Five Favorite Wedding Books

image via Amazon photo by Ellen Silverman

Happy fall Monday. A couple of weeks ago I went through the library catalog database for books on weddings and started putting a hold on anything that looked interesting. After sifting through a list of hundreds of books, I determined that you can pretty much divide all wedding books into the following categories:

• Planning Guides (books full of lists & calendars)
• Look Books (photos, photos, photos)
• Etiquette (Dealing with crazy relatives, rude guests, problem bridesmaids, drunk best men, etc.)
• Getting Married With Grace & Without Stress (doesn't need an explanation, right?)

After looking at dozens of books I thought I would share with you five of my favorites. If you're planning a wedding you would probably really enjoy these. If you're not planning a wedding, these would make a great gift to a newly engaged friend, relative, daughter or future daughter-in-law.

1) Simply Stunning Weddings: Designing and Creating Your Perfect Celebration

Written by New York wedding planner Karen Bussen, this book is nothing about spending big money for a great wedding and everything about creating a stunning wedding. Bussen gives readers a fantastic 10-point philosophy for have a stunning, simple wedding and her ideas are easy to grasp. She makes the idea of planning a wedding sound much less intimidating than any other book I've read so far.

Busson beautifully defines all the important elements of a memorable wedding which definitely helps the overwhelmed mind of a future bride focus on what is really important to her. The photography by Ellen Silverman wraps perfectly with Busson's inspiring words. You might also enjoy seeing Ellen's web site here. This is an absolutely beautiful book full of photos of all kinds of weddings. This is one I will hang onto for the full 3-week check out period and continue to refer to while I anticipate plans for a stunning, simple wedding.

image via The Knot

2) The Knot Ultimate Wedding Look Book: More Than 1,000 Cakes, Centerpieces, Bouquets, Dresses, Decorations and Ideas for The Perfect Day

By Carly Roney and the editors of The Knot, this book is a photo fun fest. My favorite thing is that there are mood boards for a huge variety of color combinations. I can't imagine a combination of colors they haven't covered in some way. It's like a candy store of photo deliciousness.

I have a lot of sticky notes all over in this book. I realized too that some of the images are already on my inspiration board and are photos I have been holding onto for a while. This book contains some of the absolutely coolest weddings elements you will see. Besides all the amazing photos, there is a lot of really helpful advice presented in a friendly, easy-to-read way.

image via Amazon

3) For The Bride

This sweet book reminds me why we need more people with the manners of Colin Cowie in the world. He is a man familiar with all the traits of graciousness. He is supremely aware of making people feel comfortable, being aware of what's going on around him and finding ways to graciously teach others his art. This book is a great guide for peacefully and artfully managing the potentially crazy world of a wedding.

He includes helpful hints on how to approach every element of the wedding and beyond. I love that he has chapters on the wedding night and life after the wedding with guidance on how to carry on in a graceful home. Not too long and comforting to read, this is a great addition to any wedding library.

image via Amazon

4) For The Groom

Also by Cowie, this is the companion book to For the Bride. (Are you shocked, haha.) This book is definitely something worth gifting to your favorite groom. Cowie educates grooms about gracious handling of the tricky world of women and weddings from a man's perspective in man-friendly language. If there was a gracious way to teach your groom how to help make your shared wedding day sublimely happy, this is it.

He also includes in this book a chapter on the wedding night, honeymoon and life after the wedding. If a bride and groom were to read these two books I think they would have an excellent start at a gracious, caring life together.

5) Donnie Brown Weddings

Donnie Brown feels like a family member to me after my years working at a television network where he regularly appeared on TV. I don't actually know him, but because there were TVs at every desk and hanging from the walls above our desks, I spent a lot of time with him on an almost daily basis. I thought this book would be a lot of photos but it's actually a lot of valuable Donnie Brown advice which I think is far more unique.

Brown shares a lot of little insights that you would never think of unless you've been intimately involved in the planning of hundreds of weddings.I enjoyed this book and Brown's conversational style. This was a quick read. Did it while on the treadmill and bike at the gym on Saturday.

So there are a few great books you might enjoy or make as a great gift for someone special. I still have quite a few books coming from the library so it will be fun to see what else I uncover. I'm taking another big pile back today. I skimmed a lot of books this weekend. I'm hoping I'll be able to post a photo and a few details about the new fall mantle. Loving it so far, but it needs one more little thing. Cheers!