The Perfect Wedding Reception: Stylish Ideas For Every Season [Hardcover]

Maria McBride-Mellinger (Author), Ross Whitaker (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 5, 2000

Once couples decide to say "I do" there are dozens and dozens of decisions to be made. It's hard to know where to begin and even more difficult to fit all the dozens of details together into one wonderful event. Thankfully Maria McBride-Mellinger, author of acclaimed bridal books, stylishly illustrates just how to create a dreamy reception that will be forever memorable.

The Perfect Wedding Reception features exquisite wedding celebrations designed by Maria McBride-Mellinger that capture the magic of each season in refreshing, contemporary style. The nuptial adventure begins in a formal spring garden but soon its off to a beach front for a fanciful summer wedding, to a revolutionary era stone barn for a rustic fall wedding and finally to a gracious country home for a candle lit winter wedding feast.

Glorious photos of each location, flowers, menu selections, table details, centerpieces, bouquets, invitations, wedding cakes and favors tell the story of each wedding with helpful tips and most importantly McBride-Mellinger's favorite resources from around the country that will actually help bring your wedding reception to life.

Whatever season you choose to marry Maria McBride-Mellinger offers delightful flourishes to tempt every couple as they plan the party of their lives and create memories meant to last a lifetime.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Maria McBride-Mellinger is a nationally recognized wedding stylist.Contributing editor at Brides's magazine and author of The Perfect Wedding, (HarperCollins 1997); The Wedding Dress (Random House1993) and Bridal Flowers(Bulfinch Press 1992) she is also an entertainment columnist and industry spokesperson.McBride-Mellinger lives in New York City.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1 edition (December 5, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060192984
• ISBN-13: 978-0060192983
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #190,975 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great ideas and details for across the seasons!, February 21, 2001

By 

A. Maxham "Just trying to help..." - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Perfect Wedding Reception: Stylish Ideas For Every Season (Hardcover)

I wanted to get some sort of book for ideas because all that the brick-thick bridal magazines do is show you wedding gown after wedding gown with the occasional bridesmaids gown thrown in for variety. I wanted ideas for place settings, place cards, flower arrangements, cakes, favors, and even menus and was getting frustrated.

When I ordered this book, I was a little concerned because it is advertised as a reception for each of the four seasons. I'm having a winter wedding, so I was thinking "Oh Great- I'm only going to be able to use a fourth of this book." I was WRONG! Generally speaking this book manages to give you ideas for how to give your wedding (or any formal event) the *feel* of the season, but also gives you detailed ideas that may generalize throughout the year. For example: The spring bouquet with some modification would be beautiful for my December bouquet.

In addition to the seasonal advice, there are sections called "Fine points" dealing with general details such as "confections" (desserts), table accents (for formal, semi-formal and informal occasions), flowers, etc. The ideas that seem to be lacking in the literally foot-tall stack of bridal magazines are here in this book.

Yes, some of the ideas in the book are sorta pricey, but some are less pricey and very do-it-yourself (e.g. Juniper shrubs in galvanized tin buckets, covering the topsoil with moss and tying a silver mesh ribbon around the trunk- VERY cute, and highly do-able).

I highly recommend this book! I do wish there were a book for each of the seasons, but until then, don't be afraid of this one!

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful book full of ideas, April 15, 2001

By 

andrea stieff (baltimore, maryland USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Perfect Wedding Reception: Stylish Ideas For Every Season (Hardcover)

As a special event floral designer, I have a HUGE library of books from all over the world and this is the BEST one I've found so far.I constantly stress to my clients to look at the big picture when planning a wedding, not just one aspect at a time, such as flowers, colors, linens...This books shows how all the elements of a wedding can work together to give you a wonderful event that looks fantastic. Use this book as a jumping off point for your own wedding, it is full of inspiration,and you can adapt many of the ideas to suit your own color scheme and setting.This book is a MUST HAVE for Brides and anyone in the wedding business.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful pictures, but not enough different weddings, May 21, 2004

By 

Kristy M. "kristykat" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Perfect Wedding Reception: Stylish Ideas For Every Season (Hardcover)

This book has wonderful pictures of four weddings, one in each season.

The pictures are truly extraordinary, but they are almost exclusively of these four weddings, so there aren't tons of different ideas for each season, rather one "theme" idea for each season. One thing that disappointed me was that her summer wedding was a casual one on the beach, so if you want more formal ideas for a summer wedding you are out of luck. Like other reviewers have said, most of these perfect presentations would be completely out of a lot of people's price range, but you could definitely pull a few ideas that you loved from her spreads and make it work on a smaller budget. By and large this is a good supplementary book on reception ideas, with tons of photos and some good "idea" text (as opposed to "how-to" text.)