Customer Reviews

Anti-Bride Wedding Planner: Hip Tools and Tips for Getting Hitched

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I've been planning for 4 months. I've looked at 15+ planners. I've bought 4. And I've found that this book, along with Martha Stewart's Wedding Planner as a companion, are the way to go. There is no one single planner out there that "has it all." Martha's planner is great because it has a 3 ring binder where you can add all your vendor contracts and your own pages. But this planner has some fun quizzes and inspiration for the unique bride. I have, use, and suggest, both together. It's a convenient size for carting around, and a fun read. This is a good planner, but I can't stress enough the importance of having a 3-ring binder planner for your vendor contracts also. You'll thank me later.

If you are truly looking for completely unique ideas that defy what a bride and wedding should be, then the planner is not so great. While it is one of the more forward thinking books on the market for brides, I still felt like it was telling me to become a slave to the wedding industry.

If you are looking for a workbook to brainstorm ideas, it is great. It has a lot of free space, checklists, questions to ask, and pockets to hold stuff. You could however get the same tips and checklists from several bridal magazines or online and save youself the cost of the book.

The illustrations are adorable, but I was not crazy about the organization of the planner. If you are a super-organized person like myself, you will probably do better using a computer or notebook like I did. If you are not naturally organized, then this book will probably help give you some structure.

This book is great..it is not meant to be the only book you own to plan your wedding but it certainly has much of what I needed.
This book is first and formost an organizer and that is what I was loking for. It has some great tips and a nice setup to keep buisness cards, and other pieces of paper all in this one book. It has been invaluble so far. I bought this and the companion "Anti-Bride Etiquette Quide".
IF you want someone else to tell where to go and what to buy there are dozens of websites and magazines. I just wanted a book that can help me, a first time bride, know the ins and outs of weddings and what to do plan and organize the day! ANd this book is a great resource for that.

What the world (or at least this bride to be) needs is a wedding planning book that helps brides-to-be to devise a wedding that expresses the couple's individual style and celebrates the meaning of their marriage. This planner would help brides sidestep the wedding industry and its overhyped and overpriced products to create a satisfying ceremony and fabulous celebration. At the very least, it would help brides decide which of the wedding traditions and consumables are for them, and which they want to rethink according to ther own lights.

I read the previous book, The Anti-Bride Guide, and it fit the above description well enough that I sprung for this planner. However, in the interval between the Guide and the Planner, pernicious editors or writers from In-Style Magazine have turned it into a different concept.

While the other book helped people devise their own look that doesn't neccesarily involve white and veils, this one advises on waists and bodices and suggests that you wear canary colored diamonds to be unique. While the other book helped you come up with great ideas for catering your own wedding, this one skips all that in favor of a list of questions to ask caterers. Etc. If you have an indie or DIY outlook, this isn't your book, though you could get a few ideas from it.

To be fair, it does deviate from that model in a few instances (like flower and invitation concepts), and it definitely offered some creative ideas. There were even a couple I'll use. But overall, it was the same old thing.

Finally! A hip wedding planner for the modern bride who's not interested in throwing yet another generic wedding. This planner really inspires with its clever and creative ideas that really get you brainstorming. The well-thought-out lists and questionnaires help you prioritize and simplify the millions of decisions that need to be made, and the questions for vendors really help put you on the right track to getting the best people on board for your big day. This planner provides not only suggestions for "outside-of-the box" planning, it's also full of "Anti-Bride Tips" that can literally save you a lot of headache, time and money. There are also plenty of pages left open for notes to brainstorm and collect your thoughts, and pockets to neatly file your samples, pictures, vendor info, receipts, etc. I even love the look and feel of this book, which really reflects the spirit of the Anti-Bride concept: it's sharp color scheme and graphics are really hip and highly stylized, making it really stand out from the other, more standard, ho-hum, chunky wedding planners. It's compact size makes it easy and convenient to carry around with you everywhere. Finally, to truly organize the busy bride, I really like the "Phone Book: Important Info at a Glance" section included to really keep key information handy. There will be no flurry of panic to find that one important piece of information somewhere at the bottom of... my purse(?!) While planning one of the most important days of my life, the Anti-Bride Wedding Planner will definitely be my closest companion and confidant for the months ahead while I plan a unique, meaningful and memorable event for me and my husband-to-be. I highly recommend the Anti-Bride Wedding Planner and will definitely be getting copies in the future for friends planning to get hitched.

After getting engaged, and knowing I didn't want a big white wedding with puffy dress and a gazillion people I hardly know feasting on beef or chicken, I set out to find a book for people like me.
The title put me off and I did overlook it at first, but after flicking through I discovered it wasn't anti-wedding, just anti-traditional old-fashioned wedding.
It's witty and full of relevant info and tips.
I loved the layout with the spiral binding inside and the different tabs for the different sections and the space to write planning details along the way (quotes, vendors, ideas etc).
My fiance is now reading it as as he flipped through it and loved it too!
I highly recommend this book as the first one to read if you're a cool, modern bride-to-be. It's definitely the best one I have come across in Border's. Great for a non-traditional girl like me!

This planner made my life sooo much easier, starting with the size. It isn't much larger than my day runner. I had this huge binder size planner that stayed at home most of the time because I couldn't take it anywhere!!!! This planner has sooo much space for notes, biz cards, ideas and pockets for receipts clippings etc. I you're looking for a planner or you're looking for a different one this is it. The tips on the inside were great, each section has a list of questions for prospective vendors that I have to admit that I hadn't thought to ask until I read them. All around I would recommend this planner to each and every bride!!!

I have just started planning a very small destination wedding and I really love this planner.
After reading the online reviews of this and other planners I went to the store to browse in person and ended up buying this planner. It is a great size, sturdy (to bring with you everywhere) and spiral bound. The worksheets, quizes and checklists have been very helpful to me as well as all the tips.
Of course I have a few bridal magazines and do a lot of online research but I do not think I will need another planner besides this one. The book recommends buying an accordian folder to put all your cutouts, articles, contracts, etc in and that has worked great for me.
Like other reviewers, I would recommend going to the store to look at planners so you can choose which one will be right for you but if you are more non-traditional and do not want a generic wedding book I would definetly consider this planner.

I was hoping for something unique, but it's just like all the other pro-bride, pro-industry, pro-spend-a-LOT-of-money-on-a-wedding planners (but in a "non-traditional" pink disguise). The mere fact that it has diamond rings circling the page numbers should have been my first clue. If you are really looking for some unique and inspirational ideas, you will not find them here. That said, it is still a pretty decent planner, has a few (FEW) unique tips, and pockets and space for contact info, etc. Look it over in a bookstore if possible before you buy.

I hate to complain, but aside from the catchy, flirty package, this book is really just one of the same. I didn't really find very many "new" or very unusual ideas.

Most wedding guides offer lots of overpriced "ideas" that only serve to put money in the pockets of those in the already ridiculously overblown wedding industry. This book begins by talking about how silly it is to spend all of this time and money on making your wedding just like everyone else's (a useful sentiment), and then goes on to give you rather "traditional" advice all of the typical questions.

I just did not find any interesting possibilities to either of my two main aims: saving money and being unique.

Again, it is a cute package. If you're looking for a journal or workbook, there are lots of empty pages for notes and this may be a good way to keep things centralized (although a $.97 notebook from CVS would serve just as well). But if you're looking for ideas, I definitely wouldn't pay money for it. Do like I did and check it out of the local library if you don't believe me....