A Practical Wedding

A Practical Wedding: Creative Ideas for Planning a Beautiful, Affordable, and Meaningful Celebration by Meg Keene

231 pages

Started: 6 January 2012
Finished: 11 January 2012

First off, of course I’m going to like this book, I’m in it! I’m quoted on page 16 (“A wedding is not a surprise party for the groom”) and 37 (“To keep my sanity, it was worth it to us to pay the price to have our reception at a place that would cover all the food, the setup, and the cleanup. Worrying about that could’ve killed me”). And there’s a whole section (pg 23) about the anti to-do list. That was something we did for our wedding and I mentioned when I shared our wedding on the site associated with the book. And then there’s the small bio at the end of the book that reads thus:

Lisa M. G. Dennis (www.missgiggles.com) has taught elementary school and college, gotten through graduate school once and is doing it again, run marathons, lived abroad, and tried belly dancing. However, family and marriage have been her greatest adventures. She looks forward to the rest of her exciting life, now to be shared with her best friend.

But I like the book for more reasons then my own self-centered one. And that’s why over two years after our wedding I still read the blog, A Practical Wedding, daily. And it was the only wedding blog I was reading by the time we got married as well. In fact, in large measure it felt like I’d already read the book because it was just like reading the blog. The book is the blog in easily transportable underline-able form. Plus, it’s easier to give a book as a gift than a blog.

The best part of the book, and blog, is that it really hammers home that if you are happily married to the person you love, then your wedding was a success, because it’s the feelings and not the physical details, it’s the marriage and not the wedding, that matter. And anyone who’s planned a wedding recently with the whole “Buy All the Things” that they’re being told, it’s nice to have some sanity every once in a while.

There was one part that really made me laugh though. There’s a part about choosing your officiant and how awkward it is when it seems like the officiant has never met the couple before and that this is a rather important choice to make. And it made me laugh because we met our officiant only minutes before we got married and he only said my name right once. Luckily it was during the ceremony. And it wasn’t awkward at all.

Rating: 10