stepmother, babying her roommates, and ignoring her duties as Queen instead focusing her energy on making her boyfriend marry her. Seriously, that is what the first three are basically about! I know she discovers new powers, and that would be exciting if she did something with them besides go to starbucks in the daylight, and wonder endlessly about accessories! This book is about solving some local murders, and really all of 5 pages are devoted to just that, the rest are spent on yet again more boring sex, fights with her boyfriend, and her talking like a 16 year old hyped up on power bars. Are we supposed to care about her pending wedding? And the planning for it? Or her choice of pajamas, or what her family is doing? Not me. I want to see how she will grow into leading her people, how she will gain the entire planets vampire populations respect, but what do I get " my boyfriend is so totally hot" and "I would sell my soul for those shoes" and " oh crap I cant get a pedicure"

Now onto my views on Nancy Wu, who reads the audiobooks. She stinks, not just stinks, but she doesn't even comprehend what she is reading, I have caught her reading in a voice for one character, when its another. She makes a sexy male vampire sound like a drawling butler, a 21 year old male college student sound like he is 14 and in a bad news bear movie. Nancy is asian, and she sounds like it, and therefore our blonde betsy sounds like Mulan on No-Doze. I have listened to 4 audiobooks worth of terrible valley girl/cheesy vampire accents and I cant take it anymore. Her reading sex scenes is embarrassing to hear, in no way, shape, or form are they the least bit steamy, sexy or provocative.

So that's it for me, books, audio books or otherwise. Save your time and energy and go read the Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris if you like amazing vampire literature that is also smart and sexy

Those of us who were hooked on Maryjanice Davidsons Queen Betsy series from the start tend to sometimes be a little more critical of them than others. I've seen other reviews that complain the novels are growing complacent and uneventful. I happen to be one of the few who disagree with that sentiment.

In Undead and Unreturnable, we find Betsy getting used to her newfound love for the sneaky Eric Sinclair (a man she had originally sworn to loathe forever after he tricked her into becoming Vampire Queen, while simultaneously making him the Vampire King, and her consort). But (finally) Betsy realized she really loved Sinclair, and he truly loved her, but navigating the murky waters of her relationship with him is harder than she thought it would be -- not to mention the added problems of dealing with the fact that her half-sister, Laura, is actually the devil's daughter who is fated to take over the world (and is currently starting to show some of her darker insticts), her King and consort is avoiding her after she had shockingly revealed to him that she can read his thoughts when they are in their most intimate moments, the Ant just had a baby, and bizarrely relies on Betsy to babysit every waking minute, a former vampire killer is now hanging around the mansion making lovesick puppydog eyes at her, and a very grumpy ghost named Cathie is following Betsy around and harrassing her, demanding that Betsy catch and punish the serial killer who murdered her -- plus, Christmas is fast approaching! To put it bluntly, poor Queen Betsy has her royal vampire hands full!

This latest Queen Betsy novel dutifully upholds the legacy that the previous novels have set down -- namely, it is meant to continue the same lighthearted and entertaining wit. These books should never be taken too seriously. If you are wanting them to be something they aren't, you will always be sorely disappointed. Appreciate them for the light and easy read that they are. The merits of the plot don't bother me, as long as the characters I love continue on in their array of crazy vampire hijinks, which they do!

If you like how the series has gone so far, then you'll like this one as well (although now that Betsy and Sinclair are officially a couple, you should definitely be prepared for far more sex scenes.

This book is an example of the sum of every Japaneses stereotype rolled up into something that attempts to tell a story. Everyone in Japan is not a ninja, a samurai, a yakuza, or related to a powerful businessman. I know that books are an escape from reality, but I would rather have a brain aneurysm or enter a deep coma to escape from reality than read this book. The author obviously knows nothing about Japan or it's culture. If you think you will learn anything by reading this book you are wrong, you are only helping perpetuate stereotypes.
I only hope that the author is playing some cruel trick on the world, and she is creating a series steeped in ignorance to show us all how dumb we really are when it comes to other cultures.

i love this book. it was cool. i can't wait to read the next one. can't wait, can't wait!!!

I wont bother summarizing this book, since other reviews have already done that in great detail. Go look at one of those! =) Sure, this book isn't entirely believable. It may not be miraculously deep or insightful, but it's still a fun read. Samurai girl is a short, and simple book. If you're looking for something challenging or complex, this isn't for you. However, if you're just looking for an easy read, with like-able characters and a fun plot, this is perfect!

Samurai Girl is a great idea for a novel. And the plot begins well, but as the first book in the series, it feels too much like a teaser and not a stand alone book. Great insight into a girl's thought process and even into the cultural aspects of her life/family. However, some essential plot features were never answered in this book: what did her father want to tell her? And much of the book seemed to meander to it's climatic ending. Yes, it makes me want to get the next book to find out these answers, but not because I was satisfied with this story.

Finally, an actual book with an Asian heroine! If you think about it, there are no actual Asian or Indian figures, not to mention Native American, Middle Eastern, or HIspanic figures, in American pop culture. Movies or books that COUlD be about someone from any race, and don't pertain to any particular culture, are usually about White people. Now, I'm not prejudiced. Being Asian and having experienced prejudice and ignorance in my lifetime, I really shouldn't be. I know this book really HAD to be about a Japanese girl, but it is nice to actually read a book about someone who is Asian.
That being said, it's time to move on to the actual book.
When I first picked this book up, I expected it to be some sort of weird time travelly novel, what with the whole samurai thingy. I felt the title was a bit misleading, which is why I gave the book three stars.
I also gave the book three stars because it wasn't really substantial literature. I understand not all teen novels are very substantial, and by that, I don't mean short, I mean, well, substantial. The Clique novels are substantial. Books by Meg Cabot are somewhat substantial, but not really. This series is VERY low on that meter. It was good to occupy your time with, but not something very memorable, nor was it very well written.

Don't buy this book. It's not worth the money. The book is really small like 6 inches by 6 inches with not that much ideas or wedding favors. Customer's are better off searching for another wedding favor book.

Is was a very small book for my taste. I like big ilustrated book were you can see all the details in the pictures. This book isnt a must have to me...

The book was full of pictures but not practical favors.. they were not fabulous like the book implied... i wouldnt recommend anyone waste the 10 bucks for this book.. you can find much better ideas on the internet!!

Not at all what I expected. Did not give instructions.

Some really nice favors, but none that are very practical. I was looking for something more unique that people could use after the wedding. It is nicely put together, but unfortunately I did not find anything that worked for me.

I've written a couple of reviews of books about being a best man because I just bought a bunch and went through the process. In the end, all of them were incomplete. This one doesn't cover much beyond the speech, and there are better quotes online.

I found a good ebook called The Best Man Bible. That was the most comprehensive and worth the time and money.

To be the best man is not an easy task (speeches, shaking hands, talkingto people). This book was a great help. It helped me put things in perspective, create an awesome speech (I received many congratulations for my speech) and we had a great great time. The wedding was an absolute SUCCESS.
I definitely recommend this book.

i didnt even receive the product i order ,i received two dvds on baseball pitching i wouldnt recomend even using amazon when you can go to your local book store and pickup any given book, or they will order it for you i found this out through trial and error on amazons part

I ordered this book at the same time as "I Do Veils and so Can You," and this book puts that one to shame. This book does a great job of demonstrating how to cut the different shapes of veils from tulle, easy to follow instructions for various headpiece construction techniques, and a wide variety of options for embellishments and finishing. There are lots of options presented in terms of fabrics and materials, and the book suggests actual things you can buy at your local fabric store. Don't waste your money on the other outdated books out there when you can learn everything you need from this one!

I bought this book after reading the other reviews. I thought that this one would be better than 'I Do Veils So Can You.' This book has better pictures and some ideas that the other did not, but not terribly much. I do think that those extra ideas were worth buying the book for. It has more infomation on making a wire frame and decorating the headpiece. I did have a hard time understanding some of the directions for making different types of veils. I am still searching for a book with better information on making veils.

I purchased Veiled in Beauty to go on my shelf of resource materials, you know the shelf you go to when the coffee hasn't kicked in at 7 in the morning?! I must admit I am very thankful that I have millinery experience as you are not shown how to make the foundation pieces such as juliet caps, crescents, wired frames and so forth. You are shown how to cover these pieces though, utilising a number of methods such as crinolin(horse hair is crinolin out here - don't trust my spelling of it), covering a buckram frame (book suggests underlining fabric with flannel, a item not easily come by in Australia any more- try pellon, a fine wadding used under quilt tops to enhance embroidery etc).

Veiled in Beauty contains some beautifully taken photographs. It also features a number of illustrations that clearly demonstrate numerous styles of veils. If you are patient, you can match some of the suggested styles and trims to the photos.You are shown how to make veils, such as single tiered veils, two-tiered veils, veils with a pouf, bouffant veils and so forth. Also features instructions for mantillas. Lace applications are demonstrated as well as edging techniques. You are shown how to make continuous bias.

Something that may be interest - you are shown how to make your veil removable from your head piece. That way you can get extra value out of your cocktail base by wearing it at your reception or even to other events after your big day. You're also shown how to make barrette bows- this might be a great idea for your flower girls? Don't forget the wreathes, made from fresh flowers either.

To succesfully use this book I would suggest that you must have a fair amount of patients and an ability to follow the written word. The instructions are clear, but it does no good if you are like me and just want to get right into it.

Like every resource, DIY, style guide book, etc- what you can do with what they sohw you is limited only by you. Let your imagination take over and make sure you purchase some surplus nylon illusion to experiment on before committing to your final piece. Veiled in Beauty is a lovely book that I wouldn't hesitate reccommending to someone who has a little bit of time on their hands. Don't buy this if you expect to be able to produce your bridal head wear in a day and are relatively new to sewing. It might end up more pricey then paying someone to make your veil in the first place.

This book is a 3 and a half star for me - like another reviewer wrote, it just lacks something that I can not put my finger on. When I do, I'll come back and edit this review.

edit: I found it very difficult to make a veil using the instructions in this book, that's my primary gripe.

There is a better book for bridal veil referencing, if you can use your imagination to update styles. I can't find it on Amazon. It was written by Margo Ann Daley, and is called Hats for Brides and Weddings. I made a number of veils based on the instructions in that book without problems (please remember I am fairly well experienced with millinery sewing and any issues tend to solve themselves instantly in my head and flow forth to my hands- if that makes sense).

This book is great and the bonus CD that it comes with however you would have to buy the software but I really like this product and I will be buying the software.

I designed my wedding invitations using this book. I have almost no artistic talent, so I had my doubts. But this book is filled with so many great ideas and simple instructions that I was able to put together a beautiful design in an afternoon.
I wound up with invitations that were more original (and much less expensive) than anything I could've bought at the stationery story.
Since then, I've given this book to five newly engaged friends--they're thrilled!

This is just a teaser to get you to buy the more expensive book. The accompanying cd has almost nothing on it, just a few borders and pictures. Fonts are supposed to be available for download from the website, but they offer nothing substantially different from the Word fonts. A waste of time and money.

Now, I'm just a dude... metrosexual maybe, but still just a dude. So I don't know my @$$ from my elbow when it comes to making invitations. But this book made everything very accessible. I see some complaints about the need for additional software, but I found I could implement a lot of the suggestions using apps that I already had on my computer.

Bottom line: Friendly, well-written and full of ideas.

They should have added to the title, "With our software that you can purchase seperately." There's a cd included, big deal, just gives you a taste of what you can buy. I ended up downloading a program for free to make my invitations. There is some info on paper, styles, etc. that may be helpful, but oh, why am I trying to be nice? The title is misleading and this was a waste of money.

We have been looking for a tasteful, modern alternative to traditional religious ceremonies - something that would express our joy about being together, yet still be palatable to our families. This is NOT such a guide. This book is all about astrology.

Would you like to know the most auspicious date and place on earth for your wedding? Then you need astrocartography, and to consult an astrologer for your wedding date, as the author did.

Other books have better coverage of wedding traditions around the globe, but this book is a rich source of wedding SUPERSTITIONS. Did you know that in ancient England, it was considered bad luck to marry on a Saturday?

The book was nothing like what I expected from the blurbs on Amazon. If you are trying to plan a beautiful and modern wedding ceremony, I recommend Weddings from the Heart by Daphne Rose Kingma.

Although this book has quite a bit of information, it doesn't provide much for actual application. It was time consuming and not good for a bride trying find ideas for her wedding. What this book needs is a good index and some copy editing.

First off, caveat emptor: This book offers very little in terms of actual ideas or suggestions for planning a wedding, "non-traditional" or otherwise. It starts of looking into astrology and astro-cartography and how you can use them to help select an auspicious place and time for you nuptials. However, it offers little actual information of this, instead pointing to other sources.
This leads into the bulk of the book, which is more or less an overview of different cultural traditions around marriage, from the Fez of Morrocco to the Guatemalan village of Chichicastenango. This does offer some fascinating information from an anthroplogical perspective, but in a wedding planning book, it comes across as suggesting that it is not only Ok, but a Good Idea to plan your wedding as a multi-cultural smorgasboard, picking and choosing "fascinating" traditional practices from whatever cultures strike your fancy. The information given is cursory at best, no one culture gets enough representation to actually be useful to someone looking for guidance in planning a wedding in keeping with (let's say) their Basque ancestry. Unfortunately for the author, cultural traditions are embodied with meaning by the context of the culture they arise from, and simply do not translate well to a wedding planners buffet table. And while this book is not clearly written enough that it entirely endorses this sort of cultural appropriation, the implication is is clear. As the back cover says, this is supposed to be "A uniquely entertaining and eclectic sourcebook for desigining a wedding ritual."
Ironically, the cultural smorgasboard of "ideas" presented here is constantly self-contradicting and often as cultural backwards and patriarchal as any of the "traditional" western ceremonies the book is supposed to be getting away from. When you read on one page that "The Morroccans contend that Sunday is a good time to commence married life because it's the start of a new week, but don't introduce a bride to your home on Tuesday (say the Tsul tribe) or Friday (advise the Ait Warain)" and on the next page read that you should "Marry Tuesday, Marry for Health", well it gets to the point where it is no longer interesting, only laughable.
Mr. Leviton has compiled some fascinating research in the volume, and deserves some recognition on that basis. However, before it is actually a useful and engaging read, much less a good wedding planning guide, the author ought to read up a little on the perils of cultural appropriation, and also submit to the sword of a vicious editor or two!
Until then, this book does more harm than good.

It is so refreshing to find an intelligently written book on weddings. No mind numbing, cookie cutter fluff here. While it could use an index, the information was presented sequentially, beginning with traditional ways of choosing a mate and the task of choosing the wedding date. Although a lot of information is presented, it is not a difficult read.

I enjoyed this book. As for another reviewer's oppinion that it's all about astrology, did you get past the second chapter???
This book is well researched and presents information from many cultures. It isn't suited to someone who is looking to add quirky traditions to their ceremony but more to someone who wants to understand what the rite of passage (the wedding) means globally. It addresses all the stages from engagemnet to the ceremony itself. A very good read.