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The New American Wedding: Ritual and Style in a Changing Culture (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "It seems, however, while I was not paying attention, the whole proposal business had turned into a-business!..." (more)
Key Phrases: commitment jewelry, left clockwise, New York, All The King's Men, Anne Watkins (more...)

4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Delaney explains a New American wedding this way: "[It] isn't a cookie-cutter icon-laden rehash of tradition. It expresses the union of two grown-ups in unique and honest ways and celebrates the depth of the couple's relationship as well as the breadth of their lives." The author, founder of a New York marketing agency, offers a very personal guide (brimming with anecdotes from her own nontraditional marriage, as well as those of recognized style experts) to the "new set of options" facing New American brides. The proposal chapter notwithstanding, most sections are indispensable. For example, the chapter on the bridegroom acknowledges that men will probably become involved in the challenge of logistics and advises accordingly. Among Delaney's other counsel: "commitment jewelry" need not be a diamond (indeed, it doesn't even have to be a ring); Delaney cites one couple—he's Japanese; she's Celtic—who designed a ring celebrating their mix of cultures, and another who chose a diamond bracelet. The rest of the book addresses prewedding parties, bridal registries, dresses, attendants, ceremonies, receptions and honeymoons with an equally open mind. This rather literary guide, not given to bulleted points or charts, is a refreshing handbook for contemporary brides.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description

There is a new breed of bride who comes to the altar looking to blend families and cultures, status and style, sophistication and mores, and who wants celebrations that appeal to her own unique real-life expression of values, background, customs, and romance.

Diane Meier Delaney was one such bride. While planning her own wedding, she grappled with wedding guides, magazines, and books that spoke to the clean slate of a wasp-waisted, twenty-two-year- old bride who had her whole life ahead of her. But she shared the frustrations of countless brides who couldn’t find anything that spoke to a grown-up woman with a richly lived life to be proud of.

The New American Wedding is the first book that acknowledges and speaks to this authentic American idea of the bride and groom and points the way to:

• creating their own ceremony with their own distinctive ritual
• looking for symbols of union that may or may not fit around one’s finger
• integrating children and families from previous relationships
• considering new issues of style and status
• managing the challenges of interfaith, interracial, and cross cultural partnerships
• balancing family expectations with the couple’s own desires

A comment on the good news of the changing culture that includes beautiful photographs and insider advice from top fashion and jewelry designers, florists, caterers, planners, and photographers who set the trends for American weddings, along with Delaney’s savvy, been-there-done-that tips, The New American Wedding will be the must-have guide for the modern bride.

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Product Details

Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Viking Studio (November 15, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0670034622
ISBN-13: 978-0670034628
Product Dimensions: 10 x 9.9 x 0.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds

Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #347,586 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Diane Meier

Diane Meier Delaney

Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!

Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
It seems, however, while I was not paying attention, the whole proposal business had turned into a-business! Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
commitment jewelry, left clockwise

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, All The King's Men, Anne Watkins, Phillip Bruno, Sara Hudson, Clare Henry, Ralph Rucci, Nic York, Retsu Takahashi, Susan Bednar, Jeffrey Michael, Maggie Norris, Brattle Theater, John Dolan, Los Angeles, Rick Todd, Bergdorf Goodman, Cond� Nast, Rita Fusaro, Stephanie Wargo, Alexander Primak, Andrea Giardino, Hudson River, Prewedding Parties

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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	78% buy the item featured on this page: The New American Wedding: Ritual and Style in a Changing Culture 4.6 out of 5 stars (5)
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	6% buy In Style: Weddings 4.6 out of 5 stars (17) $29.70

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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews

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4.6 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WHY NOT A PONY?, January 1, 2006

By	Red Radiator (Morgantown, WV) - See all my reviews

Why Not a Pony Ride?

Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments, but I must say when I opened up a copy of THE NEW AMERICAN WEDDING: RITUAL AND STYLE IN A CHANGING CULTURE, my first reaction was that it would take one helluva purse to foot the bill for the first-class weddings that New York City style and marketing maven Diane Meier Delaney presents. That is, however, neither the truth (as the LIBRARY JOURNAL would have us believe) nor reason to miss this lush, lively, funny, and wise book. There's no denying, this is opulence all right, but believe it or not, it embraces the affordable.

Just read it. Amidst wedding registry gifts that include the classic vase from Tiffany's, there are tools from Sears and a request for hundreds of sets of new underwear--to be donated to the needy in San Francisco because there's a shortage of underwear in Salvation Armies and Goodwills. (Makes sense, doesn't it? Meier-Delaney points out. We donate that out-of-fashion sweater, but who would want our underpants with the failing elastic?)

On one page of NEW AMERICAN WEDDING: an out-of-this-world flaming-red-wedding gown fashioned of enormous poppies and with a train longer than not just my living room but probably my whole house (yard included). A few pages away: the simplest, white linen sundress. As for the cake: will you choose one of chocolate and orange mousse with landyfingers, fashioned by a world-class patisserie or a marshmallow and Rice Krispies creation from your own kitchen?

Ladies and gentlemen, there's an enormous range here. From the engagement to the honeymoon, Meier Delaney presents an array of choices for the bride and groom to choose from-from the most extravagant to the most simple--and I'll bet that about 99% of them you never thought of!

What if you're not a bride or groom to-be or wannabe, is there any reason to read this book? Absolutely! THE NEW AMERICAN WEDDING is an astute commentary on changing American culture and traditions, and it's also a sparkling example of out-of-the box thinking. Whether a mousetrap or a wedding, the design challenge is the same: to maintain the tradition and functionality (the trap must catch the mouse; the wedding must marry the people, the families, the values, the things) while breathing innovation into the creation. The plans and designs of many so-called out-of-the-box thinkers fail because they either stay too close to the box, like a mime in the shadows, or they venture so far outside the box that they forget all about it. The box is left out in the alley in the rain, the garbage truck is rounding the corner, and the designers are down the street doing the hokey-pokey. What Meier Delaney does is take that old traditional wedding box apart very carefully, piece by piece, then put those pieces back together into a shape that has all the qualities of a wedding but is so unique and unboxy that it appears to be something entirely different. Something more like a crystal or a Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome.

Told in a charming, sophisticated, writerly voice and with a narrative thread that reads like the kind of good book you like to curl up with, what amazes me is that Meier Delaney actually wrote this herself. It's not one of those "as told to" ghost-written deals. This woman not only has class and superb taste, confidence, and moxie, she's one heck of a writer. (Not to mention designer.) Chapter by chapter, as she chronicles the wedding decisions of a dozen recently hitched nontraditional couples, Meier Delaney weaves the story of her own mid-life engagement and marriage in 2002 to man-of-letters Frank Delaney, who many would call the BBC's answer to Dick Cavett and Charlie Rose.

Packaged as a high-end coffee-table-size book with glossy pages full of gorgeous photographs, THE NEW AMERICAN WEDDING is really a wild foray into creative thinking. Why not, as Meier Delaney suggests, have pony rides at your wedding reception? Why not a group lesson in car repair, water ballet, or tightrope walking instead of the clich� girl-in-a-cake or Chippendale pre-wedding bash? Why can't your dog be the maid-of-honor? Why not, instead of a traditional wedding dress, which Meier Delaney describes with her signature frankness as making her look like a float in a Mummer's Day Parade, wear cashmere pajamas? And is she kidding? No! According to her own story, the Meier Delaneys did have pony rides at their reception, she wore a curtain instead of a gown, and her German Short-Haired Pointer was the maid-of-honor. See what I mean when I said moxie?

The New American Wedding is a kind of wish book, a book for dreaming and finding inspiration, a book to help you identify and nurture your own style--for whatever purpose--take pride in it, and carry out your plans with abandon and aplomb. And as Meier-Delaney says, "Budgets aren`t really the deciding factor here. It's creativity and fresh thinking . . . . The thing to remember is that New American celebrations and receptions should never be done by the book."

Will Diane Meier Delaney take on the New American Divorce or maybe the New American Funeral next? I can't wait to find out.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read!, September 22, 2006

By	demeter erinys (northern VA, USA) - See all my reviews

This book is well written, well researched, entertaining, understandable and well worth reading. As a historian I have been trained as an objective observer and researcher, which has made me over analyze everything going into my own wedding. I wanted to know where our traditions came from and what other avenues there were for so called non traditional weddings. What I've learned is that weddings are now an industry, and a pricey one at that, but I wanted something unique and personal for my own ceremony and there are few good resources out there. Many sources claim to have unique ideas and customizable products, but it's the same garbage that everyone else has. When I started telling my friends and family the direction I wanted to go with my own wedding they looked at me like I was crazy. "What do you mean you don't want to wear a wedding dress?" They didn't understand. I told them to read "The New American Wedding" because this book is able to articulate and explain everything I had been feeling, and it shows that I'm not alone in my thinking.

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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The New American Wedding Bible, November 18, 2005

By	JBRIII (New York City) - See all my reviews

Diane Meier takes a fresh look at weddings and uncovers some exciting new trends that every bride-to-be should know. A beautifully produced book with loads of colorful illustrations and real wedding pics. A must have book that's sure to be around for decades.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars If you're looking for something really different, this is it...
I'm a young bride, and I thought this book would provide new, less traditional ideas to help me plan my wedding. Read more

Published on March 22, 2006 by Sarah Borkowski

5.0 out of 5 stars I was there
I've known Diane since elementary school, and I attended her wedding with Frank Delaney that started her on the path that led to this book. Read more

Published on November 15, 2005 by David B. Black

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