The Busy Brides Essential Wedding Checklists

Worried you will forget something? Why reinvent the wheel?

"The Busy Bride's Essential Wedding Checklists vastly outdoes its competition with attention to detail, complete question lists, more realistic suggestions and presenting topics to the bride in the order in which she will need them."

Made for the 21st Century (the age of online planning)everything you need to do and more in one little book.

Anti-Bride Guides

One reader who bought the Offbeat Bride recommends another "alternative wedding" book - the Anti-Bride Guide:

"Into a sea of pearl white and pale blue comes the hot pink and orange Anti-Bride Guide. The perfect book for anyone alienated by the high-brow wedding industry, this practical guide fills a huge gap in the wedding planner market. A riot to read and filled with sassy illustrations, each chapter offers up fabulous advice and unusual ideas for those brides looking for more than the standard fare. Hundreds of fantastic tips give great insider advice on how to deal with any and all wedding eventualities (lipstick stain on dress, caterer from hell, wedding day breakout). A handy planner and resource guide keeps the bride on track, and tabbed chapters have pockets for stuffing brochures and clippings. For the bride who wants her wedding her way, this is the ultimate guide. " - Amazon

Now the Anti-Bride Guide has additional books to cover every aspect of the big day.

The Creative Jewish Wedding Book: A Hands-On Guide to New & Old Traditions, Ceremonies & Celebrations

I used this book for my wedding and thought it was very helpful - particularly in thinking about the ceremony. It has lots of how to projects and creative ideas that would work well for Jewish and non-Jewish weddings alike.

It offers(quoted form Amazon):
- Insights and reflections from a broad range of couples who have created their own distinctive weddings
- Practical hands-on techniques and ideas for creating many of the ritual objects connected to a Jewish wedding from designing your own ketubah, to making paper for invitations, to fashioning the chuppah
- How to express your spiritual life and values through your ceremony
- An up-to-date guide to wedding resources in the Jewish world

Offbeat Bride: Taffeta-Free Alternatives for Independent Brides - Ariel Meadow Stallings

Ariel's book is somewhat of a rant but a good read for anyone feeling like an odd ball in the wedding world seeking validation that they are not alone. She does a good job of explaining the process of being strangely drawn to and repulsed by convention at the same time and leads the reader down the path of her experience in finding a wedding that worked for her. Here is Amazon.com's take:

"Unenthused by a white wedding gown and bored by the hoopla of the Hollywood-style reception, Ariel Meadow Stallings found herself absolutely exhausted with the nuances of traditional nuptials. So, she chose to take a walk off the beaten aisle and embrace the non-traditional bride within. Through trial and error, Ariel and her fiancée managed to crank out a budget wedding with all-night dancing, guests toasting champagne in mismatched mugs, gorgeous gardens, no monogrammed napkins, no garter, no bridesmaids, and lots of lesbians...Offbeat Bride serves as an inspiration for those who are interested in a vegan buffet, avoiding bouquet tossing, doing away with the elitist guest list and being a control freak without becoming a Bridezilla. Filled with sidebars, tips, tricks and planner encouragement (all taffeta-free) to help you figure out your special day, this book sees couples through the wedding process from ideas on how to announce their engagement to answering the question, “So, how’s married life?” and everything in between."

The DIY Bride

If you are crafty or are looking to save money, taking on projects for your wedding is a great way to create green elements for your wedding. While not a green book per se, the DIY encourages recycling and reducing monetary waste. Most of the project ideas can also be adapted to fit your needs:

Khris Cochran’s The DIY Bride: 40 Fun Projects for Your Ultimate One-of-a-Kind Wedding provides inspiration and projects for save-the-date cards, invitations, jewelry and accessories, ceremony decorations, programs, favors and more. Cochran, who founded the website DIYBride.com, also provides a cost comparison to show how much a similar item would cost if purchased in a store, allowing busy couples to decide whether it would be better to buy or make certain projects. A hair ornament for a flower girl, for example, costs about $5 to make but would cost about $40 to buy. The DIY Bride provides clear instructions and suggests whether a project could be completed by the couple themselves, with the help of the wedding party or with members of the family, offering clever ideas and the potential for fun invitation-building parties with friends. --Bookpage