A companion to the popular website APracticalWedding.com and A Practical Wedding Planner, A Practical Wedding helps you sort through the basics to create the wedding you want -- without going broke or crazy in the process. After all, what really matters on your wedding day is not so much how it looked as how it felt. In this refreshing guide, expert Meg Keene shares her secrets to planning a beautiful celebration that reflects your taste and your relationship. You'll discover: The real purpose of engagement (hint: it's not just about the planning) How to pinpoint what matters most to you and your partner DIY-ing your wedding: brilliant or crazy? How to communicate decisions to your family Why that color-coded spreadsheet is actually worth it Wedding Zen can be yours. Meg walks you through everything from choosing a venue to writing vows, complete with stories and advice from women who have been in the trenches: the Team Practical brides. So here's to the joyful wedding, the sensible wedding, the unbelievably fun wedding! A Practical Wedding is your complete guide to getting married with grace.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Psychologist Alex Delaware and detective Milo Sturgis unravel a shocking crime at a raucous wedding reception in this gripping psychological thriller from the bestselling master of suspense. “Jonathan Kellerman’s psychology skills and dark imagination are a potent literary mix.”—Los Angeles Times LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis is a fine homicide detective, but when he needs to get into the mind of a killer, he leans on the expertise of his best friend, the brilliant psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware. While Sturgis has a knack for piecing together the details of a crime, Delaware can decipher the darkest intents driving the most vicious of perpetrators. And there’s no better place for the doctor’s analytical skills to shine than a rowdy hall full of young men and women intoxicated on life and lust . . . and suddenly faced with the specter of death. Summoned to a run-down former strip joint, Delaware and Sturgis find themselves crashing a wild Saints and Sinners–themed wedding reception. But they’re not the only uninvited guests. A horrified bridesmaid has discovered the body of a young woman, dressed to impress in pricey haute couture and accessorized with a grisly red slash around her neck. What’s missing is any means of identification, or a single partygoer who recognizes the victim. The baffled bride is convinced the stranger snuck in to sabotage her big day—and the groom is sure it’s all a dreadful mistake. But Delaware and Sturgis have a hundred guests to question, and a sneaking suspicion that the motive for murder is personal. Now they must separate the sinners from the saints, the true from the false, and the secrets from those keeping them. The party’s over—and the hunt for whoever killed it is on. “As usual, [Delaware and Sturgis] form a formidable team. Also as usual, the characters here are varied and described with gritty clarity, and the puzzle facing the duo involves a delightful mix of L.A. culture, this time from its dive bars to its much more serious side.”—Booklist

Emily Post's Wedding Etiquette is the classic indispensable, comprehensive guide to creating the wedding of your dream, now in its sixth edition. Today's weddings are more complicated than ever, with new traditions replacing old, and new relationships to consider as family life grows more complex. Emily Post's Wedding Etiquette has everything a bride will ever need to know to have the perfect wedding. Anna Post guides brides and their friends and family through weddings to maximize fun and reduce stress, including: How to handle awkward family situations How to address envelopes and word invitations How to choose an officiant How to blend family traditions The timeline of events throughout the engagement and during the wedding Who to include on your guest list How to use technology to your advantage

This New York Times bestselling book is filled with hundreds of fun, deceptively simple, budget-friendly ideas for sprucing up your home. With two home renovations under their (tool) belts and millions of hits per month on their blog YoungHouseLove.com, Sherry and John Petersik are home-improvement enthusiasts primed to pass on a slew of projects, tricks, and techniques to do-it-yourselfers of all levels. Packed with 243 tips and ideas—both classic and unexpected—and more than 400 photographs and illustrations, this is a book that readers will return to again and again for the creative projects and easy-to-follow instructions in the relatable voice the Petersiks are known for. Learn to trick out a thrift-store mirror, spice up plain old roller shades, "hack" your Ikea table to create three distinct looks, and so much more.

An “engaging and disarmingly honest” (People) examination of the search for love and the meaning of marriage in a time of anxiety, independence, and indecision. Weddings. They’re fun, festive, and joyful, and at a time when people marry later in life—and sometimes not at all—they offer endless opportunities to reexamine love and what we want for ourselves, regardless of whether or not our aim is a walk down the aisle. In Save the Date, Jen Doll charts the course of her own perennial wedding guesthood, from the ceremony of distant family members when she was eight to the recent nuptials of a new boyfriend’s friends. There’s the first trip home for a childhood pal’s big day, in which she learns that her first love has eloped to Hawaii. There’s the destination wedding attended with little baggage beyond a suitcase of strappy sandals and summery party dresses. Regrettably, there is a series of celebrations that mean the end to a valued friendship. There’s also the wedding that offers all the promise of new love. Wedding experiences come in as varied an assortment as the gowns at any bridal shop, and Doll turns a keen eye to each, delivering a heartfelt exploration of contemporary relationships. Funny, honest, and affecting, Save the Date is a fresh and spirited look at the many ways in which we connect to one another.

Previous ed. entitled: Offbeat bride: taffeta-free alternatives for independent brides, 2007.

As seen on The Today Show! The new exhilarating New York Times bestselling romance from the author of The Proposal, a Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick! Maddie and Theo have two things in common: 1. Alexa is their best friend 2. They hate each other After an “oops, we made a mistake” night together, neither one can stop thinking about the other. With Alexa's wedding rapidly approaching, Maddie and Theo both share bridal party responsibilities that require more interaction with each other than they're comfortable with. Underneath the sharp barbs they toss at each other is a simmering attraction that won't fade. It builds until they find themselves sneaking off together to release some tension when Alexa isn't looking, agreeing they would end it once the wedding is over. When it’s suddenly pushed up and they only have a few months left of secret rendezvouses, they find themselves regretting that the end is near. Two people this different can’t possibly have a connection other than the purely physical, right? But as with any engagement with a nemesis, there are unspoken rules that must be abided by. First and foremost, don't fall in love.

From the #1 wedding website, this completely revised and updated edition of the classic wedding planning bible answers all of your questions, with all the latest information and tools a bride could want. Overwhelmed by the countless questions and details your wedding entails? Don't despair! The Knot Complete Guide to Weddings takes you step-by-step from your engagement to the big day, from the reception to the honeymoon. Inside you'll find checklists, worksheets, insider advice, and in-depth sections on: • How to personalize your wedding • Updated wedding etiquette • Creating a realistic budget • Sneaky cost-cutting tips • Dress shopping advice • Tips for working with florists, caterers, officiants, and others • Invitation wording • Vows and ceremony details • Unique Wedding customs Plus, all new sections on: Planning Online and Destination Weddings, and a color-coded section with over 100 vibrant photographs.

Impending motherhood serves up a confusing cocktail of heroic strength and terrifying vulnerability. Our culture has seized on the “vulnerability” part of this experience and tends to reinforce a pregnant woman’s insecurities instead of encouraging her to embrace this most natural time and trust her body, her intuition, and her own mind. Feng Shui Mommy takes a different approach, helping the expecting mother build her own unique, epic journey to motherhood. It’s about supporting her while she shores up her mind-body-spirit alignment so she can best handle the cosmic kick in the uterus and juicy kiss on the soul that pregnancy is. Bailey Gaddis guides women through the experience, providing specific suggestions for mind, body, and spirit for each trimester (including the “fourth,” after birth), leading to birth preparation designed for each mother and baby, and culminating in strong mother-child bonding. She includes detailed and practical information about prenatal exercise and nutrition, birth preferences and birthing positions, breath work, breastfeeding, and much more. Her advice allows mothers to welcome delight and curiosity into the journey while taking each phase with purpose and calm — and even a sense of fun. This comprehensive guide makes challenge and change joyful, allowing new life to be as incomparably wonder-filled as it is meant to be.

Plan your wedding without the weight of outdated customs and get hitched in a way that is authentic, fun, and true to who you are. From the minute couples become engaged, they are pressured to buy into a one-size-fits-all wedding. By breaking down the antiquated traditions of that #blessedweddingday, The New Wedding Book will help you and your betrothed throw those icky traditions to the curb in honour of having the wedding of your actual dreams — not the one you've been force-fed for decades by the wedding-industrial complex. Inspiring couples to plan their wedding in a way that is meaningful to them, Bilodeau and Cleveland debunk the manufactured traditions, advocate for realistic budgets, offer brilliant advice from real-life couples, and confront the crushing pressure for weddings to be perfect.