Sensible answers to essential premarital questions are answered in a guide for mothers trying to survive their daughter's wedding, including hilarious anecdotes, practical advice, and information and tips on reception preparation, ceremony protocol, and more. 40,000 first printing.

The definitive guide to planning your perfect wedding day, from the UK's most-loved, and multi-award-winning wedding website and podcast - Rock My Wedding. With friendly advice, tips, ideas and stunning photography, it's the perfect pre-wedding purchase for any couple! 'The UK's most influential brand in the wedding industry'- Conclusion from an independent study carried out by Universal McCann, one of the world's leading ad networks. 'Absolutely brimming with wedding inspiration' -- ***** Reader review 'Every fiancé/fiancée needs this masterpiece' -- ***** Reader review 'Beautiful and inspiring' -- ***** Reader review 'Full of inspiration - this book is one every fiancé/fiancée should own to help them create their perfect wedding day' -- ***** Reader review ****************************************************************************************************** Just like you, your wedding day will be personal, one-of-a-kind, and completely unique. We're not here to tell you what you should do to make your day perfect, only that you can do it. Covering floral décor, table plans, lighting, photography, venues, outfits, food - as well as much more - this is your one-stop-shop to planning the perfect wedding for YOU. With advice and guidance on the individual aspects to consider when planning your wedding day - from where to begin and recommended questions to ask your suppliers, to plenty of alternative décor ideas - we hope that you'll find inspiration, reassurance and a little bit of escapism in these pages as you embark on planning one of the most special and joyful days of your lives.

The Idea Book. The How-to Book. The Everything Book. It’s the ultimate wedding planning bible from the ultimate wedding planner. From getting engaged to getting to the altar to taking off for your honeymoon to preserving the memories forever, this is the book to help you bring your dream wedding to life, no matter how big or small your budget. The Wedding Book is: Your fashion consultant, menu planner, etiquette expert, and floral designer An insider source for stretching budgets and negotiating contracts A digital-savvy friend for making the most of Instagram, Etsy, Pinterest, and wedding planning websites and apps A wise shoulder to lean on when sticky family issues come up Whatever the subject—cakes, stationery, dress shopping, lingerie, tents, Uber, insurance, porta-potties, party favors, the toasts, looking great in photos, tipping, and thank-you notes—The Wedding Book has the answer. Includes lists, schedules, budgeting tools, and timelines.

Fans of WE tv’s My Fair Wedding have watched celebrity wedding planner David Tutera miraculously create celebrations that are each as unique as, and perfectly suited to, the bride herself—and in keeping with the theme or mood that is her vision of her special day. From a chic city loft feel to retro Hollywood glamour, from exotic destinations to sleek winter landscapes, David has translated the oftentimes scattered, misguided, or underwhelming visions of his brides into brilliant and artistic expressions of love, passion, and personality. But only a handful of lucky brides-to-be get the wedding makeover of their dreams as part of the WE tv hit reality show. Now, you can plan the wedding you want and deserve with this wonderful companion volume. It not only features the stories of the most memorable My Fair Wedding brides from three fabulous seasons but gives you the “Tutera touch” as well as expert tools for creating an affair that you, your groom, and your family and friends will cherish forever. Not your average wedding guide, My Fair Wedding is grounded in David’s philosophy that regardless of budget, every bride can have a fantasy wedding as long as the right choices go into the planning—and every detail counts. Here you will find: • insightful and indispensable “What Would David Do?” sidebars • self-quizzes that help you zero in on your preferences and tastes for a truly personalized wedding • real-life etiquette and time-tested manners that add class to every occasion • advice and inspiration for choosing everything from gowns, shoes, hair, and makeup to invitations, photographers, music, lighting, centerpieces, favors, thank-you notes, and so much more • helpful pointers for logistical planning— transportation, outdoor ceremonies, timelines, and other factors for keeping things stress free. Most important, David Tutera helps every bride-to-be to reach deeper, aspire higher, become transformed from within, and radiate a special glow and renewed self-confidence that lasts long beyond her wedding day.

Meet Delilah Winchester. . . There was a time when the pedigrees of neither my fiancé nor my engagement ring would have mattered to my mother, as long as I was happy. That was then. Now she's a celebrity, and my wedding is the ultimate publicity stunt. . . Meet Carmela Cantano. . . The Queen of Queens. She cooks; she cleans; she dotes on Anthony, The World's Most Wonderful Son. My future mother-in-law has her own ideas about the proper matrimonial send off for her precious baby boy. What there won't be is Delilah's vision of WASPy nuptial perfection . . . Meet Me. . . Emilie, hapless bride-to-be caught between Momzillas with opposing views and sharpened claws. When, exactly, did my big day become theirs, and how do I get it back? "As delicious, layered, and inventively crafted as a Sylvia Weinstock cake." --Jacqueline deMontravel, author of Escape from Bridezilla

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.

Seven essays celebrating the beauty of the imperfect marriage. We hear plenty about whether or not to get married, but much less about what it takes to stay married. Clichés around marriage—eternal bliss, domestic harmony, soul mates—leave out the real stuff. After marriage you may still want to sleep with other people. Sometimes your partner will bore the hell out of you. And when stuck paying for your spouse’s mistakes, you might miss being single. In Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give, Ada Calhoun presents an unflinching but also loving portrait of her own marriage, opening a long-overdue conversation about the institution as it truly is: not the happy ending of a love story or a relic doomed by high divorce rates, but the beginning of a challenging new chapter of which “the first twenty years are the hardest.” Calhoun’s funny, poignant personal essays explore the bedrooms of modern coupledom for a nuanced discussion of infidelity, existential anxiety, and the many other obstacles to staying together. Both realistic and openhearted, Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give offers a refreshing new way to think about marriage as a brave, tough, creative decision to stay with another person for the rest of your life. “What a burden,” Calhoun calls marriage, “and what a gift.”

New York Times Bestseller "There is no writer quite like Dolly Alderton working today and very soon the world will know it.” —Lisa Taddeo, author of #1 New York Times bestseller Three Women “Dolly Alderton has always been a sparkling Roman candle of talent. She is funny, smart, and explosively engaged in the wonders and weirdness of the world. But what makes this memoir more than mere entertainment is the mature and sophisticated evolution that Alderton describes in these pages. It’s a beautifully told journey and a thoughtful, important book. I loved it.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love and City of Girls The wildly funny, occasionally heartbreaking internationally bestselling memoir about growing up, growing older, and learning to navigate friendships, jobs, loss, and love along the ride When it comes to the trials and triumphs of becoming an adult, journalist and former Sunday Times columnist Dolly Alderton has seen and tried it all. In her memoir, she vividly recounts falling in love, finding a job, getting drunk, getting dumped, realizing that Ivan from the corner shop might just be the only reliable man in her life, and that absolutely no one can ever compare to her best girlfriends. Everything I Know About Love is about bad dates, good friends and—above all else— realizing that you are enough. Glittering with wit and insight, heart and humor, Dolly Alderton’s unforgettable debut weaves together personal stories, satirical observations, a series of lists, recipes, and other vignettes that will strike a chord of recognition with women of every age—making you want to pick up the phone and tell your best friends all about it. Like Bridget Jones’ Diary but all true, Everything I Know About Love is about the struggles of early adulthood in all its terrifying and hopeful uncertainty.

A recent poll indicated that for every American who believes he or she is going to Hell, there are 120 who believe they're going to Heaven. This optimism stands in stark contrast to Jesus Christ's words written in the Bible: "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few"(Matthew 7:13-14). The truth is that according to the Bible we don't automatically go to Heaven. In fact, Hell--not Heaven--is our default destination. Unless our sin problem is solved once and for all, we can't enter Heaven. That's the bad news. But once that's straight in our minds we're ready to hear the good news of Jesus Christ--Jesus took upon himself, on the cross, the Hell we deserve so that we could experience for eternity the Heaven we don't deserve! The Only Two Options There are two possible destinations when we die--Heaven or Hell. Can we really know in advance where we'll go? John, one of the writers of the Bible, said this: "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life" (1 John 5:13). We can know for sure that we'll go to Heaven when we die. Do you? To sin means to fall short of God's holy standards. Sin is what ended Eden's paradise. And all of us, like Adam and Eve, are sinners. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Sin separates us from a relationship with God (Isaiah 59:2). Sin deceives us and makes us think that wrong is right and right is wrong (Proverbs 14:12). Sin has terrible consequences, but God has provided a solution: "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23). Jesus Christ, the Son of God, loved us so much that he became a man to deliver us from our sin. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). He came to identify with us in our humanity and our weakness, but he did so without being tainted by our sin, self-deception, and moral failings (Hebrews 4:15-16). Jesus died on the cross as the only one worthy to pay the penalty for our sins demanded by the holiness of God: "For our sake he [God] made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). But God raised Jesus from the grave, defeating sin's consequences and conquering death (1 Corinthians 15:3-4, 54-57). When Christ died on the cross for us, he said, "It is finished" (John 19:30). In those times "It is finished" was commonly written across certificates of debt when they were canceled. It meant "Paid in full." Christ died so that the certificate of debt, consisting of all our sins, could once and for all be marked "Paid in full." The Critical Decision Only when our sins are dealt with in Christ can we enter Heaven. We cannot pay our own way. Jesus said "No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Because of Jesus Christ's sacrificial death on the cross on our behalf, God freely offers us forgiveness. To be forgiven, we must recognize and repent of our sins. Forgiveness is not automatic. It's conditioned upon confession: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Christ offers to everyone the gifts of forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life. "Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price" (Revelation 22:17). There's no righteous deed we can do that will earn us a place in Heaven (Titus 3:5). We come to Christ empty-handed. We can take no credit for salvation. "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). This gift cannot be worked for, earned, or achieved. It's dependent solely on Christ's generous sacrifice on our behalf. Now is the time to make things right with God. Confess your sinfulness and accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on your behalf. You are made for a person and a place. Jesus is the person, and Heaven is the place. They are a package--they come together. You cannot get Heaven without Jesus or Jesus without Heaven. "Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near" (Isaiah 55:6). For all eternity you'll be glad you did. If you understand what God has done to make forgiveness and eternal life possible for you, you may want to express it in words like these: "Dear Lord, I confess that I do not measure up to your perfect standard. Thank you for sending Jesus to die for my sins. I now place my trust in him as my Savior. Thank you for your forgiveness and the gift of eternal life."

'So compellingly personal you feel you're looking over her shoulder as she sits down to write' New York Times 'Electrically entertaining ... Funny, generous, spirited and kind' The Times This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage is an irresistible blend of literature and memoir revealing the big experiences and little moments that shaped Ann Patchett as a daughter, wife, friend and writer. Here, Ann Patchett shares entertaining and moving stories about her tumultuous childhood, her painful early divorce, the excitement of selling her first book, driving a Winnebago from Montana to Yellowstone Park, her joyous discovery of opera, scaling a six-foot wall in order to join the Los Angeles Police Department, the gradual loss of her beloved grandmother, starting her own bookshop in Nashville, her love for her very special dog and, of course, her eventual happy marriage. This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage is a memoir both wide ranging and deeply personal, overflowing with close observation and emotional wisdom, told with wit, honesty and irresistible warmth.