Customer Reviews

Altared: Bridezillas, Bewilderment, Big Love, Breakups, and What Women Really Think About Contemporary Weddings

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Altared is a fanciful journey down the aisle of matrimony, ushered in with smiles, laughter and poignant moments. It is a compilation of wedding stories, edited by Colleen Curran, where each of the 27 authors artfully recalls a wedding experience from a personal perspective. This bouquet of witty, wedding tales is told in charming, eloquent writing.

We shop with Martha Stewart and recall Princess Diana's beautiful mega-wedding. Wedding cash outlay is debated and often shelled out in the thousands of dollars, for that dream that seems to be as much a part of our lives as other inevitable events. It is a glamour moment in fine satin, but also that real moment of sought-after harmony, a harmony often achieved, but also caught in the struggle of conflicting tastes, ideas and expectations.

The journey will not soon be forgotten and the reader may join in with fond memories or future inspiration. It is a reminder that although expensive elegance may be important, equally important is the handmade contribution and the kindness, love and adventure that touches each story.

Butter cream is blended with bitter chocolate and makes this a fun, fast read. It's about lives "altared," and in a good way.

Colleen Curran, who edited these stories, has just published a first novel, Whores on the Hill--an unabashedly sexual and mesmerizing read.

Armchair Interviews says this is bound to entertain anyone who has ever fallen in love or attended a wedding.

I swear I have a hundred female friends who are getting married in the next year (or hoping to!), and now I've found the perfect gift to give to all of them for their bridal showers (real or imaginary).

Every experience a you could have as a past, present, or future bride is well documented here with wit and grace from an amazing collection of writers.

After reading a few essays, you begin to see quite clearly why the process of getting married makes us crazy. But more importantly, and this seems to be the overall message of the book, however insane your wedding may make you feel, you aren't alone! Countless brides before you have experienced the same trials and tribulations, joys, disappointments, and blessings you will.

For brides-to-be, Altared is like a reassuring best-friend, who happens to tell stories both hilarious and heart-wrenching.

I titled this review "Perfect Balance" because I really think that most of the essays in this book strike a perfect balance between skepticism of the "Bridal Industry" and humility about the little Bridezilla that lurks somewhere within every bride.

The book was also wedding-positive without being naive. Many of the stories really changed my perspective on what my upcoming wedding will mean and made me think about different aspects in different ways, but never encouraged magical thinking or glorified spending or overstressing.

The bottom line of the majority of the stories was the beauty and meaning of love, which is what a wedding should be about. This book will make you think!

This collection of real life stories is absolutely hilarious! Almost every story leaves you chuckling a little at the rediculousness that is the wedding industry and our society. I think I could relate to something in almost every story as well. I am giving it to my sister in law who is recently engaged to help her see what people go through that she is not alone and hopefully show her how rediculous things can be and to not let it get out of control.

so many books about weddings are either a collection of soul-tearing "honey do" lists or mind-numbing pablum (nobody is actually a princess and there are more important days in all of our lives).

to find actual literature that demands thoughtfullness and reflection is like manna from heaven. altared is an eclectic collection, well culled and perfectly edited. don't buy this book instead of looking at martha stewart's website. curl up with it when you need a break.

I'm not part of the target demographic for Altared, since I've never dreamed of "the big day" or really imagined I'd ever get married. So I'm not really sure what drove me to pick it up save for the names of some of my favorite writers, like Lisa Carver. What I liked most about Altared is that it's not just anti-bridal industry or full of horror stories, but features women grappling with both their weddings and the countless issues weddings make us question. Even when the bulk of the essay is about the actual wedding day, the authors manage to say something more profound as well. The authors certainly don't escape their own barbs or criticism, but they are ultimately hopeful and humorous (of her gay wedding, Anne Carle writs: "What I remember is panic, worry, cold feet, and sometimes total and utter numbness. A coworker asked whether I felt like Bridezilla...but I actually felt more like Groomzilla.")

Jill Eisenstadt's "To Have or Have Not: Sex on the Wedding Night" looks at a topic I'd never have thought was a question and humorously breaks down the myth that wedding night sex is a triumphant celebration. Even though there's a little bit of repetition about the evils of Bridezilla-mania, wedding magazines, and the like sprinkled throughout the anthology, those pale in comparison to the many diverse and touching stories here, from Anne Carle's "Weddings Aren't Just for Straight People Anymore" to Gina Zucker's tale of crashing her mother's wedding and Samina Ali's tale of two weddings, one arranged marriage, one chosen. Carle's piece also touches on children, who are woven throughout these essays as either future hopeful possibilities or already born family members, but her reasons for not having children with her wife, and instead opening up their circle to a wider community, made her vision of marriage and family quite an expansive one. My favorite section was "Getting Hitched," where Jacquelyn Mitchard gives any fiction writer a reason to believe in the power of words, intuition, and creative visualization in "First, Reader, I Made Him Up, and Then I Married Him." What's interesting is how for many of these women marriage and their weddings seemed to sortof spring up, rather than be endlessly plotted, making them aware only at the last minute that they have specific ideas and dreams for their big day (as do their mothers). There's a kind of lackadaisical approach, at least at the beginning, that immediately sets them at odds with their more perfection-focused peers. As they explain just when the hysteria sets in, or wryly laugh at their own ability to get sucked in, such as Janelle Brown's "The Registry Strikes Back," they show that while weddings are events that are planned (even in very brief spurts of time), part of the process can still sneak up on you.

Lisa Carver's uniquely solitary approach in her trademark style (she starts her essay thusly: "For me, getting married has always been like throwing up. I do it as alone as possible, feeling sick, drastic, and doomed.") makes for one of the best essays here, by a woman who's been there, done that, and come back again to both wedding planning and attending. Several essays such as Carver's and Lori Leibovich's, question whether being an "anti-bride" or an "indie bride" is not its own form of capitulation to opposition to the salesmanship that's been built up around weddings. And anyone who liked Julie and Julia must read Julie Powell's take on what goes into making that wedding standby, "Rubber Chicken" (hint: it's not chicken). Taken together, these essays are about, yes, weddings, but moreso about love, family, and figuring out what the essentials are when it comes to each. As Jennifer Armstrong's essay about her slowly fading, much-postponed engagement and eventual breakup, sometimes the best wedding of all is the one you don't have.

I got engaged in January, and I picked up this book in a bookstore after a couple of months of wedding frenzy: joining The Knot, compulsively buying wedding magazines (even though they all have the same pictures and the same articles), researching venues, and ordering my dress. I felt like I needed something to help me remember how much of this whole process is totally unnecessary, and this book did that for me. I loved reading other women's narratives about the planning process and the differences between their weddings and their marriages (the latter being the real priority, of course). I must admit that I was surprised at the selfishness and naivete of a couple of the authors, but their honesty was refreshing. I'd recommend these essays to any woman who feels like she's losing herself in the scary, terrible/wonderful world of The American Wedding.

This book is funny, and very informative. It confirms the idea that each bride is individual whether they succumb to the pressures of the multi billion dollar bridal industry or prefer a private ceremony with their closest friends and family. I really enjoyed reading the wedding stories of these fresh new authors; a very interesting selection!

My husband and I have been married for 12 years now, but this took me back...and in so many different and authentic and enjoyable ways. I loved Colleen's introduction and felt each essay was like a friend sitting down over coffee and sharing her wedding story. This is not just for those about to be married since it invites so much reflection on what marriage means to modern women, and how we are redefining it with our partners as we go.

Great, fun read. This book is a collection of amusing and touching essays
about weddings and relationships and the extensive culture and traditions
surrounding weddings. These women writers offer a wide variety of personal
experiences sprinkled with a lot of humor, wisdom and insights. Enjoyed it
immensely. Great gift to all my women friends.