Customer Reviews

Wedding Etiquette Hell: The Bride's Bible to Avoiding Everlasting Damnation

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Clearly from many of the reviews I've read here, many of her sychophantic minions from Etiquette Hell have written their own "reviews" to bolster sales of their mascot's book.

There is nothing in this book that cannot be read for free from your public library. Jeanne Hamilton is too full of herself and mean spirited for my taste and many of the tales are just a retelling of what has already been posted on her website. Some of the stories are quite old and can be looked up online and read for free.

Save your money towards your wedding instead of wasting it on buying an unecessary book.

This is not a guide, it's a collection of wedding horror stories other people have submitted to the author's website. You can read those stories for free.

The author's attempt at wit falls far short of the mark...she comes across as a mean-spirited boor. For real wedding advice, pick up Peggy Post's updated edition of Emily Post's Wedding Etiquette instead.

Wedding Etiquette Hell contains stories of supposedly bad wedding etiquette from the editor's well-known Etiquette Hell website.

The book started off great, but then I got to the one that purported to show "bad taste" but which in reality was a smug, very subtle put-down of a non-WASP tradition. Soon I realized that many of the stories Ms. Hamilton chose from her website for this book aren't actually poking fun at individual foibles but at other cultures and peoples. It's all coded bigotry - bigotry against men, against non-WASP cultures, against non-Americans (especially the English - oh how does she loathe the English), and even against the poor.

It's really unsettling to find so much coded bigotry in a book purporting to be about avoiding bad taste. I mean, laughing at people who do stupid things is fine, but laughing at them because they don't fulfill the unspoken expectations of the rich, white, American elite? I can't think of anything less funny, or in worse taste.

The sad part about this is that the coded bigotry in this book could (and probably does) leave people thinking that good manners have more to do with contempt for other people than about not treating other people badly. Miss Manners does it better and without the undercurrent of contempt: she's funnier too.

I hardly have to add that this book doesn't actually give any advice that a bride could use: it's mainly just "point a finger and laugh at the stupid men/foreigners/poor/English; aren't we smug white female Americans better and smarter than they are?".

I really enjoyed this book and got a lot out of it. I would have given it a higher review than 3 stars, but I did have some issues with the book:

1. The author was too negative about certain wedding traditions, mainly the practice of having bridesmaids. She repeatedly used the phrase: "Honor" of being a bridesmaid, with the word honor in quotes. I found that very irritating, because as a recent bridesmaid myself, I can say that I was quite honored by the role despite the expense and time required.

2. A majority of the advice in the book can be boiled down to: Be a decent human being. Most of the stories are about a bride or a person who behaved very cruelly or even insanely. These stories were usually VERY entertaining, but didn't yield much practical advice.

As I said though, I really did enjoy this book and the author was able to win me over on a number of issues, most especially the issue of photography. I had been planning to have a 45 minute gap between ceremony and reception at my upcoming wedding, but the author was able to convince me that that would be rude, and that prewedding photography can be special in it's own way. There were also some good practical tips on socializing with guests, etc.

I do recommend this book, but you'll need to read other, more complete wedding etiquette books to get all the necessary practical advice!

In this appallingly correct and entertaining, Ms. Jeanne of etiquettehell.com shares her experience (sometimes painfully acquired) of scrupulously correct behavior for brides and grooms. Despite what the wedding indu$stry tells you, anything does NOT go today.

Proving that polite behavior never goes out of style, Ms. Jeanne blows "traditions" such as money dances and family-hosted bridal showers out of the water, as well as debunking myths such as "the guest's wedding gift must equal the cost of their dinner at the receptions" (by correctly pointing out that receptions are FOR the GUESTS and NOT an after-wedding party for the bride and groom) and the prevailing notion that one is automatically entitled to gifts from friends.

Should be required reading for every bride, groom, bride and groom's parents, and anybody else who wants to maintain an illusion of civilization in a world that's fast losing it.

i read this entire book from cover to cover and I found it to be not only hilarious, but extremely helpful, as it covers basic etiquette concerning weddings that maybe not everyone is already aware of. i guess the main thing is that it basically illustrates how doing little "harmless" things that an ignorant or just plain naive person would do (i.e. putting wedding registry info along with an invitation, "forgetting" to give thank-you notes) could result in people getting really offended and/or hurt. the examples (true stories!) are quite interesting and funny to read, and make you realize how you really don't want to become one of those bridezillas! This is probably the book equivalent to that show on WE (can't remember the name) featuring "bridezillas" going nutso during their wedding planning. The thing is, once you see how ugly and nasty people like that can become, you'll want to do everything in your power not to turn into one of them. :)

I am a devotee of Miss Jeanne's website, so this book was exactly what I thought it would be. I am not a bride-to-be, but I have seen enough wedding disasters a bridezillas to know that this book must be read by anyone who will in any way be involved in a wedding. Miss Jeanne's inclusion of actual stories submitted to her as examples of what not to do, and her framing the chapters with the fictitious bride and bridal consultant is excellent organization and writing of this book. This book is not going to teach you what colors to choose or what flowers would look best, but it will deal with the important things, such as not looking or acting like a greedy bride and groom and when to ignore your mother for the sake of true taste and etiquette.

I absolutely loved reading this book. I hated to put it down to go to work! Not only are the stories in the book shocking, they are funny and entertaining. I also learned a few etiquette rules that I had not thought about yet in the process of planning our wedding. I highly recommend this book for all brides!

I am a fan of the author's Etiquette Hell web site (which covers more than weddings), so when I became a bride-to-be I picked this book up. What sets it apart from other etiquette guides, besides not having hundreds of pages, is that it uses real-life stories and covers only the areas that people are most likely to care about. In other words, it's relevant. She introduces etiquette rules and uses stories to illustrate them. Some of the stories are a bit extreme, but it is effective to get the point across.

Some people may think that it is petty, but I don't think it is. Personally, I stopped talking to a friend when she didn't invite me to her wedding (and made it clear from the get-go that I wasn't invited) but still waved her engagement ring in my face and invited me to her bridal shower. Those are the things people really care about. No one's really going to remember or even care about whether the train on your gown was cathedral or chapel-length or what flowers and cake you chose and this book doesn't even address it. Instead, it covers things like being sure you have enough seating, having a venue that is appropriate, how to treat guests/family/the wedding party, invitation and announcement etiquette, registry etiquette, and generally not becoming a bridezilla.

I subtracted a star, though, because the wedding planner/bride conversation sections probably should have been left out of the book. they just rehash what she had already spent the previous several pages saying and are unnecessary. Overall, though, this is a must for any bride-to-be.

I thought this book was hillarious as well as a great guide for any bride to be. Anyone who has ever been a bride or attended weddings probably knows a horror story or two regarding them, and can really relate to this book. I am using the advice planning my own wedding, and it's a much better read than most of the boring bridal etiquette books.