Wedding Kit for Dummies (Soft Cover with CDR) [Paperback]

Marcy Blum (Author), Laura Fisher Kaiser (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 5, 2000

You finally said “yes!” and decided to throw in your lot with Mr. Right. But before you can embark on your new lives together there’s the little detail of your wedding. Handled correctly, it can be what it should be—the most wonderful day of your life. With Wedding Kit For Dummies in your corner, you can guarantee that your wedding celebration is everything you always dreamed it would be.

Whether you’re planning an intimate affair, a huge event, or something in-between, this book/CD package arms you with checklists, templates, worksheets and other useful tools to help you manage all the details. And you get expert tips and advice on, among other things, how to:

• Select the perfect venue
• Track your guest list and RSVPs
• Choosing the food and flowers
• Finding a good photographer
• Negotiate rates with caterers and musicians
• Nail down the wedding-day agenda
• Outfit your wedding p arty
• Plan a destination wedding

Marcy Blum has created magical weddings for hundreds of couples. Now in Wedding Kit For Dummies she shares her tricks-of-the-trade on all aspects of planning, organizing, and pulling off a wedding without a hitch, including such crucial topics as:

• Financing your wedding and staying within your budget
• Seating for meals, tracking gifts, creating invitations and finding the perfect far-away destination for a destination wedding
• Getting all the details of the ceremony right—from choosing an officiant and who walks with whom to cueing the music and dealing with the jitters
• Throwing a whiz-bang reception—covers all the bases including meals, music, flowers, the cake, the bar...all the way down to the send-off

On the bonus CD-ROM you’ll find:

• Live links to top wedding Web resources
• Templates, forms, worksheets, and sample contracts
• A calculator to help you plan your reception
• Spreadsheets to keep track of all your budget details

Your complete wedding planning survival guide, this all-in-one kit is the one accessory every bride-to-be absolutely must have.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you're planning a wedding, accept it now--there's a ton of details mucking up the happy path to the altar. There is so much on your mind that it's easy to freeze up and forget everything, or go crazy and paper the house with cryptic post-it notes. "After all," say authors Marcy Blum and Laura Fisher Kaiser, "a wedding is a complex affair to orchestrate, and keeping track of all those details, phone calls, expenses, and decisions is a job and a half." Organization is key.

Wedding Kit for Dummies breaks the whole planning process down for you with a series of questions, charts, and spreadsheets. Intended as a companion piece to Weddings for Dummies, this book does not help you word your invitations or tell you where your step-grandmother should be seated. Rather, it helps you knowledgeably talk with your stationer (How much extra are the vellum invites? Should the date be written out or numeric?) and helps you chart who will escort whom down the aisle and when.

Weddings can be ridiculously complicated, and almost everyone involved--especially the bride--is running on high. Wedding Kit for Dummies aims to lessen the stress with its comprehensive checklists, examples of contracts (for the caterer, hotel, flowers, DJ, etc.), and Excel spreadsheets (invitation list, RSVP list, budget tracker). Included is a CD-ROM that prints out hard copies of the lists and runs the spreadsheets (you'll need Windows 95 or later or Mac OS 7.5.5 or later to use the CD). And since so many couples plan on using the Internet, Wedding Kit for Dummies includes the Web addresses of many wedding-oriented sites. --Dana Van Nest

From Library Journal

This book/CD-ROM package from the authors of Weddings for DummiesR is not a repeat of previous information but rather a collection, with cross references, of resources and tools for executing the ideas presented in the earlier title. Templates for worksheets, forms, and checklists will help couples track expenses, fine-tune guest lists, negotiate contracts, and compare vendors and sites. These are intended to be generic enough for couples to personalize and customize for their own situation.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: IDG Books; 1st edition (October 5, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764552635
• ISBN-13: 978-0764552632
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 0.8 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #673,323 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #49 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Weddings > Ceremony

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wedding Kit for Dummies, October 27, 2000

By 

Judith S. Weiss "Doctor Judith" (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wedding Kit for Dummies (Soft Cover with CDR) (Paperback)

I never can keep a copy of Weddings for Dummies; I no sooner buy one and I give it as a gift. I bought my first copy because someone told me that the information on flower arrangements would be helpful, even though the event in question was not a wedding. My last copy of Weddings for Dummies is on a shelf in Maine where it did duty in the planning of my son's wedding (a wedding of which Marcy Blum should be proud). When I ordered the Wedding Kit for Dummies, I thought I was replacing my Weddings for Dummies; what I got was a fantastic supplement to Weddings for Dummies, an entirely new book replete with software to make even the most disorganized person an organized party planner. The original book enables the bride-to-be to plan the wedding of her dreams, down to the smallest detail. The new book allows those dreams to take wing; it is a comprehensive "how to do it" book. The CD has forms, contracts and even spread sheets to keep track of expenses. There are checklists for things that most people might not even think of on their own, but which make a special event even more special...like how to evaluate a potential reception site. There are website addresses and sensible advice on how to use the Internet to obtain information and goods. I found the chapter entitled Ten Amazing Places for Destination weddings and Honeymoons especially interesting (I always wondered what it cost to get married at Disneyworld!) In short, if you cannot have Marcy Blum plan your wedding, this is the next best thing. If you are planning on giving this book as an engagement gift, pair it with the first book; the two together are indispensable references for planning the perfect wedding. Marcy Blum and Laura Fisher Kaiser have given us a glimpse of why books will not go the way of dinosaurs, a book that can actually help us interact better with the Internet rather than being replaced by it.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Waste of money, April 28, 2002

By 

O. Giller (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wedding Kit for Dummies (Soft Cover with CDR) (Paperback)

I just bought this book to help me plan for my wedding. I was happy to have a tool to help me keep track of my important information. The only problem is that you can't use it! All you get on this CD are sample that don't help you unless you spend another $35.00 to download "My wedding planner". I decided that it would be worth it. It turns out the the sample in this book is outdated and can't be used with the new internet software. When I tried to download the new software, my computer crashes. I have tried everything to get this software, but without any luck. I have written the company for help (because they don't respond to phone calls) repeatedly. They have not responded. Don't waste your money on this product. It isn't worth it!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars CD-ROM contains too many bugs, December 31, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Wedding Kit for Dummies (Soft Cover with CDR) (Paperback)

I bought this to accompany Weddings For Dummies. Don't bother buying the Kit. The most "helpful" part of the Kit is a budget- tracking spreadsheet -- you enter the costs of wedding items, and it keeps track of how much you're under/over budget. The budget tracker has many, many errors. It omits tens of line items in your total costs. What good is a spreadsheet if it's not set up correctly? Otherwise, the Kit has little information that isn't already covered in Weddings For Dummies.