etiquette

Unfortunately, I found this book to be as unoriginal as it's blan cover. The most stimulating parts were already discovered and passed on in the original personalized wedding book "With These Words...I Thee Wed"--secular & religious vows, and vows for all occasions and settings. "With These Words" was even the first book to introduce a questionnaire that aids in creating your own vows. So I'm not only disappointed that this book obviously has more marketing bucks than original ideas, it proves that you can't improve upon perfection.

Although much of the information contained in this book is available through other sources--The Knot's own web site, for example--it is likely to be useful for someone in the beginning stages of planning their wedding and reception. In particular, there are plenty of examples of vows from various religious backgrounds as well as nice descriptions of various ethnic traditions (eg, the Afrocentric "Jumping the Broom"). There are a lot of ideas for those who wish to take a more non-traditional approach as well, as the book makes suggestions for incorporating songs, poetry, and the like into your celebration. The music section breaks the songs down into categories (eg, "first dance," "parents dances") and then further subdivides the categories based on type of music; the section on speeches and toasts is similarly divided based on who is doing the toast. One note of caution: there is less content in the book than its large size would suggest, as a significant number of pages are taken up by examples (eg, page after page of song titles) as well as a resource and bibliography list, both of which I viewed as unnecessary. However, if what you are looking for is plenty of examples so that you can make preliminary decisions about your wedding day, this book would work well.

I am the romantic type and have been dreaming about my wedding since forever, but I bought this book, because there are so many great verses/poems/quotations about love. I like to include them in love letters to my boyfriend. Also has a great section on toasts if you are looking for just the right thing to say at an up and coming wedding.