Review by Booklist Review
Miss Manners gives thoughtful solutions to the gentle reader about the seemingly unfathomable problems related to planning a wedding. She offers her hand with receptions, menu planning, repeat weddings, canceled weddings, gifts, and videotaping. Included in this handy question-and-answer guide is a checklist of things a bride need not concern herself with. There's no reason to "worry about whether the postage stamp on her invitations carries out the color scheme of the wedding. Nobody cares." Another list offers the chief duties of the bride's parents, bridegroom's parents, and stepparents. Miss Manners tries to prevent such social blunders as including "and guest" on invitations. The bride and groom should be in control of their wedding list and should not allow friends to bring a stranger to this intimate occasion. Much better to ask for the friend's name and send that someone a separate invitation. Browsing this guide to wedding etiquette will definitely ease anxiety about how to achieve that perfect day. --Jennifer Henderson
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
With her trademark comedic inflection, Martin, the syndicated columnist whose bestselling etiquette manuals (Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior; Miss Manners' Guide to Rearing Perfect Children) provide entertainment as well as guidance, turns her attention here to weddings. Indirectly addressing the bride but including the entire cast of trouble-causersrelatives, in-laws, attendants, divorced parentsMiss Manners supports reasonable standards, exuding acerbically genteel regret at some contemporary nuptial excesses while accepting some stark realities. For example, in reply to a puzzled ``gentle reader'' who is a pregnant bride-to-be, Miss Manners believes the only thing that should be altered is the wedding dress: ``Let it out in the tummy.'' With gentle firmness, Miss Manners upholds the perennial etiquette that contributes to our general civility and accepts changes that are for the goodblack dresses for bridesmaids are not among them. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Martin, the grand duchess of etiquette, here brings us the last word on weddings. After reminding us that a wedding is not "My Perfect Day," a fundraiser, or a show-biz extravaganza, she takes the reader step-by-step through the expectations, plans, and potential pitfalls of the engagement, showers, guest list, invitations, family roles, attendants and guests, and reception. Her characteristically salty prose is supplemented with actual letters to her newspaper column on a wide variety of related questions. Humorous but firm and-of course-perfectly proper, she is a delight, even to those whose own weddings are long past. Highly recommended.-Susan B. Hagloch, Tuscarawas Cty. P.L., New Philadelphia, Ohio (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A prompt thank-you note is due to Miss Manners for her latest, an astringent guide to mounting a wedding that puts out-of-control brides in their place and uninvited guests at home, where they belong. Miss Manners is distressed--distressed!--that weddings of today have come to be regarded as entertainment events rather than the serious, if not solemn, rituals they were meant to be. Moreover, it has come to her attention that brides and grooms have been known to coerce friends and relatives into refilling the wedding coffers by paying for the meal or contributing to the financing of a house. Via her alter ego Judith Martin (Miss Manners' Guide for the Turn-of-the-Millennium, 1989, etc.), Miss Manners tries to set the soon-to-be-wed on the straight and narrow aisle of appropriate etiquette. Forget about it being ""My Day,"" she warns brides early on. At the least, it is ""Our Day,"" and normal consideration for other human beings should not be suspended as the bride turns autocratic. Inconsiderate guests--who bring uninvited friends and unwelcome children or insist their pet monkey be included (she cites such a case) receive their share of scolding. Using the familiar ""Dear Miss Manners"" question-and-answer format, Martin covers protocol for engagements, showers, invitations, and announcements, the responsibilities of bridesmaids and groomsmen, presents and thank-yous, as well as more esoteric forms of prenuptial crises, like canceled or restaged weddings, and gay and lesbian ceremonies. She expresses no small irritation at couples who solicit gifts or cash, stage the ceremony and reception for the benefit of hired photographers, or leave a trail of hurt feelings as they blunder toward the altar. At the ramparts of proper behavior, Miss Manners gives us a valiant and vinegary defense of retaining dignity without losing joy in the celebration of a marriage. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
