[.ca] Emily Post's Wedding Planner (ISBN 0062735209)

Wonderful resource:
This book is simple and elegant - you can judge it by its cover. It takes the wedding planning process step-by-step, helping you decide each aspect of your wedding by offering the full range of choices, down to veil styles. The vendor questions were extremely helpful, and due to the color and size of this book I did not feel silly taking it with me to appointments. It has adequate space to write but is more of a workbook style, with lists and notes throughout instead of all in one place. I did not use this book all the way through my engagement because I needed more detailed, personalized information. It was excellent for planning. It was definitely our number one resource for etiquette and formality questions.

Like "FINE WINE" Books:
The best things in life are often imitated, but hardly duplicated. Such is the case with two of the finest and most helpful wedding books I've read: "Emily Post's Wedding Planner" by Peggy Post, and "With These Words...I Thee Wed: Contemporary Wedding Vows For Today's Couples" by Barbara Eklof. Both books set the standard for today's perfect wedding. Post brings the same superb and tried & trusted approach to weddings that she has in every etiquette arena. And I've been a fan and gift giver of Eklof's "With These Words" ever since it's beautiful debut excerpts were published in "Brides Magazine"--imagine, the 1st of all wedding vow books. So if you have high standards for your wedding day, don't settle for second best. Stick with the pros and expect excellence.

Brief and to the point:
I used this book as a reference and kept all my reciepts, etc in a 3-ring binder. (No book will have everything.) Also, I could read the chapters in the 20+ minutes I had to devote to reading about them! The best part of this book was it didn't let you forget that you're throwing a party for everyone else to come and celebrate with you. I've been to so many weddings where folks sat with their chin in their hands and I felt this helped me give my guests a good time by focussing my spending on what really mattered- the ceremony for us, the reception for our guests. Folks responded so well to our party too- looking around, I saw NO chins in hand! Some great cost cutting tips too!

Better than a hired consultant:
This is an excellent wedding planner. Its a good balance of etiquette, advice, information and a planning workbook. The only drawback was that I could not record the complete guest list in the planner itself, but considering how often my guest list changed during planning this was not such a bad thing. The organization is excellent - everything you need to know about flowers plus space for your notes is in one place so you don't have to flip back and forth when you're at the florist. If you want the most proper wedding, this book will tell you how. If you want something less formal, this is still the best book out there.

A little disappointed:
Even though this book has etiquette pointers, it doesn't have enough space to write down things. Sometimes you are directed to make a copy of a page so you will have enough pages. There is only two pockets to keep receipts, etc. Each section does have very detailed questions to ask vendors, photographers, etc. Instead of putting theses within the chapter, they should have been in an appendix so you can easily locate all the questions. My advice is to buy the Emily Post Wedding Etiquette book (which I did) and find another planner.