Customer Reviews

Whose Wedding Is It Anyway? (Red Dress Ink Novels)

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Is there such a thing as a free wedding? Eloise Manfred gets an offer she cannot refuse. She will have a $100,000 wedding with all the trimmings if she accepts to be part of a new wedding feature in Wow Weddings magazine -- the magazine she works for. She is the "Modern Bride," and her wedding gown, bridesmaid dresses, reception hall, rings, honeymoon, and wedding registries should all be what the egocentric editor-in-chief sees in a modern wedding. The problem is that Eloise hates everything that has been chosen for her (all tacky stuff) and adores the beautiful things that are chosen for the feature's "Classic Bride." But Eloise has more things to worry about, like the fact that she's having cold feet. Why is she having second thoughts about marrying a guy as perfect as Noah? To make matters worse, her troubled brother is having some commitments problems of his own and Eloise wants closure regarding her wayward father. There are some fun twists throughout the novel.

This is a spin-off of See Jane Date. This is Eloise's story. I read See Jane Date about two years ago, possibly longer than that, and it took me a while to remember Jane and the other characters. Ms. Senate took a little too long to release a spin-off novel. But it doesn't matter, for this novel makes a great stand-alone. The story is fun, fast-paced, and entertaining. The characters are well developed and the story is consistent from beginning to end. Eloise annoyed me at times with her commitment phobia, but her phobia is justified later on in the book. I would have liked to read more scenes with Noah in them though. And the whole baby and reluctant new father storyline reminded me of one of the character's dilemmas in The Solomon Sisters Wise Up. Anyway, all in all, I enjoyed reading Whose Wedding Is It Anyway? This isn't the best chick-lit out there and the ending is kind of predictable, but the novel is a cute, no-fuss read to enjoy on a lazy afternoon, and I recommend it as such...

Another entry into the Red Dress Ink chick lit series. This one is pretty good. Melissa Senate is a good writer and entertains.

This book is fairly standard chick lit fare in that it revolves around weddings and friends. Throw in the usual "eccentric, ego-centered boss" and you pretty much have your usual cast of characters.

While I thought the premise of this book was a little farfetched - the main character happens to work for a wedding magazine and ends up being their "modern bride demo", there were a few cute moments.

What I truly did enjoy in the book was the unexpected look at the relationship between our main character and her brother and grandmother. Both of which were highly touching.

I could have done without the brother's annoyingly pregnant girlfriend (I have to pee again...).

Another bright spot was the main characters circle of friends (including 2 year old Summer).

I would love to see Senate's next book focus on this circle of friends - there is potential there.

This is fairly standard chick lit stuff - pleasant and breezy. A good buy.

Pros: Before I even start reviewing this book, I have to admit that I'm about as anti-commitment as anti-commitment can get. I don't want kids. I don't want to get married. I have the worst time staying in relationships. But halfway through this book, I started daydreaming about my OWN wedding and took a "Dream Wedding" quiz to put on my MySpace page. I felt like I sold out to Proudly Single Sistas everywhere, but hell, when a book is good, it's good and GREAT books make you think about things you usually don't pay attention to. Now on to the book...Melissa Senate uses her dry sense of humor, sarcastic jokes, and great dialogue sense to weave a hilarious story about two people who are being paid to have "free" weddings, although these weddings are planned beforehand and the exact opposite of what the two brides want. There's everything from feathers on a dress to copper rings to hired family members to replace those "less fortunate." "Acid" was entertaining with her strict stylistic view, but Devlin cracked me up. The "Modern Bride's" honeymoon location made me cringe, especially since I'm FROM this city and frozen in December! The story went smoothly throughout and I enjoyed the twists and turns of cold feet, pregnancy, marriage, family, and the identity crisis.

Cons: What is up with Red Dress Ink books? Are the authors required to only make blonde people with blue eyes as the good-looking ones? Hitler would be proud, but what about everybody else? That is getting old. In mid-conversation, there were sections on someone having blonde hair. For no reason at all, the author said one of the ladies flipped her "blonde hair" and put it in a ponytail. Why does the color of hair need to be constantly remembered? Maybe it seems so insane to me because I come from a different culture where the color of hair does not make a woman pretty. I also got tired of Emmett's constant fits, but it's not like it wasn't realistic; just annoying.

Regardless of the few cons I could think of, I really love this author's writing style. I thought Lynn Messina was going to be my favorite author from this publishing company, but she may have a run for her money.

I couldn't quite give this a higher rating because I knew the plot too early. It was very predictable, but it was enjoyable and fast paced.

Eloise is a graphic designer for WOW Weddings Magazine, one day her and a co-worker were discussing their engagements, when the editor, Acid, ooops I mean Astrid over hears them and gets THE IDEA! to do a spread of a modern bride and a classic bride. Eloise is chosen as the modern bride because of her artsy background and non traditional haircut.

What is she supposed to do when Astrid doesn't allow her to choose what she wants for her own wedding? Purple rubber dresses? Feathers? Leather? It's a debacle from beginning to end, will Eloise find her dream along the way?

Also, Eloise goes on a journey of self discovery while looking for the father who left her and her brother when she was 5. This story has a little heart, a lot of OH MY GOD, and predictability, but also was a lot of fun to read.

Weddings are a natural topic for chick-lit -- they involve love, chaos, annoying relatives, career fluctuation and loyal galpals. All the ingredients of successful chick-lit. So this spinoff of "See Jane Date," starring the lovable pal, sits solidly on safe territory as it tells the story of a woman dealing with her past.

Eloise Manfred thinks she's hit the jackpot: she's engaged but poor, and her malevolent editor Astrid has just offered to foot the bill, if Eloise takes part in a special magazine article. But Eloise rapidly discovers that she is "Modern Bride," while oddball Philippa is the "Classic Bride." Meaning that Philippa gets every-little-girl's-dream wedding, and Eloise gets rubber Star Trek bridesmard dresses and a yellow feathered gown.

Eloise is rapidly finding out that it may not be worth it, if she has to have a hideous wedding and hire fake family. To make things worse, a reunion with her little brother Emmett reveals that his girlfriend is pregnant -- and Emmett is seriously considering going AWOL, as their father did long ago. With her engagement in doubt and her wedding going down the tubes, Eloise sets out to find her father, and straighten out her issues.

The only problem is that the novel seems to have a bit of an identity crisis -- it flips rapidly between being a tense, angsty story about a woman sorting out her issues, and a goofy tale about yellow feathered wedding dresses and toxic future in-laws. Each one would be an excellent book, but together they feel rather odd.

While Melissa Senate relies on tried-and-true wedding disasters (evil mother-in-law, annoying sister-in-law, commitmentphobia), she also has fun with the "Modern Bride" trappings. It's the sort of thing most women -- aside from Philippa types -- have nightmares about. Most frightening of all is the fact that those trappings are probably real -- square wedding rings, Star Trek gowns and more.

Senate is particularly to be commended for doing such a sensitive, enlightened look at Eloise's brother and father, and the way they have shaped her personality. Eloise gets plenty of depth here that wasn't even hinted at in "See Jane Date." And while Emmett's fiancee is a bit annoying, the will-he-or-won't-he-commit tale rings very true.

Nothing too startling happens in "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?", but it's an interesting mix of family angst and pre-wedding disasters. Brides may need to lie down after reading it.

Whose Wedding Is It Anyways tells the story of two wedding magazine staffers who are offered free dream weddings as the Classic Bride and the Modern Bride. However, they soon realize that they have no input into their own weddings and the magazines choices for dresses, food, and locations are definitely not what they would have picked on their own! On top of that, Eloise, the main character is dealing with family issues surrounding her father's abandonment, her relationship
with her brother, and cold feet about her wedding. Will she overcome all of these obstacles to get married?


I found this book to be enjoyable, but predictable and really short. I feel like the author didn't go into enough detail on the characters to really let the reader get to know them and have feelings about them. The book was so short that I didn't
really have time to get into it before it was the end. Good summer read though; recommended for the beach!

Eloise learns the hard way that there's no such thing as a free wedding. When her boss discovers that she and a colleague are engaged, she proposes that the magazine pay for both the weddings to be featured in a story on modern verses classic brides. Having little money, she jumps at the chance not realizing that the Boss from Hell's idea of modern is something out of a comic book. Rather than a tasteful Vera Wang gown, she gets dress only Big Bird could love. And the cute pink bridesmaids gowns? Nope - she gets purple rubber. Everything from the venue to the menu to the lack of guests she can invite causes her to want to rethink marriage just to cancel the travesty. When her estranged brother shows up, he alleviates the need to hire a fake brother for the photos, but he comes with lots of baggage himself. Will the bride to be get a backbone and declare her nuptials off limits to the travesty?

Senate always pens angst ridden novels with interesting heroines. I loved the concept for the story, and thought that it was humorous, but it was a bit predictable. Some of the characters may seem familiar as they first appeared in Senate's "See Jane Date," which was adapted into a movie on the Family Channel. Despite its flaws, it was a nice way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon.

"Whose Wedding is it Anyway?" has a promising premise, but poor writing and generic plots and characters fail to take the book anywhere special. It's an enjoyable enough airplane read, but disappointing because Senate's last two books were far better.

The action centers on Eloise Manfred, who was a character in Senate's earlier book "See Jane Date." Eloise, who works at a wedding magazine, gets engaged to a great guy the same day her beautiful co-worker, Phillipa, gets engaged. Her boss (usually mean and nasty) decides to do a feature that will allow Eloise and Phillipa to get married for free. The catch? They have to be the magazine's "classic" bride and "modern" bride.

Eloise hates everything that goes with being the modern bride- rubber bridesmaid dresses, a yellow feathered gown and yearns for classic elegance, while Phillipa hates her generic wedding and wants something more fresh and funky. If you can't see where this is going- brush up on your chick-lit!

Either way, there are many side plots, which never get full attention. I agree with the other reader who says this books tries to be two things and doesn't manage to do either very well. The writing is like a 12-year old wrote it, and the book is so predictable, generic and poorly written. The corny "flirt night" scenes made me cringe.

All in all, not bad, but there are much better books out there!

WHOSE WEDDING IS IT ANYWAY brings back loveable characters (ie Eloise, Jane, Amanda & Natasha) from Senate's debut novel, SEE JANE DATE.

WWIIA's heroine is Eloise Manfred who's just signed a contract w/her boss for a free $100K wedding to be featured in her employer's magazine "Wow Weddings". Although, people tell Eloise nothing's for free, she finds out the hard way as she's forced into "choosing" a Big Bird wedding dress, rubber bridesmaids dresses and square wedding rings that her boss insists are perfect for the ultra Modern Wedding spread.

In addition to boss-related wedding disasters, Eloise's impending marriage has her chomping a pack of Tums per day despite having found the perfect man. During her hilarious and crazy experiences putting together the ultimate Modern Wedding, she's forced to deal with long-ignored and painful family issues that ultimately lead her to the answers about herself and her family that she never knew she always needed.

The characters in WWIIA are heartwarming and real in yet another fast-paced enjoyable read by Melissa Senate - can't wait to see what she comes out with next.

Eloise is about to find out if there is such thing as a free wedding.

It all starts when Eloise is offered a free wedding from the magazine she works for. In exchange, she will have to keep a diary detailing her every move - from picking wedding cake, to deciding on a florist, to choosing a gown. Sounds amazing, right? It is at first, but things go downhill fast. First off, Eloise's boss Astrid, who is calling all the shots, insists that she have her family at the photo shoot. The problem with that is Eloise's mother passed away years ago, and her father has always been MIA. (He took off when she was a kid.) She also hadn't spoken to her brother in some time. If that isn't bad enough, Astrid is forcing Eloise to be the "modern bride", which among other things means a canary yellow feathered wedding dress. (Yeah, you read that right.) To top everything off, Eloise is suddenly feeling as though she might be making a mistake marrying Noah.

Will it be the wedding disaster of the century? Or will there even be a wedding at all? Will Astrid sue her for dropping out of the wedding?

With a few laugh-out-loud scenes, hilarious wedding antics, and plenty of touching moments, this book is another wonderful chick lit read by a great author. Anyone that says chick lit is all fluff obviously hasn't read Melissa Senate's books - they are anything but. Her plots are solid and well-crafted, and she delves into serious subjects. The characters are so real that they nearly jump off the pages.

Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes a good Marriage/Wedding chick lit type of novel.