Conscious Bride's Wedding Planner [Hardcover]

Sheryl Paul (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2003

From the nationally renowned author of The Conscious Bride, this is the only wedding planner that addresses your psychological needs AND the practical particulars of planning a wedding that fits your style and budgetoexpert advice for a sane, sensible, and financially feasible marriage.

This book includes beautiful art, photographs, checklists, worksheets, a 12-month calendar, a section for vendor contact information, and more. Sections cover setting a realistic budget, choosing a wedding location, creating a guest list, finding the right dress, ceremony ideas, and choosing food, flowers, and music. Paul also gives the reader tools for staying in sync with their mate throughout the planning while learning how to compromise. The planner also serves as a keepsake journal that can be referred to throughout the wedding experience.

Dozens of wedding planning guides address the external issues of organizing the perfect wedding. This book also focuses on the inner thoughts and feelings of the bride and groom. Use it to understand how unconscious feelings and unrealistic expectations can tarnish this important event in your life. Deal with your fears and emotions at the same time you plan the actual event. Avoid the detail-mania that can lead to hurt feelings and long-lasting alienation from friends and loved ones. Learn why excessive anxiety over a specific task may be masking an emotional issue that needs resolution. Deal constructively with family-blending, post-bridal blues, and the reality of the first year of marriage.

This book is designed to be both a source of inspiration and a practical tool. It guides you through the minefield of the prenuptial subconscious with an engaging series of exercises. Find solutions to your nagging doubts by creating personal rituals, holding structured conversations with yourself, and keeping a written journal of your experiences. When you've clarified your expectations for yourself, share them with your spouse-to-be and everyone else touched by your wedding.

Paul encourages couples, particularly brides, to get beyond the million-dollar wedding photos presented in magazines and, instead, envision a ceremony, location, and style that truly reflects the core beliefs of the bride and groom and prepares them for the journey ahead.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Bridal Counselor Sheryl Paul offers a thoughtful alternative to "bridezilla," the perfectionist bride who acts as if a flawless pricey wedding will ensure a lasting marriage. Instead, Paul uses a workbook format to invite each woman to become "a conscious bride"--one whose pre-nuptial preparations include both emotional and practical to-do lists. The key is working through the ambivalent feelings that surround each tangible task. And here's the payoff: "Working through uncomfortable feelings while planning a wedding is an opening to joy—-an opportunity to be fully present." Each chapter pairs a practical task, such as choosing a location, creating a budget or writing wedding vows, with an emotional one. For example, in one brilliant section, the practicality of making a guest list is paired with the emotional homework of grieving for lost loves and tackling the need to please. Paul's approach creates a fascinating hybrid of anthropology (using a theory of rites of passage) and depth psychology (acknowledging the shadow side of every wedding.) She then packages these insights with a kicking set of charts and checklists. Though targeted for brides, it is not for women only. Powerful exercises urge couples to align every decision to reflect their identity as a couple. Some brides may object to a walk on the dark side of their wedding plans. But in Paul's capable hands, counsel about fear and loss, florists and white satin dresses co-exist without sounding like Dr. Phil meets the former Martha Stewart. Her advice is fresh, highly practical and optimistic. --Barbara Mackoff

Review

"If there is one book that will help women with a smooth wedding transition, this is it."

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 242 pages
• Publisher: New Harbinger Publications (November 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572243457
• ISBN-13: 978-1572243453
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #232,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I pioneered the field of bridal counseling in 1998. I have since counseled thousands of people worldwide through my private practice, my bestselling books, "The Conscious Bride" and "The Conscious Bride's Wedding Planner," and my websites, www.consciousweddings.com and www.consciousmotherhood.com. I'm regarded as the international expert on the wedding transition and have appeared several times on "The Oprah Winfrey Show", as well as on "Good Morning America" and other top television, radio, and newspapers around the globe. I live in Boulder, CO with my husband and two young sons.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A planner that helps you remember what's most important, May 3, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Conscious Bride's Wedding Planner (Hardcover)

My fiancé and I have been together for nearly eight years. In that time, we've attended and been in more weddings than we can count. While we've loved being part of our friends' celebrations, we've also seen stressed-out grooms and tearful brides, and have heard plenty of, "Our families are making us crazy. This doesn't even seem like our wedding. We should have eloped!" So when we recently decided to marry, that's exactly what we wanted to do.

We are now planning to marry abroad in a tiny, informal civil ceremony, and therefore hardly needed a great big "white wedding" type of planner. But although our ceremony will be small and informal, we want it 1) to go smoothly, and 2) (and most importantly) be meaningful. So, like most brides, I started doing some research. I looked through many wedding planners for tips and suggestions on how to be organized and how to keep the whole process meaningful. Obviously, weddings planners by definition are meant to help you plan, stay on track, be organized, etc., but I didn't get much real help on keeping it meaningful until I got to The Conscious Bride's Wedding Planner.

Now, this book covers many practical topics (in fact, many more than my fiancé and I needed for our plans), but I found it very valuable for a different reason: it focused on so much MORE than wedding planning tasks. The Conscious Bride's Wedding Planner helps guide you through not only the planning, but also your personal and emotional journey. While I won't be wearing a big poofy white dress or having 200 guests in a church wedding, I'm still on a personal and emotional journey toward marriage--and The Conscious Bride's Wedding Planner has helped me along that journey. It addresses the emotions that so many of us go through in preparing to marry and also provides terrific advice on how to incorporate what's really important as you plan.

For example, one suggestion in the book that particularly resonated with me was the idea of writing personal letters to family members and friends before the wedding. What a beautiful way to let these important people know how you have appreciated them, and that you understand things might be different once you are married, but you will continue to cherish their love and support.

The bottom line is this: although many wedding planners can help keep you organized, The Conscious Bride's Wedding Planner goes a step further. It addresses your emotions, your fears and how to incorporate what's most important to you as you plan for your marriage. Thank you, Sheryl Paul, for a terrific wedding resource!

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Conscious Bride - An indispensible wedding planner, January 22, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Conscious Bride's Wedding Planner (Hardcover)

Sheryl's book is thoughtful and comprehensive. It allows a bride to consider everything in preparation for her wedding; the flowers, the guests, and most importantly, her emotions. The book gives exercises for the bride and her future beloved to use to explore how best to make a wedding that reflects them. As a minister, I will reccomend this wedding planner to all of the couples who work with me as a way to feel truly ready when the day comes to walk down the aisle. I give this book 5 stars!!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for non-traditional brides, December 12, 2006

By 

Great Northern "Canuck" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Conscious Bride's Wedding Planner (Hardcover)

I loved this book- it is great at helping you remain centered throughout the process of getting engaged and then married. It focuses on the emotional side of the process and has many excerises to work through, relating many of the aspects of the planing process to emotional events in your life, such as letting go of past relationships and lost loved ones, and asserting yourself (in creating and limiting your guest list). While it does have sections for everything from flowers and food to dress and location, it might not be the definitive planner in terms of planning a really traditional, detail-oriented wedding. However, if what you are looking for is a companion to guide you through the wedding planning process and keep you sane and grounded, this is really an excellent choice. Lots of excercises, worksheets and more, and a companion website- highly recommended!