Customer Reviews

Weddings for Dummies

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I had four months to plan a wedding for 200 guests (my fiance insisted that we do it soon because he didn't want me to wait until next summer to do it), so I had four months to stress instead of twelve. My fiance also would not give me any direction ("If I were to plan it, I would let an Elvis impersonator marry us in Vegas"), and I was working full-time as well. I read those Budget Brides books, but who has time to scavenger hunt for the cheapest dress? I needed some basic help...and fast.

I found Weddings For Dummies *extremely* helpful because I didn't know where to start. This book told me when to contact the photographer, videographer, and reception place, and it gave me tips on questions to ask. The book was an easy--and fun--read. The pictures were gorgeous; I loved what they did with the flowers. After my wedding, I gave this book to a friend who was getting married in the Carribean; she even forwarded it on to another friend!

As far as wedding planning goes, this book is a decent compilation of customs and how-tos for a "typical", $20,000+ American wedding. The writing style can be extremely pretentious and perhaps offensive to brides with small budgets or who wish to have a truly unique ceremony. Buy a few bridal magazines and you'll get most of the information contained herein, and a lot less preaching on the MUST-DOs of nouveau riche etiquette. It doesn't contain much information on cultural weddings, ideas for very individualistic weddings. High brow brides will find it lacking in top rung etiquette and budget brides will likely give up after the first few chapters. There are much better resources out there - www.weddingchannel.com for starters.

As a magazine editor who covers the gift book trade, I see all forms of wedding guides. I found this one to be the most helpful, however, because not only does it cover every conceivable detail a bride must consider in planning her big day, the information is nicely organized into different chapters (cake, flowers, caterer, dress, etc.) for easy referencing. Even better, within each chapter, paragraph-length tidbits are marked with icons symbolizing messages such as "Caution!" or "Plan Ahead!", definitely an aid to those dealing with short attention spans or high levels of stress.

I thought this was a good deal like a lot of the wedding books I bought for my recent wedding. It has lots of cool ideas and much good information on wedding planning. What it *lacks* (like so many other books) is *any* sense of proportion: the sense that most brides are working with a limited budget and have limited time that they are willing to devote to the wedding planning. Come on--for most of us it's a wedding, not the invasion of Normandy! Perfectionistic princesses have enough wedding planners. What we need is one for the rest of us. The only book of that type I've seen is "Weddings for Grownups," which I DO unconditionally recommend for all brides.

While I wouldn't say that this book is the most complete book for planning a wedding, I do feel it is a great starting point. Its hard trying to figure out where to start once you're engaged and this book is really helpful because it helps point you in th edirection of where to start. Also filled with great, relatively simple yet elegant ideas for your wedding.

I read this book recently while trying to plan my own wedding, and came away with very little useful information. The authors have no sense of perspective or proportion; for many of us, planning a wedding is something we do on top of a full-time job and a full-time life, not something we do _instead_ of having a life. In addition, many of the chapters emphasize a lot of small and largely useless details - do I really need to fret about matching the stamps on my invitation and RSVP envelopes? - instead of pointing out that the details which make a wedding memorable are variable, and depend on each couple.

This is another wedding guide that promotes the "more is more" philosophy, urging brides (but never grooms) to spend money if they're unsure about some aspect of the ceremony and reception. Unfortunately, the book does little to help a prospective bride or groom harness their taste and resources and use them to plan a memorable wedding.

Those who are looking for a sane guide on planning a wedding are better served by buying "Weddings for Grownups."

I loved it. It was so informative, funny and helpful that I breezed through the wedding to the envy of all my friends. I have never found a book to be so helpful,easy to read and now give it to all my friends. There was nothing that this amazing book didn't cover. I can't recommend this book highly enough. It's the best.

No pretty cover and no pretty pictures which may be considered marketing suicide for a wedding planning book. But yet this one wedding planning book is jam packed with information! This information is written to a diverse readership with various wedding budgets. Budgets dictate one's priorities and one's priorities determine which information is useful and which is useless. Here is a wealth of information for brides to decide for themselves how they want their Wedding Day to be! I have been professionally photographing weddings for 19 years and have been called upon for planning advice and even directing weddings. I'm now providing Weddings for Dummies to all my clients. My clients are happier and I'm spending more time dealing with their photography needs.

Weddings For Dummies is the only guide you'll need to making your big day perfect. The authors have a sensible approach and they provide all the details and tricks of the trade that would take a lifetime of wedding planning to learn. If that wasn't enough, the material is presented in a easily accesible format and with enough humor to keep things in perspective. A great gift for the bride (or groom) to be. Get an extra one for the parents. They'll thank you for it. You will get a big return on your investment in this book. I practically wore the covers off of mine.

This book is great as far as letting you know all the steps and parts that go with a wedding, very clear, does a pretty good job overall.

My main complaint is that this book doesn't help you out much if you're planning anything less than the "typical" $18,000 wedding. There are a few budget-saving tips, but there are just as many suggestions that are just an outrageous amount of money to spend on one day.