Customer Reviews

For the Bride

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great book with lots of advice, BUT purchase it early on in your wedding plannning stages. There are not a lot of photos and the few photos in the book are black and white. Don't expect to get a lot of ideas with pictures, but do get this book for exceptional advice and rules of thumb on how to plan an elegant and stylish wedding. He covers all the right areas with rules and opinions for the bride of 2000!

Exactly what every bride needs to know about planning her perfect wedding - style, etiquette, logistics. Even though I can't afford to hire Colin to plan my wedding, I now know how to apply his unique approach. This book is everything the other planning books are not - gorgeous and fun! It feels like I'm treating myself to a special meeting with Colin Cowie, not trudging through the tedious details. FOR THE GROOM is even better - everything you wished your fiance already knew. They look so great next to each other!

This book is as much guidance on how tobe an elegant lady as it is a wedding planner. His advice ranges from subtle to downright blatant, so there's very little the open-minded bride will miss. Even if you already have every wedding book in the entire world, I feel this one is necessary.

Regarding the etiquette advice, I like Cowie's book the best. Many books for "fabulous girls" and "what no one tells you" etc tend to deal with things the bride has already left behind her: dating, shacking-up (how else to put that?), and how to manage breakups easily. The Cowie book has much more class, and is really about how to personify graciousness and elegance. It's an important lesson to learn as you are getting married, for as Cowie says, you are showing the world who you are now, in these all-important moments.

I would not recommend getting the companion to this "For the Groom" unless you are sure he will want to read it. I bought the two books together and my fiance has yet to do anything but sneer at it. However, I am reading the groom book as well, and find it amusing, as different topics are covered in each book, and it wouldn't hurt to have the bride read the groom book and vice versa.

This would make a wonderful engagement gift, and though Cowie is text-heavy in the book and does not show picture after picture, I appreciated that, as I did want to read a book about planning and etiquette, rather than look at yet another picture book. One tiny annoying thing, there's a lot of name-dropped from celebs, but sometimes it's warranted. He tells you great ideas from celeb weddings, which do serve to make you think creatively.

This book stands out from the crowd in great ways.

I cannot express how much I enjoyed reading this book. It was instructional and had some very clever ideas I had not seen in the other fifty wedding books I've read in the last few months, however the photographs were even more impressive. I highly recommend this to any bride, although especially to those attempting to plan a semi-formal-formal elegant wedding.

I am a wedding consultant and was fortunate enough to get an autographed copy. "For the Bride" is beautifully written and a must for all brides that are interested in socially accepted and gracious living. I found it very inspiring and practical. I highly recommend it to all my clients. It is a book you want to run out and buy the minute the ring is on the finger. It is the top of the line in wedding reading.

I purchased this book for myself, and know that I will be buying it again to give as a gift. This book is my reminder to enjoy being engaged and gives great tips to make the most of your engagement time. "For the Bride" contains invaluable information for the engaged woman that I haven't seen anywhere else. Cowie's writing is thoughtful, refined and relaxing. It can be read as a whole, in chapters, or in the small "question & answer" sections. For those of you who think that this book is for people with lots of money... this is meant to be a jumping off point. Cowie gives many suggestions of how things can be done, and stresses that anything can be done differently and altered to your own personal style. (Not everything has to be expensive!) This book is THE tool to develop the style for your wedding and your marriage. I plan on purchasing "For the Groom" for my fiance as soon as possible.

It is so easy to get swept away by the monumental task of planning a wedding. Reading a few pages of Colin's book each evening before sleep has been a wonderful reminder of what really matters: cherishing my husband-to-be, caring for him and for our families, being warm and gracious. Being engaged is a wonderful opportunity to shine, while all eyes are smiling on you, and to set the tone for your future life together as a couple.

Full of useful suggestions and gentle humor, Colin's book is an inspiration.

I own so many wedding books that I often get overwhelmed when contemplating my wedding plans, but this book has such wonderful concrete ideas that I have used it from day one. It is very text rich, so you should give yourself at least one hour to sift through it, but it is well worth your time.
Colin Cowie is a wedding planning genius and his ideas have helped me compromise on a few things, especially since our wedding is not a big budget ball.

I liked some of Cowie's advice, such as thinking of yourwedding as a way to set the style for your life together -- he got meto think about how we will entertain (instead of going out to an impersonal bar for a quick drink with friends on a weeknight, Cowie suggests:"Why not invite them into your home for a pitcher of icy Cosmopolitans and some wonderful olives, cheeses and crusty bread that you picked up on the way home from work?'' But when he tells me how movie stars and other rich and famous folks put on their weddings, I think, "Yeah, right'' -- I don't have an unlimited budget! His last chapter also discusses "Disagreements: how to survive and solve them" -- I think I'll turn to books by psychologists, not an entertaining guru, for this kind of advice.

Mr. Cowie opened my eyes to the many possibilities for my wedding day, while strenuously reminding me throughout that graciousness, kindness, and thoughtfulness must always be present. Yes, some of his ideas are costly, but he consistently points out that the object is not what is spent, but the way in which it is done--always with respect to the people around you. His tips for entertaining during the wedding day and after made me want to start planning some parties right away!