Miss Manners on Painfully Proper Weddings (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In this humorous, albeit useful, guide to planning and executing the perfect wedding, Miss Manners addresses everything from unnecessary expenditures, to bride etiquette, to how to handle potential troublemakers. While she outlines the need to uphold "reasonable" standards, she acknowledges and expertly handles some harsh realities. In response to a pregnant bride-to-be, she advises that the only deviation from a traditional wedding should be to "Let it (the wedding dress) out in the tummy."

From Publishers Weekly

With her trademark comedic inflection, Martin, the syndicated columnist whose bestselling etiquette manuals (Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior; Miss Manners' Guide to Rearing Perfect Children) provide entertainment as well as guidance, turns her attention here to weddings. Indirectly addressing the bride but including the entire cast of trouble-causers?relatives, in-laws, attendants, divorced parents?Miss Manners supports reasonable standards, exuding acerbically genteel regret at some contemporary nuptial excesses while accepting some stark realities. For example, in reply to a puzzled "gentle reader" who is a pregnant bride-to-be, Miss Manners believes the only thing that should be altered is the wedding dress: "Let it out in the tummy." With gentle firmness, Miss Manners upholds the perennial etiquette that contributes to our general civility and accepts changes that are for the good?black dresses for bridesmaids are not among them. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Crown; 1st edition (December 26, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517701871
• ISBN-13: 978-0517701874
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #338,774 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars not written by the bridal industry, March 17, 2002

By A Customer

This book was not written by the wedding industry. Hospitality, family, friends, and unselfishness take precedence over a rising tide of materialism, greed, and the show business mentality. She will not tell you what to go out and buy to make "your day" perfect, but will focus instead on the relationships and manners that will give weddings real meaning. This book is well worth reading.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sanity in a slim volume, July 12, 2004

By A Customer

Love, love, LOVE this book and Miss Manners! Lots of the basic questions that came up in planning my wedding were covered, but more important is the philosophy she espouses. After you read this book you will find it hard to flip through all those bridal magazines without rolling your eyes at the fuss they make over trivial topics. Miss Manners reminds you what's truly important. We had a lovely wedding that was universally described as "perfect" and no stress whatsoever in planning it. I give this book to all my friends as soon as they get engaged.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Provides the answers to any questions worth asking, March 24, 1999

By A Customer

The brevity of this book reflects a basic fact about tasteful weddings--they shouldn't be so far out of your everyday experience that you need hundreds and hundreds of pages of advice. Most efforts at originality have more to do with egos running amok than with concern for the seriousness of the occasion or for the guests' comfort. I used this and the chapter on weddings in "Excruciatingly Correct Behavior." No one fought over wedding planning, everyone had a wonderful time, and our friends said they thought the wedding really suited us. What more could anyone want?