Customer Reviews

Anti-Bride Guide: Tying the Knot Outside of the Box

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Meh. The other negative reviews were right. This book was about as "out of the box" as the wedding sections in Cosmo or Glamour and seemed geared towards women with lots of money, time, and inclination to plan a wedding.

The format of the book is like this:

Veils: Who says you have to wear a veil? You totally don't. But if you want one, here is the same advice on veils that you get in any bridal magazine of wedding planning book.

Bouquet: Who says you have to carry a bouquet? You don't have to! But if you want to here is some completely unoriginal crap that the authors copied and pasted out of a tepid and shallow bridal article...

The book actually listed alternative colors for wedding gowns, such as green, brown, orange, silver, and ruby. You mean, if i don't want to wear white, I can wear another color??? How utterly original! I never would have thought of that one on my own!

You get the idea.

There's some serious product placement going on here, too. So the author is "friends" with someone at Benefit Cosmetics who then gives advice on wedding make-up. (First tip: Use Benefit Cosmetics!) Surprise, Benefit Cosmetics is the first listing in the Make-up section of the Resource Guide. Give me a break.

I was irritated by the author's constant reference to her own wedding but in the third person, as if she had collected testimonials from other brides. Gerin's wedding stories are about how she had to have a wedding on each coast and a party in France and offered such innovative and fresh advice like "Drink lots of water on the plane."

The practical advice is okay, but was covered with more accuracy and completeness in the other books I bought.

I did get a couple solid slices of advice from this book which is how it earned one star. I honestly appreciate the "Anti-Bride Timeline" on page 128, the Beauty Countdown on page 122 (get waxed two days before your wedding... check!), and the Day-of Checklist on page 135. I am hard pressed to imagine that I will use much else from this book, however.

If you find this used for less than $1, go for it. The checklists are worth it. But if you already have any other bridal guide, there's no point in getting this one. Putting a retro-graphics cover on the same, tired old crap doesn't make it interesting. It just makes it another bridal industry rip-off.

This would not be a bad wedding guide if it didn't claim to be different. It is, generally, about the same as the others I've read. The most "anti" theme is the book is that you don't have to do what your family wants you to. But, there is plenty of discussion of etiquette, what to do, what not to do, etc. Sure there are a few nice ideas, but all bridal guides tend to have a few nice ideas. I was looking for a book that could really assist me in having a wedding that is *different.* I wanted something to help me get past all that brainwashing about what a wedding looks like. This book, instead, offers slightly alternative-ish ideas about how you might adjust existing traditions and how you don't have to listen to all your family. Not a bad wedding book, but just doesn't live up to being anything that different from what is already out there.

When I finally came to grips with fact that my fella was not as exited about eloping as I was, I hypervenilated at the thought of a wedding... then eventually pulled up my boot straps and promptly bought every book on Amazon that purported to be about planning low key celebrations far, far from the land of bridezilla.

While the Anti-Bride series of books (oh yes, I did buy all three in a fit of panic) claims to be about not getting sucked in to the Wedding Industrial Complex, I found it to be just the opposite. To wit, the opening sentence from the planner: "A film reel of your wedding has probably been playing in your head since you dressed up Barbie and Ken and walked them down the aisle." Um, no.... and in fact this is precisely the kind of drivel I was hoping to avoid.

So don't judge a book by it's SexandtheCity cover, and instead spend your $ on the two sleeper hits from my book-buying spree: "How to Have an Elegant Wedding for $5000 or Less" and "How to Have the Wedding you Want (not the one everybody else wants you to have)"

I have found a creative use for these books, though: They've become the symbol of all wedding evil in our house. When I am really, really irritated with some stupid wedding detail my fella keeps these books handy for me to stomp on, curse at etc....

I should have heeded the other reviewers before I bought this book because it really is much too traditional for the kind of wedding I'm planning. I would call this book a guide about cutting corners (ie, planning on a budget) or advice on veering from only the very traditional. I suppose a book like this is difficult to write, as those of us planning more "modern" weddings only have to use a bit of creativity to get what we're after. I found the wedding websites much more useful and up-to-date in this department.

That said, I did get the Anti-Bride Wedding Planner for my future sister-in-law, who despite planning a very traditional, formal wedding, considers herself an anti-bride at heart!

I was very disappointed with this book. As a traditional wedding guide, it's not bad - filled with the basics of wedding planning: cutting down your guest list, gown shopping, reception options, etc all wrapped up in a fun little guide. However, as an anti-bride wedding resource? Not so much. While the book toted the mantra of "it's ok to be different," it didn't offer much of substance. Other than explaining that not all bridesmaids are wearing the same dress these days (*gasp!), that brides...sometimes wear dresses other than traditional white (*holy cow*!), and you can get married...in a park (*Crazy talk!*). The wedding planning section was thrown in as an afterthought (assuming you'd spend the big bucks for its sister book, called the Anti-bride planner).

If you're looking for off-the-beaten-path ideas for your wedding, move along. There's nothing to see here.

This is a great choice for the bride to be who is concerned less with matching flowers to bridesmaid's dresses and more of having a beautiful and wonderful day to remember as you start your new life together. It is full of quirky and just plain wonderful ideas on creating the wedding of your dreams without sacrificing your own sense of style. Like the best tradional wedding planners, it has pockets to keep vital paper slips in, and the last chapter of the book is complete with just enough lists to keep vital info in one place, but not so many as to stress you out.

The best part of this book by far is that it assumes that you are not going to stop living the rest of your life just to plan a wedding and that you would love the input of the groom to be because duh, he's getting married here too. The authors keep the tone lighthearted, take into account all the different kinds of couples and situations out there, and don't belittle you if your dream wedding is to go the whole Martha route. They focus less on how to cut corners, and more on making sure that you remember to incorporate the aspects of the ceremony that are the most important to you (even if that is only that you will wear a tiara). Everything else is just icing. Definitely worth it if only to destress after reading the other bridal books.

This book is exactly, EXACTLY! the same as every other wedding planning book on the market. Nothing happens outside the box. I was looking for a book that would help me plan a truly non-traditional wedding, and instead the book suggests a few slight variations on all the current traditions. It was a waste of my $20, a waste of the hour I spent reading it, and a waste of space in my box of books to give to Goodwill.

Well designed and sized and well-written, but I used it primarily for mainstream information - it's only about a centimeter outside of the box. It's really just a sort of modern/urban-girl version of your parents' wedding.
If you're the sort that throws around the phrase "outside the box," during conference calls at work, you'll probably love it.
For those of us who never put a thought into a wedding until we started planning one, it's helpful - but this is coming from someone who hasn't looked at any other planners or books.

This might be useful for the under 25 year old, first time around, type brides. If you're old enough not to need advice along the lines of "you don't have to conform to anyone's expectations" (e.g. the alleged target market for the book in the first place), you may not find it very useful. I didn't find any radically innovative or creative ideas that would be appropriate for the over 30 year old bride (Really, a glue gun and some beads??!).

I was hoping for suggestions and ideas about how to have an anti-wedding, but this book only has ideas for traditional weddings, complete with the big white poofy dress. I read it all the way through, hoping for it to eventually reveal the "anti" part of it, but it never did. Furthermore, it had several typos and most of the resources in the appendix were outdated and useless.