A Helpful Book

Christmas is over and New Years has since past. From the look at the proposals board though, there were quite a few engagements that happened during that time period. This time last year I was recovering from the excitement of my own engagement and discovered a book that proved to be very helpful to me.

The one thing I hear people tell me most often is, "I can't believe how calm and level headed you have been during your planning." I always laugh and say, "well, the engagement isn't over yet. I still have time to be a bridezilla." For the most part though, I am a fairly calm person. However, I read a book at the very beginning of my engagement that helped shape my mindset. It is called, How I Planned Your Wedding, by Susan Wiggs and Elizabeth Wiggs Maas.

{Image via How I Planned Your Wedding}

It is a true story written by a mother and daughter who tell the story of them planning the daughter's wedding. It is an interesting book because not only do you get the brides point of view, but the mother's perspective as well. In fact, both my mom and I read this book at the same time in January 2011.

We all know how it goes soon after you become engaged. You buy every wedding magazine known to man. While it is full of beautiful photos, most prove to be useless and full of the same information and advertisements. (We tend to learn this hundreds of dollars later, and only after our magazine holder starts to fall apart.) How I Planned Your Wedding is quite different, it is full of realistic, helpful, and well thought out advice. It is a very funny book, written by a girl who had to deal with real life issues, and a mother who only wants to make her daughter happy but has to wrestle with her own wants and opinions as well.

I attribute part of my calm during this process due to this book keeping it real with me at the start of my engagement. This is quite a charming book that I recommend to both brides and mother of the brides as well. It is an easy read, one that I finished in only two days.

Oh did I mention there is a shot out to Weddingbee as well? Oh yes, in fact this book is how I discovered Weddingbee! On page 101 and 102, she writes the following:

"...on a blog that consumed my life for a good chunk of the engagement: Weddingbee. Go there at your own peril. Just make sure you don't have anything to do for the next week or so because you'll spend the whole time browsing through message boards and blog entries by other brides-to-be like yourself."

That my friends, is how I discovered this beautiful website. Another reason to pick up this fun book.

It is entertaining and thought provoking. Most importantly though, it puts things into perspective. It helps you realize that though everything may not go as you had planned, if your wedding happened...then everything went perfect.

Do you have any great book finds that helped you out during your planning?