I Do. I Did. Now What?! Life After the Wedding Dress [Hardcover]

Jenny Lee (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2002

Like the Margaret Mead of the married, Jenny Lee investigates the care and feeding of those extraordinary creatures called husbands. Her Vera Wang gown still warm, she explores the uncharted territory of suddenly being a wife, with a real-life husband and one television remote, and shares the mysteries of:

• How to deal with the freakish occurrence of getting beaten at Scrabble, now that you can no longer retreat to your own apartment
• What to do when you find out that he's using your very, very expensive, very, very hard-to-find shampoo.
• Figuring out who is least inept at handling the money, including how to make it through a weekend when the ATM comes up zeroes
• Confronting dinner duty while staying faithful to your guiding principle: "It's not that I can't cook. I don't cook."
• Plus, the Great American Couple-Off, surviving the Perfect Fight, Date Night, and more.

Before the wedding, the most anyone told Jenny Lee about marriage was that it was "an adjustment," but "nice." So she took it upon herself to write the one book to read before (or definitely after) saying "I do." Hilarious, sharply observed, sweet, feisty, and courageous, it finally answers the eternal nuptial question: Am I really legally bound to a man who leaves mustard-covered knives on clean kitchen towels?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Were Candace Bushnell to chronicle her first year of marriage, it might look something like former New Yorker-about-town Lee's frank, witty account of coming to terms with what matrimony really means. When the sparkles on her engagement ring have dimmed, the Vera Wang has been packed for posterity and the words "until death do us part" have begun to sink in, Lee confronts her "glass-slipper fantasy" of marriage. Reality, she discovers, requires a great deal of sacrifice (moving to frumpy Boston), compromise, (sharing her exorbitantly expensive shampoo) and adjustment (grappling with putting on the "newlywed nineteen"). From cooking to nagging, from cleaning to fiscal responsibility ("I learned the hard way that my husband doesn't consider a Neiman Marcus last-call shoe sale an emergency") and from the art of couple socializing back to nagging again, Lee's anecdotes from the post-honeymoon period go from very amusing to a bit stale by the book's close. Luckily, though, by then Lee has learned to appreciate those subtle yet intimate "happily-ever-after" moments, which is an important lesson for detail-obsessed brides destined for disillusionment in the wake of all the nuptial hoopla. And to the bridesmaids who will purchase this book as a send-off, take comfort: now Bridezilla has someone else to bug.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Who is Lee? And why has she written a book on surviving marriage? While she intends to be whimsical and funny-the publisher, in fact, is marketing this to the Bridget Jones demographic-she comes off as snotty, shallow, and cold. She compares housewifery to slavery and insists that her flower- and jewelry-savvy husband is not gay, for example. Beautiful and married to a doctor, Lee dully drones on in a whiny list of likes (shoe shopping) and dislikes (picking up after her husband). Other concerns include expensive French sheets and rare, exorbitantly priced shampoos. Perhaps it's unnecessary for her to mention that she felt "wholly unprepared for how big an impact marriage would have" on her life. Accordingly, her "advice" is useless (e.g., "honeymoon calories don't count!"). Not recommended, even as light entertainment; for a more substantial view of matrimony, consider Iris Krasnow's Surrendering to Marriage or Anne Roiphe's Married: A Fine Predicament.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Workman Publishing Company (January 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076112599X
• ISBN-13: 978-0761125990
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,017,419 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Laugh-out loud funny!, November 24, 2003

By 

Beth Cholette "doctor_beth" (Upstate NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I Do. I Did. Now What?! Life After the Wedding Dress (Hardcover)

This book isn't a guide to marriage any more than Paul Reiser's "Couplehood" is; rather, it's a humorous memoir about one woman's experiences as a newlywed. The book contains many themes universal to all domestic partnerships (not just marriage), including the endless debate of "what's for dinner?," arguments that drag on for days (dubbed here "The Perfect Fight" a la "The Perfect Storm"), and the challenges of trying to be a good mate when the perfect "suburn legend" wife is living next door (she even makes her own onion dip--WITHOUT using Lipton's soup mix). Yes, Lee can come off a bit spoiled and bratty at times--few people will be able to relate to her single, Sex in the City NYC lifestyle of parties and Prada--but overall, she is candid, funny, and willing to be self-effacing. A fun read for anyone struggling to acheive domestic bliss.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars why get married?, July 14, 2006

By 

L. Fisk "laffinghippo" (brooklyn, ny) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I Do. I Did. Now What?!: Life After the Wedding Dress (Paperback)

people are very divided on this book, but i wasn't into it. i guess the author is trying to be funny but she is so shallow, petty, and self centered, it seems to me that she wanted a wedding and not a marriage. last time i checked i enjoy hanging out with my husband, don't really care if he beats me at scrabble, or uses my shampoo. because those things don't matter. i guess if the book was funnier or more insightful i could have gotten beyond the whinning. but when you start the book basically complaining that you went to st. lucia, i can hardly relate.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So True, December 26, 2002

By 

Yvonne Castaneda (Miami Beach, florida United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Do. I Did. Now What?! Life After the Wedding Dress (Hardcover)

Jenny's account of the first two years of marriage cannot be more accurate. I think I may have married her husband's clone, because he would always leave a dirty knife on the kitchen counter I had just wiped down a million times, the bathroom looking like a hurricane just happened to pass through, and dirty glasses everywhere from under the bed to one of my sock drawers.

This book had me laughing out loud and looking back on those first two years of marriage with amusement. Definitely a good read, whether you're married, engaged, dating, single, or simply desperate.