A Practical Wedding: Creative Ideas for Planning a Beautiful, Affordable and Meaningful Celebration

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An Insanity-Free Wedding: It Can Happen!

Getting engaged is exhilarating…until it sets in that a wedding costs three times what you thought, and takes five to ten times the effort it reasonably should. And then there are the expectations: from calligraphy invitations to satin chair-covers, all those things that Must Be Done or everyone will be Horribly Offended. Or will they?

A Practical Wedding helps you create the wedding you want—without going broke or crazy in the process. After all, what really matters on your wedding day, what you’ll remember ’til you’re old and gray, 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?
• Affording a wedding without having to cut your guest list
• How to communicate decisions with 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.

Meg Keene is the creator of APracticalWedding.com, the ultimate wedding planning website for independent-minded brides. Her blog has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, CNN.com, Glamour, Chicago Tribune, Feministing.com, and more. She lives with her husband in San Francisco.

Library Journal, 12/23/11
"Keene’s wedding planning guide is a fresh, sane voice in a field of guides pushing big budget weddings…Keene’s book stands out as she empowers brides to find the elements of wedding planning that are meaningful to them and to let go of the rest without regrets or apology. Verdict: Recommended and required reading for all newly engaged couples. Public libraries would be wise to include this practical guide in their collections."

 

"This book will be a touchstone of sanity. When you get derailed by something judgmental your Aunt Muriel said, or you feel inadequate because your wedding doesn’t look like something perfectly styled on the pages of a magazine or wedding blog, and you start to reevaluate and question your choices, this book will set you back on the path to stability and reason."

"Every bride could learn something—and cut her stress level—just by reading it."

"Fun to read (she’s got such an approachable tone, very entertaining, just like her blog) and really informative as well."

QuirkyGirlsRead.com, 1/9/12
"A fantastically fun, humorous, and SANE book for any woman navigating the trying waters of wedding planning."

 

 

Portland Book Review, March/April Issue
"Keene offers couples of all faiths, ages, budgets and sexual orientation a wise and well-written hands-on guide for navigating the complexities of etiquette and cultural expectation. (Five Stars)"

"For all the brides out there going through some wedding madness, I highly recommend Meg Keene's A Practical Wedding."