Rating: Summary: Perfection! Review: As a second-time bride, this was the book that "did it" for me. My October wedding reception, while not the exact replica of Ms. McBride-Mellinger's, incorporated as many of her ideas as I could. This is an absolutely beautiful book which will be an inspiration to any bride to be that wants a classy, memorable wedding befitting her chosen season. The settings, invitations, floral designs, cakes, and small touches are unique and certainly can be "scaled down" for those on a smaller budget.
Not the end-all, be-all catalogue of a bridal book...but a digestable and exquisite source of inspiration.
Rating: Summary: Beautiful book full of ideas Review: As a special event floral designer, I have a HUGE library of books from all over the world and this is the BEST one I've found so far.I constantly stress to my clients to look at the big picture when planning a wedding, not just one aspect at a time, such as flowers, colors, linens...This books shows how all the elements of a wedding can work together to give you a wonderful event that looks fantastic. Use this book as a jumping off point for your own wedding, it is full of inspiration,and you can adapt many of the ideas to suit your own color scheme and setting.This book is a MUST HAVE for Brides and anyone in the wedding business.
Rating: Summary: WOW Review: As a wedding and event planner in Las Vegas, it's sometimes hard for us to describe our ideas to our clients and vice versa. Everyone wants to have a unique, special, and memorable wedding and when we're helping during the planning stage, it's important that everyone is on 'the same page'. This book is awesome, the details, picture quality and layout are the best i've ever seen in my industry! This helps couples actually see what can be possible, and eases their minds that they're dream wedding can come true.
Rating: Summary: Inspirational Review: Broken up into seasons, this book presents beautiful and exquisite ideas for a classy wedding reception; from table settings to floral decorations to wedding favors; inventive color palettes; you're not limited to 1/4 of the ideas - ideas easily adaptable to any season.
Rating: Summary: Ideas for All Seasons Review: Her ideas range from table settings to floral decor to food menus to wedding favors. Some of the ideas tend to be on the "high end" budget side of things. But I suppose you can easily adapt the ideas to your budget and to your taste. Several of the ideas are season-less, so you get more out of the book than just a 1/4 of it. Wonderful still photography shows the detail of each of her ideas. A good read!
Rating: Summary: Ideas for All Seasons Review: Her ideas range from table settings to floral decor to food menus to wedding favors. Some of the ideas tend to be on the "high end" budget side of things. But I suppose you can easily adapt the ideas to your budget and to your taste. Several of the ideas are season-less, so you get more out of the book than just a 1/4 of it. Wonderful still photography shows the detail of each of her ideas. A good read!
Rating: Summary: Pleased with ideas Review: I bought this book based on the other book review listed here and I agree, there are many, many great ideas for all occasions. I was actually looking more for a "how-to" book but this caught my eye and I'm glad I purchased it.
Rating: Summary: The Perfect Wedding Picturebook Review: I think of wedding planning books as either having informational text or having beautiful pictures. This is the best of the beautiful picturebooks. As others have mentioned, she profiles four weddings, and each of the weddings has a different decorating mood, from romantic to modern to rustic to sophisticated. In addition, she also has photographs of smaller details from other weddings. I'm taking this book with me as I make my plans with my florist, and I think that it will also influence my placecards as well. I got this at a used bookstore, and consider it money very well spent. Since Amazon is selling it ..., I think that you would find it good value here as well.
Rating: Summary: Great ideas and details for across the seasons! Review: I wanted to get some sort of book for ideas because all that the brick-thick bridal magazines do is show you wedding gown after wedding gown with the occasional bridesmaids gown thrown in for variety. I wanted ideas for place settings, place cards, flower arrangements, cakes, favors, and even menus and was getting frustrated.When I ordered this book, I was a little concerned because it is advertised as a reception for each of the four seasons. I'm having a winter wedding, so I was thinking "Oh Great- I'm only going to be able to use a fourth of this book." I was WRONG! Generally speaking this book manages to give you ideas for how to give your wedding (or any formal event) the *feel* of the season, but also gives you detailed ideas that may generalize throughout the year. For example: The spring bouquet with some modification would be beautiful for my December bouquet. In addition to the seasonal advice, there are sections called "Fine points" dealing with general details such as "confections" (desserts), table accents (for formal, semi-formal and informal occasions), flowers, etc. The ideas that seem to be lacking in the literally foot-tall stack of bridal magazines are here in this book. Yes, some of the ideas in the book are sorta pricey, but some are less pricey and very do-it-yourself (e.g. Juniper shrubs in galvanized tin buckets, covering the topsoil with moss and tying a silver mesh ribbon around the trunk- VERY cute, and highly do-able). I highly recommend this book! I do wish there were a book for each of the seasons, but until then, don't be afraid of this one!
Rating: Summary: OSTENTATIOUS IDEAS FOR EVERY SEASON BUT NOT EVERY BRIDE Review: If Kennedy or Vanderbilt is your last name and I mean The Kennedys and The Vanderbilts, if Bill Gates is your wedding sponser or if you are a member of the Royal Family then this book is for you. If you live in the real world you may not want to bother reading a book that would embarrass even Martha Stewart. Even if your wedding budget isn't that of a small nation you can uncover some ideas to use on a realistic day of bliss. But I would leave out the "Honeymoon bed out in the open" next to a swamp unless you are marrying Jeff Corwin or the Crocodile Hunter. Look at page 116 and see if you would like to spend your wedding night there but McBride-Mellinger says "far from sight of the area's inhabitants". It's also far from sight of a bathroom,room service and Walgreen's to get some mosquito spray and close to sight for anything with four or six legs or even eight hairy ones that hopefully would be four groomsmen rather than a spider. As in all the weddings in the book, the cakes are works of art, the prettiest I've ever seen (pgs 106&107, 214&215 "a masterpiece" and the chapter on Confections) and the flowers are magnificent. If you read this book make sure to have a dictionary for all the $2.00 words as it must have been written with a word processor in one hand an a Thesaurus in the other. Also, a really good cook book will come in handy to try and figure out what everyone was eating. McBride-Mellinger is even so helpful as to tell you how to dress the "help" as if in this day and time the guests even know what to wear, where the "help" should go to the bathroom, and to prepare food incase they work more then four hours. But do show respect because Maria McBride-Mellinger has a very high opinion of herself and a much over inflated ego. "The Perfect Wedding Reception" is that: perfectly ostentatious,pretentious,over the top and prefectly not for middle class America. The book is a "perfect" waste of a good tree. For over 30 years I have been a floral artist and wedding planner with the experience of over 500 weddings in all parts of the US and Europe.
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