Bestselling author Susan Wiggs literally wrote the book on happily-ever-after love. But orchestrating her daughter Elizabeth's real-world wedding turned into a different story altogether, and one that takes two to tell—the mother and the bride.
Here is the all-too-true tale of a mother and daughter collaborating on life's ultimate celebration—a dream wedding. Often poignant, sometimes irreverent and always hilarious, this charming book is also packed with useful advice from both ends of the cupcake-tasting table. Join mother and daughter as they wade through the trenches of flowers and favors, grueling gown decisions…and the cold, cruel realities of a budget. With luck, love and loads of patience, they come out on the other side, bloodied but unbowed, replete with life lessons—and closer than ever before.
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Bestselling romance novelist Wiggs (The Lakeshore Chronicles series, et al.) and daughter Elizabeth, an M.B.A. candidate, have pooled their talents to create a humorous, informative guide to planning a wedding. Alternating narratives balance the authors' viewpoints, and "cheat sheets" at the end of each chapter sum up the tips and strategies. The authors offer tips for typical wedding tasks like choosing a dress and a photographer, plus strategies for handling unexpected problems, such as mom's insistence that young cousins be included in daughter's carefully selected bridesmaid pool. Tucked in among the wedding-planning advice in this enjoyable read are thoughtful musings on the emotional implications of an impending wedding, from a mother's realization that she's no longer the center of her daughter's world to a daughter's struggle to balance showing appreciation while asserting her own wishes. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Best-selling romance novelist Susan Wiggs and her daughter, Elizabeth, are extraordinarily close. So close that Elizabeth calls her mother every time she takes a walk outside. So close that Susan picked her daughter�s now-husband for her off Facebook. Enjoyment of this joint memoir and wedding-planning manual will depend a lot on whether this closeness strikes readers as sweet or pathological. The two tell their story in alternating chapters and offer wedding-advice tidbits in between. This format creates a sort of breathless tone that suits the fairy-tale-princess wedding they�re trying to plan. The few moments of genuine conflict are quickly glossed over in a way that makes you long to attend either a joint therapy session or a boxing match featuring the Wiggs women. There�s no doubt that the expensively dressed Susan would prevail in both settings over the cutesy woman-child she has raised. Although much of the planning advice is suspect, the book will definitely appeal to those actual and would-be mothers of the brides who already love Wiggs� romance novels. --Marta Segal Block
Susan Wiggs's life is all about family, friends...and fiction. She's been featured in the national media, including NPR's Talk of the Nation, and is a popular speaker locally and nationally.
From the very start, her writings have illuminated the everyday dramas of ordinary people. At the age of eight, she self-published her first novel, entitled "A Book About Some Bad Kids."
Today, she is an international best-selling, award-winning author, with millions of copies of her books in print in numerous countries. Her recent novel, Marrying Daisy Bellamy, took the #1 spot on the New York Times Bestseller List, and The Lakeshore Chronicles have won readers' hearts around the globe. Her books celebrate the power of love, the timeless bonds of family and the fascinating nuances of human nature.
She lives with her husband and family at the water's edge on an island in the Pacific Northwest, where she divides her time between sleeping and waking.
I couldn't put down this incredibly heart warming book by mother-daughter duo Elizabeth and Susan Wiggs. At some point in our lives, the majority of us get married. We all talk about our perfect engagement, shower, wedding and honeymoon. What we often forget is all of the hilarious things that happen leading up to and during a wedding. I laughed, I cried, I learned a lot and I had an opportunity to experience this delightfully charming family's wedding, from engagement to honeymoon.
I recommend this book for anyone who is getting married, is already married or ever plans to have the perfect wedding. I couldn't have asked for a more honest account of one of the most important days of many of our lives. Beautifully written and delivered.
If not for Amazon Vine, this is not a book I would have picked up on my own. I've been married for more than a decade now (wow, really?) and being a mom for life is far more engrossing and all-encompassing than being a bride for a day. Apologies to the newly engaged for the news, but it's true. If you are planning a wedding, enjoy it being all about you this once, because that will NEVER again happen after your hear the doctor say, "here comes the head." In fact, you'll probably never use the bathroom again on your own, but that's a gruesome tale for another book ...
I did not have a dream wedding. I did not even have a mediocre wedding. I had a nightmare wedding, done on a dime (almost literally) and filled with dysfunctional family and their drunken mishaps that ended with my husband and I scraping together money for the limo we didn't want, but my father insisted on giving us as a "gift," then neglected to actually pay for. Our "big day" ended up with us ripping open wedding cards while the guy, who took only cash, watched and waited impatiently. Not exactly brunch a the Plaza.
But even my friends who had "ideal" weddings later tend to regret, or at least question, the time and money (and, unlike in this story, it's usually theirs, not their parent's) spent on a single day. A day that you plan for upwards of a year and, even if nothing at all goes wrong, is over so swiftly no one has time to enjoy, or even experience, all those little details you agonized over. (I will say that the honeymoon ... Now that's worth blowing a bundle on. Memorable, private and altogether incredible if you do it right. Whenever I see brides bust the budget on the wedding and skip, or really skimp, on the honeymoon, I always shake my head.... THAT is the week, or two weeks, you'll remember, not the three or four hours that pass in a blur surrounded my so many people you'll never recall all of them.)
That said, I remain a hopeless romantic on many levels, so I didn't hate this soft focus look at wedding planning. It was sweet and cutely written, with alternating mother-daughter memories ... But, that's also kind of the problem: it was way TOO cute and contained basically zero real problems and solutions that wouldn't occur to you only if you lack any form of common sense. (Does anyone need a book to tell them they can save money by using fewer flowers? Or that you should spend more on the items you care about?)
The bride is beautiful, her relationship with her mother eye-rollingly ideal, her bridegroom the picture of understanding, not to mention a dreamy Prince Charming (in looks AND manners), money is abundant and provided gleefully by the bride's parents, in-laws are adoring, debt is nonexistent and, for the most part, discord is of the, "I love you more," "NO, I love YOU more," variety. It's all just too, too perfect to believe ... Or learn anything from. Unless your last name is "Cleaver," and you live in a sitcom, your family is NOT this harmonious, and never will be.
I think my biggest issue is that brides-to-be reading this story could end up more demoralized than inspired, because the truth is this young, just-starting-out couple, budget or not, had a VERY lavish wedding that I'm sure very few people buying this book in hopes of money-saving hints will be able to match. Seriously, this girl's proposal was probably nicer, and more lavish (with a larger budget), than many people's wedding ceremonies. And, while I think that's great for her and don't mind hearing all about it, it's not exactly a helpful hint for someone looking to walk down the aisle. If your fiancee didn't decorate your house with rose petals, video tape his proposal and then whisk you away for a weekend in a four-star hotel, it doesn't mean your wedding--or marriage--is doomed. Those types of experiences are the exception, not the norm.
I sincerely hope this very cute and sweet young couple go the distance, but think it's important to remember that how their lives, and marriage, turn out, will have very little to do with their beautiful day and everything to do with what comes every day afterwards. And, while this book says that, more or less, at least once every chapter, it really is consumed with the hullabaloo of a wedding, and not the lifetime of a marriage.
As an old married lady who once anguished about her own aborted fairy tale day, I can attest that, 15 years later, the "big day" just doesn't seem that important anymore (what was I so upset about again?) ... It has been replaced by lots more, far less frilly, but much more fabulous, moments with my husband.Read more ›
From the perspective of a typical dude, completely unaware of the imminent onslaught of decisions and stress that go along with the ring you just put on her finger, this book should be a must-read. It's useful AND hilarious. Not only will it prepare you for some of the impending chaos, but you may even pick up some tips that will make you a hero on the single most documented day of your life.
In order to really enjoy this book and its subject, you have to be in a wedding type of mind frame. I got it from Amazon Vine thinking it would be this funny and cute book (which it is at times, i got a few chuckles) but I just simply could not relate to anything. I"m not getting married nor do i ever intend to, and i don't have a particularly close relationship with my mother. If you fall into either one of those categories, I wouldn't get this book, but then again you probably wouldn't be getting it anyways...It was quite sappy and overly sweet, a bit too sweet for me. But I will say I did like the dual perspective in the book.
I'm going to pass this off to a friend getting married soon, i'm sure she'll enjoy it and hopefully it will take her mind off of everything going on. If you're in this position, pick the book up but be informed its not a tip or how to book by any means. Just a fun, mindless read.
I first saw an ad for this book in a bridal magazine and after already having a few tense moments with my mom regarding my upcoming wedding, I thought this might offer some good advice. But this turned out to do much more than that. From the first page I was sucked in. There were uncanny similarities between Elizabeth and I. My mom's name is Susan, I'm from Seattle, my mom put my engagement on Facebook the night I got engaged before I had a chance to, and the list goes on.... But besides all of this, the story was real, it was poignant, it made me feel like I wasn't alone in my experience of this crazy time. I immediately gave it to my mom to read, who enjoyed it as much as I did. And I'm recommending it to every bride I know.
Being a menopausal woman and watching Princess Bride romances from afar, I thought I would breeze through the pages with some chuckles. (I had read excepts of a few pages on line). Well, I giggled and heartily laughed.. But, I wasn't prepared to tear up, cry and sob reading pages near the end. This book is not about a designer, sixteen tiered wedding cake nor the world's largest diamond ring. Wiggs and Wiggs brilliantly intertwined helpful, innovative tips for planning weddings as well as sharing real life moments and raw emotions that could be helpful for brides to be or just being a guest. Whether it be a wedding, anniversary, birth, a loved one's passing or a back yard barbeque: it's all about LIFE, LOVE, FAMILY and FRIENDS. Heck, Elizabeth even throws in a bit HEALTH to boot. Her honesty and sincerity is amazing. I don't think I would share the missing toenail that was painted...but glad she did. ROFL. It will be interesting to read the next book!
