For brides and grooms who want to give their weddings new depth and meaning, two acclaimed poet-translators have gathered a stunning collection of poems and prose that will add a unique and personal dimension to the ceremony.

The Location. Flowers. Dress. Invitations. Linens. Food. China. Music. And, of course, the Cake. Once the proposal is accepted, the planning begins. To create a wedding that reflects your style and unique personality, you need a firm timeline showing exactly what needs to be done...and when. Let Joyce Scardina Becker, one of the world's leading wedding consultants, walk you through the process. That way, you're guaranteed to walk down the aisle stress-free--and in style.
"Countdown to Your Perfect Wedding" gives you detailed and easy-to-follow instructions for perfecting all aspects of your wonderful event. It shows how to customize each piece to create a day you will forever cherish.
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Organized around a 52-week timeline, which can be adjusted according to your own needs, each chapter features an essential aspect of planning the happiest day of your life. The book includes insider tips on how to get what you want, plan an appropriate budget, understand essential planning lingo, and much more. It also reveals some of the unique ways brides have accomplished a range of wedding tasks to fit everyone's pocketbook.
From announcing your engagement to planning your honeymoon getaway and everything in between, "Countdown to Your Perfect Wedding" is the indispensable must-have guide for any groom and bride-to-be.

You just got engaged! Or you've been engaged for a while but are finally sitting down to plan this party. Or maybe you haven't made anything exactly official yet, but you know you want to spend your lives together. Whichever it is, when you're ready to take a deep breath and start planning, this is the book you want,need,to have. Meg Keene has put together the (practical) companion to A Practical Wedding : smart, clear focused guidance,with a hefty does of reassurance,to help you plan your big day.From figuring out what you really want,as opposed to what everyone else thinks you should want,to help you keep an eye on the ceremony itself and the vows (a.k.a. why you're throwing this party in the first place), Meg helps you cover all the essentials:Setting a budget,and sticking to itChoosing a venue: traditional, non-traditional, and everything in betweenHiring good vendors, keeping your friendors, and why DIY doesn't always save moneyCatering, rentals, and everything else Pinterest forgot to tell youWedding decor: a realist's guideCreating and writing a ceremonyGetting everyone to show up...and have a good timeWith checklists (such as flowers, food, final venue walk-through) and key spreadsheets (guest list and seating chart, budget, venue search, and more), Meg helps you plan a wedding that will leave you feeling joyful, not emotionally exhausted and broke.

For the first time TheKnot.com's famous timelines, tools, and checklists have been compiled in one easy-to-carry book that will travel with you from florist to baker and everywhere in between. "The Knot Book of Wedding Lists" distills all the great information from The Knot and crafts it into useful, organized lists that will eliminate the stress and make planning a wedding as simple as checking off boxes. Whether you're planning for twenty or two hundred, a wedding on the beach or in a balloon, this compact guide covers all your planning details for the big day in an easy, organized format, including:
oplanning timelines
ocontract checklists
ovendor to-do lists
onew wedding ideas
oquestions to ask the site manager, photographer, florist, and others
obridesmaid duties
odetails about your ceremony
oshopping lists
owedding-day to-do lists
oreception schedules
and much, much more.
With the most essential to-do lists in one easily accessible and portable spot, " The Knot Book of Wedding Lists" is the ultimate organizing tool you'll turn to at every step of the wedding-planning process--right up to your walk down the aisle.

Named "Best of the Best from the University Presses" for 2007 by the American Library AssociationWeddings today are a $70-billion business, yet no one has explained how the industry has become such a significant component of the American economy. In "Brides, Inc.," Vicki Howard goes behind the scenes of the various firms involved--from jewelers to caterers--to explore the origins of the lavish American wedding, demonstrating the important role commercial interests have played in shaping traditions most of us take for granted.Howard reveals how many of our customs and wedding rituals were the product of sophisticated advertising campaigns, merchandising promotions, and entrepreneurial innovations. Tracing the rise of the wedding industry from the 1920s through the 1950s, the author explains that retailers, bridal consultants, etiquette writers, caterers, and many others invented traditions--from the diamond engagement ring and double-ring ceremony to the gift registry to the package-deal catered affair. These businesses and entrepreneurs, many of them women, transformed wedding culture and set the stage for today's multibillion-dollar industry.The wedding industry began to take shape between the 1920s and the 1950s. Bridal magazine editors and etiquette writers, jewelers, department store window display artists, bridal consultants, fashion designers, and caterers invented new consumer rites and promoted higher standards of wedding consumption. Claiming ties with "ancient customs" and various historical periods, the wedding industry promoted new goods and services as timeless and unchanging. It introduced new ring customs and wedding apparel fashions, and "modern" services, such as gift registries that rationalized gift customs, bridal salons that saved time and made wedding planning more efficient, and wedding packages that standardized ceremonies and reception celebrations.During World War II, the traditional white wedding grew even more prevalent as jewelers and bridal gown manufacturers successfully sought exemptions from wartime restrictions, linking the diamond engagement ring, the double-ring ceremony, and the formal white wedding gown with democracy and American prosperity. By the 1950s, the wedding industry had made the formal white wedding tradition a part of a new cult of marriage and the modern American Dream.Entertaining and informative, "Brides, Inc." reveals the origins and development of this most exemplary American enterprise and brings the story up to the present with a discussion of such new phenomena as David's Bridal and the gay wedding industry.

What are the golden rules of speech making? How should you respond to the toast to the bride and groom? And which people do you need to thank and how? The answers to all these questions and more are here in this much-needed book. Now you can make your wedding day speech memorable for all the right reasons! -- Add sincerity, sparkle and humor -- Enjoy the big day Contents: Learning the essentials; conveying your feelings to guests; adding a little humour; finding the ideal beginning and ending; putting it all together; getting the delivery right; stories, jokes and one-liners for your speech; sample speeches.

Last year, one in three American weddings were officiated by a friend or family member. With the officiating trend on the rise, novice officiants need a resource to guide them. In The Wedding Officiant's Guide, interfaith minister Lisa Francesca breaks down the entire officiating process, from becoming an ordained officiant and interviewing the couple to drafting and performing a moving ceremony. Written in an engaging and friendly tone, and featuring empowering advice, suggested readings, stories and lessons learned from new officiants, and practical tips from wedding planners, this inviting handbook will help new officiants write and deliver a wedding ceremony that fulfills marriage laws, delights guests, and honors the marrying couple.

The book unpacks every element of a wedding - stationery, attire, seating plans, flowers and tablescapes, food and drink, gifts - with examples that will appeal to couples who care about how things are made but are not overly influenced by trends. The emphasis is on natural surroundings, seasonal flowers and food, modern dresses, minimalist ceremony structures, and naked cakes. Photographs of real weddings - "case studies" like a destination fete in Tuscany, a house party in Brooklyn, and a New Agey revel in Kauai - show how all the pieces can come together into a unique and expressive whole. Extensive practical information and resources give readers access to all the help they need for their own unique celebration.

Goodbye, caterers. So long, wedding coordinators. Here is the bride's guide to thinking outside that robin's egg bluewedding-industry box. In this, the only comprehensive do-it-yourself wedding book, youll find everything you need to pulloff a personalized celebration. No cookie-cutter weddings here With how-to info on flowers, invites, food, the ceremony, and more, "The DIY Wedding" makes it easy to spend less and create an event that is entirely original. Inspiring ideas, countless resources, budgeting tips, contract templates, plus start-to-finish projects ease the planning pressure.

Bestselling cake decorating author and world-renown sugarcraft teacher, Lindy Smith shows you how to make a wedding cake with the minimum of fuss but with maximum effect! Today's brides are looking for simple wedding cakes that look modern and stylish but also want unique wedding cakes that don't cost the earth. This step-by-step guide will show you how to create a wide range of styles for modern simple wedding cakes, using the latest trends in cake decorating and wedding design, for a DIY wedding cake book like no other! Lindy Smith is one of the world's best-selling cake decorators, and has sold over half a million books worldwide. The simple wedding cakes in this book feature on-trend designs that break with tradition, using styles, colours and shapes that today's brides are looking for. With achievable wedding cake designs and accessible cake decorating techniques, this book covers the whole process of making a wedding cake - from conception to construction to decoration and even demolition!

For Prespa Albanians, both at home in Macedonia and in the diaspora, the most opulent, extravagant, and socially significant events of any year are wedding ceremonies. During days and weeks of festivities, wedding celebrants interact largely through singing, defining and renegotiating as they do so the very structure of their social world and establishing a profound cultural touchstone for Prespa communities around the world.
Combining photographs, song texts, and vibrant recordings of the music with her own evocative descriptions, ethnomusicologist Jane C. Sugarman focuses her account of Prespa weddings on notions of gendered identity, demonstrating the capacity of singing to generate and transform relations of power within Prespa society. "Engendering Song" is an innovative theoretical work, with a scholarly importance extending far beyond southeast European studies. It offers unique and timely contributions to the analysis of music and gender, music in diaspora cultures, and the social constitution of self and subjectivity.

For nearly seventy years, couples have turned to BRIDE'S Magazine for inspiring, insightful, and reliable wedding-planning advice. Now the editors have packaged that knowledge, as well hundreds of helpful planning hints, in a hands-on wedding workbook to help couples create the wedding of their dreams--whether a formal, black-tie party or a joyful gathering in the family backyard. Within these pages, you'll find the latest, most creative ways to pull off a gorgeous and personally meaningful event, explained in full detail. In one easy guide, you'll have the how's and why's of wedding-planning, plus the space to map it all out.
"BRIDE'S""Wedding Planner" is your one-stop wedding organizer. It will answer all your questions and cover every detail, supplying crucial timetables, charts, checklists, and glossaries, to guide you down the aisle in style.
Inside, you'll find:
- Smart shopping and money-saving tips on everything from your gown to stationery, flowers, caterers, photographers, and more
- Realistic timetables and a list of necessary appointments for each step along the way--a handy budget planner to help you map out your overall spending plan, and track expenses as you go
- Contract tips to help protect your rights and stretch your wedding dollars
- Dozens of ideas for putting together interfaith, destination, long-weekend, theme, ethnic, and other types of special weddings
- Modern guidelines for wording invitations
- Hundreds of handy Web resources to speed your planning
- Workbook pages for organizing and sketching out the day you've dreamed of--with dozens of pages to note recommendations, appointments, observations, and reminders; space to keep crucial lists; as well as indispensable pockets where you can save swatches, clippings, business cards, and all your other wedding-related information.
With all of this and more, "BRIDE'S Wedding Planner" is the only wedding planner you'll need

This is the perfect present for a bride-to-be. Getting engaged is a cause for celebration, but with it comes the exciting, and daunting task of planning the wedding day, as well as preparing yourself for marriage! The Wedding Pocket Bible gives you all the essential advice and information you'll need, including the traditions and wedding etiquette; from invitations and table plans to bridesmaids', best man, mother-of-the-bride and the groom's duties. We also bring you bridal tips and advice to help you enjoy planning the big day. We've covered everything you might possibly need to know, in this beautifully packaged gift book, including: weddings on a budget, choosing the right venue for you, personalising your wedding, planning your stag and hen dos, choosing your cake, flowers, music, photographer, and of course, the important dress. Above all, this book will make sure you and your future husband have the wedding you want, and will remember forever. This beautiful hardback edition has both dust-cover and gold embossing on the spine making it the perfect gift. Every Pocket Bible is lovingly crafted to give you a unique mix of useful references, handy tips and fascinating trivia that will enlighten and entertain you at every page. There is a Pocket Bible for everyone... Other titles in the series: The Pregnancy Pocket Bible, The Mum's Pocket Bible, The Dog Lover's Pocket Bible, The Jane Austen Pocket Bible and The Baking Pocket Bible.

'This book is everything. Lauren Layne at her best!' reader review Such a fun read, I adore everything Lauren Layne writes and this is no exception! Mac and Thomas are EVERYTHING!!' reader review 'Classic Lauren Layne . . . the story just flew, pulled me in and had me reading the whole book in one sitting. I honestly think that You, Again is one of the best works of Lauren Layne' reader review 'A delight - as sweet and bubbly as a glass of champagne' BETH O'LEARY Readers give Lauren Layne ! 'Romantic comedy PERFECTION and if you don't read it, you really are missing out' 'The romance, writing style and wit in this book is second to none. I have nothing but praise for this book' 'The New York backdrop was classic Lauren Layne as was the banter and I loved her modern day spin on this fairy tale romance' 'I devoured this book in a single morning, and I can't wait to reread it' 'The overall feeling from reading this book is like being enveloped in a warm hug from that special someone in your life' ................................................. They have to stop meeting like this . . . Mackenzie 'Mac' Austin just wants what any modern, commitment-phobic woman in New York wants: a no-strings-attached hook-up, steamy enough to brag about over mimosas the next morning. What she doesn't want is her dating app's latest suggestion: preppy, corporate Thomas Decker. So, obviously, she rejects the guy without a second thought. There's just one snag: he's sitting next to her, so he witnessed her do it. And now he's calling her out. After the initial embarrassment, Mac is determined not to let it bother her, but Fate has other plans - and Thomas isn't going anywhere. First, he pops up as her new boss. And then he reappears as her best friend's soon-to-be brother-in-law. As the not-so meet cutes add up, Mac is sure that uptight Thomas is the last man that a free-spirit like her should want. Only the more time she spends with him, the more Mac realizes that the man she can't get away from has become the same one that she wants to keep close . . . ................................................. 'Witty banter, a "phew, that's hot" romance and the author's adept ability to bring her characters and their experiences off the page and into your life' USA Today 'The word charm is pretty much synonymous with Lauren Layne' Hypable 'Fans of Nora Ephron will adore this' LORI NELSON SPIELMAN 'As light and refreshing as a glass of champagne . . . will have you smiling from the first swoon-worthy page to the last' JILL SHALVIS 'Lauren Layne's books are as effervescent and delicious as a brunch mimosa. As soon as you read one, you're going to want another - IMMEDIATELY!' KAREN HAWKINS 'Lauren Layne is a master at sexy banter and funny dialogue' BookPage Want more fun, fresh, flirty and very sexy rom-com? Check out all of Lauren's books! Don't miss: Made in Manhattan To Sir, With Love The Prenup The Central Park Pact series Oxford series Wedding Belles series I Do, I Don't series Love, Unexpectedly series