A Wedding Library

I was pretty clueless at the beginning of this wedding-planning process as to what actually needed to happen and when and why and how to go about doing it. Fortunately, my friends stepped in and showed me the way by sending me two books back in August (see post here). Those two books started a reading frenzy. I figured I'd list the books that I've read for any future brides out there - maybe they'll help you as much as they've helped me.

First, my friends sent The Ultimate Wedding Workbook and Organizer:

www.amazon.com

The above book is a workbook with an accordion file in the back. I actually tore out all of the useful pages, three-hole punched them, and then put them in a binder so that I could add relevant magazine clippings and photos from online that I'd printed out. I found out later that this book can in fact be found in binder form as The Ultimate Wedding Planner & Organizer.

They also sent Bridal Bargains:

www.windsorpeak.com/bridalbargains/

This book covers many ways that brides and grooms can cut costs in a wedding without necessarily losing any of the really important things.

I then went on a kick where I wanted to know the ins and outs of wedding etiquette. I picked up Emily Post's Wedding Etiquette from the library and then impulse bought it on Amazon so that I could continue to look over it as the wedding planning continued. I probably didn't need it, but it did bump me up to free shipping.

www.emilypost.com/weddings/weddings.htm

I actually think my favorite things in it were the little tidbits explaining why we do the things we do in weddings. They're scattered throughout the book, and every time I came to one, I found myself reading it to Alex so that we could both marvel at what a funny world we live in.

The next book, The Wedding Blue Book by Crane & Co., was also picked up from the library, and I found myself following it very closely when it came to invitation wording and (probably much to Alex's dismay) addressing of envelopes. I'm sure I still made a million mistakes, but I hope no one will hold anything against me. It's the effort that counts, right?!

www.crane.com

This book is a little expensive, so it's been a repeated library rental. A summary of their etiquette advice can be found on their website here.

I'm still in the middle of this next book, The Wedding Book, and I'm really enjoying it:

www.mindyweiss.com

Like the wedding etiquette book above, it brings up the history behind traditions. For example, did you know that groomsmen used to be called bride's knights because the bride needed to have male guards around her to keep her safe? The best man actually harks back to days when grooms used to steal their brides--he was along to help distract the family so that the groom would be successful in gaining his bride. Also, the word bridal comes from bride ale: the name of the event back when weddings used to be several day long celebrations and drinking fests. So far this book has been more comprehensive than the etiquette book above because it also talks about dress styles and registries and everything else from a wedding planner's point of view.

The final book in the wedding library to date is The Wedding Ceremony Planner:

www.judithjohnson.com

Alex and I are using it to create our ceremony. We're both still only half way through, but it's been very helpful with what we've done so far. I definitely recommend it if you're trying to plan out your own ceremony.