Customer Reviews

Gay and Lesbian Weddings: Planning the Perfect Same-Sex Ceremony

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

 

 

Let's face it: getting ready for a wedding isn't exactly a laugh a minute. The sheer stress of the endeavor is enough to make anyone slightly loopy. Gay and Lesbian Weddings to the rescue. Not only does this book answer the questions that everyone wants to know, it'll make you grin in the process.

Every chapter of the book begins with the experiences of a real couple and then proceeds to give helpful advice on just about every topic you can think of. The beginning chapters even address political and social issues, making valuable insights that will aid anyone in defending gay marriage.

The authors are experienced weddingistas (I think I just made that word up) who definitely know what they're talking about.

I am not sure what I expected from this book. Maybe I have a bias since I am a professional event planner who also happens to be a lesbian. First off I must say the book does offer practical, easy to understand advice for any couple planning a wedding. The chapters are well laid out and packed with practical ideas. On the other hand the book does have a more gay male friendliness than lesbian friendliness. The book is authored by a gay male and straight female. So, the true lesbian point of view is kind of lost in the shuffle. Silly issues arise for the lesbian side of things assuming that all lesbian relationships are made up of two masculine females or two effeminate females. The vast assumption is made that all the members of a lesbian wedding party will wear dresses. The silly question also arises as to which woman will toss the bouquet or if two should be tossed. My partner would not be caught dead in a dress and do not even try to push a bouquet into her hands. I do commend Mr. Toussaint on his ability to make a well rounded wedding guide for the "rainbow" family, but his research (if he did any) should have include vast types of lesbians the same as it included vast types of gay male relationships. For this reason I can not give the book a full five stars because it simply does not address the issues of lesbian couples.

I read Mr. Toussaint's original article on gay and lesbian weddings last fall in Brides, found it enlightening but wished there were more. I was delighted to learn that he'd put together an entire book!

Love the real-life stories of couples at the start of each chapter -- found that they apply to anybody, gay or straight, who are getting married. That's why I've given copies to friends and family, gay and straight, whether they're planning on getting married to their mates or not. And I'd love to see if Mr. Toussaint can follow up with another edition -- I'm sure this is a book that can be updated regularly with new info and new real-life stories. I'll be looking forward to new editions, and I'll keep giving copies to couples as gifts.

I heard about this book after a friend of mine in L.A. went to a signing. Thanks, Amazon, for carrying it. Toussaint and Leo did a great job telling us how to plan the wedding, and I'd recommend this book to anyone. But what I liked best, and didn't expect, was that the book told us all about the legal stuff; we might want to adopt someday, and there is a whole section about the different laws from each state. There was also a part on how to find an officiant, which helped a great deal. I thought I was going to have to spend days on the Internet searching for places to get help in that area, but it's all spelled out in the book. They give a whole list of sites to go to. We hope to someday make it to Massachusetts to make the whole thing legal, but until then, and after reading this book, we feel our "marriage" is as real as the best of them.

I recommend this book completely. It is funny, but it takes the subject matter seriously, giving practical advice much of which is useful for any couple, straight or gay. The quizzes and style guides are fun, and the step-by-step wedding planning check list is enormously practical. Lots of other guides were written in the 90s, but this book is new out this year, and it shows.

I'm deep in the midst of planning a wedding. Early on, I checked out this book and two others (The Complete Guide to Gay and Lesbian Weddings and the Essential Guide to Lesbian and Gay Weddings) from the library to see which ones I might want to buy. I expected this book to be my favorite, but found it next to useless.

This book was cute and sometimes funny but lacked substance. All of the advice was based on a very traditional wedding and assumed a level of parental involvement (and their $$) I found pretty unlikely for many couples. My main concerns: chapters full of fluffy fillers, inaccurate information and missing key pieces.

First, there was no information about finding a reception or ceremony site, other than a cute but silly "find you style" quiz. I was hoping for concrete information on choosing a gay-friendly site, working with vendors, signing a contract and ways to hold a wedding at your home. nada.

Instead, there's a whole chapter devoted to quizzes on sex after marriage (funny but unhelpful) and another of legal issues (adoption, domestic partnerships etc). The legal chapter is already out of date and inaccurate. Please please do not rely on it. Check out Nolo's A Legal Guide for Lesbian and Gay Couples and the HRC website instead.

Also, the alternative wedding section was only a few pages long. They only included a paragraph each on destination weddings or "ethnic" weddings. I would have been happy to cut out the section on attendents and the presents you should give them in favor of more alternative wedding ideas, creative invitations or ideas on dealing with wedding stress.

I did really like the wedding stories that preceeded each chapter. Definitely the best thing about the book.

But I would still recommend either of the other two books I mentioned instead. The Essential Guide is dated, but still the best of the bunch in my opinion. The Complete Guide came out in 2004 and has a very reassuring tone.

"Same-sex marriage has not just inspired political books arguing the cases for and against...It's also generated a terrific 'how-to' book. In this smart, concise guide to gay unions, David Toussaint answers questions of taste, style, and etiquette that will spare you hours of prenuptial bickering."--The Advocate

This book is very practical and incuded more than expected. Legal issues, adopting, all good information to keep in mind. And the real-life stories are used well. Great book!

Pretty decent for any lay-person planning a same-sex wedding...and by lay-person I mean not a wedding professional. I am a wedding DJ preparing for some upcoming gay wedding receptions. So far all I'm really discovering is that besides the choices of whether or not to follow typical wedding traditions...there really isn't much different between your typical bride-groom wedding day and a same sex wedding. So I didn't find much "new" information here. But, I will say if you're starting from scratch, without much knowledge of wedding planning, I definitely recommend this book.

I ordered the book because my daughter is a lesbian and she is getting "married" in August 2011. The book was in great shape, the content of the book was not really what I wanted. I wanted more infomation on how to write invitations and announcements but it didn't touch on that. It did have a lot of information on where to go to get married and places to buy things for gay and lesbian weddings though