The Knot Complete Guide to Weddings in the Real World: The Ultimate Source of Ideas, Advice, and Relief for the Bride and Groom and Those Who Love Them. [Paperback]

Carley Roney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 30, 2003

Planning for the big day? Here are the most up-to-date answers to all of your questions in the book from the editors of the acclaimed wedding website, The Knot.

Overwhelmed by the countless questions and details your wedding entails? Don’t despair! The Knot Complete Guide to Weddings in the Real World takes you step-by-step from your engagement to the big day, from the reception to the honeymoon. Inside you’ll find checklists, worksheets, insider advice, and in-depth sections on:

How to personalize your wedding
Updated wedding etiquette
Creating a realistic budget
Sneaky cost-cutting tips
Dress shopping advice
Tips for working with florists, caterers, officiants, and others
Invitation wording
Vows and ceremony details
Unique wedding customs

ALL NEW SECTIONS ON: Planning Online and Destination Weddings

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bookstore shelves brim with wedding guides, and while this one might not offer earth-shattering planning advice, it's got just about everything a future bride and groom need to prepare for the big day. Editor-in-chief Roney, along with the editors of The Knot magazine and TheKnot.com, share their extensive knowledge about weddings in this friendly, revised and updated volume. The book addresses the basics, the tiny details and the things that most young couples don't realize that they need to know-such as that it's better to put an even number of guests at each reception table, so that everyone has a partner for conversation. Among the chapters are tips to take couples from pre-engagement to post-honeymoon planning, snapshots and stories of real weddings and answers to wedding FAQs, as well as general advice. Hiring a black limo, for instance, the authors reveal, is 10% percent cheaper than hiring a white one, and wedding videos should be stored upright and away from electronic equipment. At first glance, this book's hundreds of pages might make the whole process seem even more overwhelming, but Roney offers a thorough, friendly one-stop guide.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“The chicest ‘wed’ site in cyberspace.” —Vogue

“Don’t get hitched without The Knot! . . . It has help for every conceivable detail before, during, and after the wedding.” —Business Week

“The Knot is a megasource for everything from dresses to tips for the bachelor party.” — Newsweek

“Hip, informal, and humorous, this book includes all the basics of modern matrimony.” — Dallas Morning News

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Broadway Books; 2nd ed. edition (December 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767916425
• ISBN-13: 978-0767916424
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #48,110 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #58 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Weddings

More About the Author

Carley Roney is at the helm of the world's favorite wedding brand as editor in chief of TheKnot.com and its sister sites, TheNest.com (for newlyweds) and TheBump.com (for first-time parents). She appears regularly on national television shows, including Oprah, Today and The View. She is the author of several popular wedding and home decor books from The Knot and The Nest and will be releasing a highly anticipated baby book, "The Baby Bump". "The Baby Bump" will feature expert and real mom advice on everything future moms really want to know.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good all-around resource, November 17, 2005

By 

Amy Ebelhack "Amy Ebelhack" (Charlotte, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Knot Complete Guide to Weddings in the Real World: The Ultimate Source of Ideas, Advice, and Relief for the Bride and Groom and Those Who Love Them. (Paperback)

I found this book helpful as I began planning our wedding. I've never been much of a "wedding person," so prior to getting engaged I hadn't spent much time figuring out which flowers I wanted in my bouquet or what color my bridesmaid dresses should be. This book was exactly the crash-course I needed to get oriented and then get to work.

At first the planning was a little overwhelming, but The Knot Complete Guide to Weddings in the Real World provided a great overview in the first section of the book, before delving into the endless details in the second section. This format works well, and the book is well-organized, with the middle section comprised of chapters on all of the aspects of your wedding: your gown, the ceremony, the reception, music, photography, etc. That makes it easy to find exactly what I need to know depending on what I'm working on at the moment. The third section includes helpful information on all kinds of situations you may face, from spats with your darling fiance, to cross-cultural issues, to managing your future inlaws.

One of the best features of The Knot Guide is that it doesn't assume you know a lot about planning a wedding, but it doesn't talk down to you, either. It includes a lot of helpful illustrations, explanations, and glossaries to help you figure out what different bouquet shapes mean, what kind of cake frosting works best depending on where you're having your reception, and what the different shades of white are when shopping for your gown. Reading this book helped give me the information I needed to communicate effectively with my vendors and "speak their language."

Overall, this book works best as both a guide and a resource--it walks you through everything step-by-step, and is also helpful to refer back to as you progress through your planning. Because of its general nature, it's not the only book I used when planning our wedding, but it is one of the most useful.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great all around wedding guide, October 12, 2006

By 

D. Clements "DC" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Knot Complete Guide to Weddings in the Real World: The Ultimate Source of Ideas, Advice, and Relief for the Bride and Groom and Those Who Love Them. (Paperback)

As the groom-to-be, I originally was not as interested in reading books about wedding planning as my wife. After hearing way too many times that I was not helping enough with the wedding planning and decision making, I started paging through this book. I quickly became engrossed in the book and soon found myself becoming more involved in helping with the planning. The book is well organized and reads as if the author was speaking to you directly in a casual conversation. It walks you through the wedding planning from choosing a date and location through writing the thank you notes. There were very good explanations of the various dress and tuxedo options, which previously all looked the same to me. I really appreciated the advice on developing the invitee list and dealing with family and in-laws- two of the most stressful parts of the planning process. I would highly recommend this book to any couple getting ready to tie the knot.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great book to start with, August 31, 2005

By 

Sally Roman (Rochester, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Knot Complete Guide to Weddings in the Real World: The Ultimate Source of Ideas, Advice, and Relief for the Bride and Groom and Those Who Love Them. (Paperback)

I just started planning my wedding and found this book extremely helpful. It has all the details and steps of a wedding and great ideas for different options for each of them. For every part of the wedding planning I find my self referring to the book to see what exactly I am supposed to do and how early before the wedding I should do it. It also has some creative ideas to reduce costs. The book does not have very helpful checklists and I am using another book for that.