The Royal Wedding For Dummies
It had to happen - you can also use the guide as a how-to if you are planning your celebration to be royal-like. There's a chapter that includes a recipe section with great takes on traditional British fare for parties and royal trivia.

The guide provides readers with a fun look at this historical Royal Wedding of William and Kate that includes a brief biography of the happy couple. Royal wedding fact sheets featuring in-depth explanations of the customs, rules of etiquette, and history on display during the events. An inside look at Westminster Abbey - the building, the history, and the weddings. A lively account of royal weddings of the past - with a score card ranking the ultimate results - including a look at other royal/commoner romances. Where did they go?’ Royal honeymoons of the past. And a ‘Know Your Heads of State and Hangers-On’ section perfect for figuring out who's at the events.

There’s also an ‘If you're going’ guide featuring the best places to get a glimpse of the revelry in person, best places to grab a pint or glass of wine and soak up the atmosphere, and tips on getting around London easily and safely on the day.
(The Royal Wedding For Dummies by Julian Knight $11.99 CDN. The book is available in stores and online).

About the Author:
Julian Knight has worked at the Independent on Sunday since 2007. Previously, he was a reporter at BBC News. Knight has written for a variety of magazines, newspapers and websites, and he is the author of the British Politics For Dummies and British Citizenship Test For Dummies. (April 4, 2011)

Planning a Green Wedding
Whether you want to include just a few green elements in your décor or have a carbon-neutral wedding with local organic food and a peace silk dress, you’ll want to find the resources you need to pull it off.  In The Green Bride Guide there are choices that emphasize elegance and individual taste that covers: engagements, green gowns, shoes, and veils, giving and receiving green, planning a eco-honeymoon and more.
 
This guide is also a practical resource for budget conscious couples provides low, medium, and high-end choices in every category and vendor worksheets.

The Green Bride Guide: How to Create an Earth-Friendly Wedding on Any Budget by Kate L. Harrison. Visit www.sourcebooks.com (Sourcebooks, Inc., ISBN: 9781402213458; Dec. 2008; $14.99 U.S./$15.99 CAN/£7.99 UK).

More Green
Tips for planning your wedding can be the best time to be eco-friendly. Just make sure if you are planning a green wedding that you are not falling for a marketing ploy from a company that is just using the new buzz words like green, sustainable living or environmentally friendly. Do your research and check out your sources online before you make any decisions or sign contracts.

Eco-Chic Weddings, by Emily Elizabeth Anderson, include quick, simple, and easy-to-follow tips to make your wedding socially responsible. The book provides environmentally friendly tips such as:
• Use in-season flowers to save on price and reduce the environmental cost of shipping in non-local flowers.
• Skip the save-the-date card and save some trees–and a lot of hassle.
• Don’t purchase items you will only use at the wedding; instead, invest in dresses, shoes, or glassware you will alter and reuse.

The book chapters are very well constructed and include the wedding basics, engagement and wedding rings, attire, registries, invitations, flowers, style, favors, health and beauty, menus, transportation, honeymoons and married life. The Appendix lists several eco-chic resources.

Eco-Chic Weddings Simple Tips to Plan an Earth-Friendly, Socially Responsible, Affordable Green Wedding by Emily Elizabeth Anderson (Hatherleigh Press ISBN: 978-1-57826-240-3 (1-57826-240-2) US$16) visit www.randomhouse.ca. - SW

Hiring a Wedding Planner
It's amazing how wedding planners tell you how much not to spend on items you need for your wedding but they really don't spell out their own rates and by hiring them what you are going to save. However, in the book, Rich Bride Poor Bride, based on the television series (Slice), it has several top ten tips from planners including the basic secrets for staying organized. Their tips for this section include: the tools you'll need to plan, all of which are easily accessible and inexpensive, such as a large wall calendar or a computer program that you can enter detailed information in, a journal for to-do lists, a three-ring bider with dividers and pouches for collecting ideas, and a accordion file for receipts and contracts.

Rich Bride Poor Bride: Your Ultimate Wedding Planning Guide copyright by Sean Buckley (Wiley/January 2008 CAN$26.95 US$24.95). Visit www.Wiley.com.

Turning Dream Weddings into Reality
The Modern Bride Survival Guide is an excellent resource book for brides-to-be. It contains a combination of inspiration and instruction with expert advice by author Antonia van der Meer that includes a budget worksheet, helpful to-do lists, a wedding day countdown calendar, sidebars featuring tips from both professional wedding planners and real brides, questions to ask your vendors, ideas on food, venues, dresses, honeymoon spots, and advice on how to tactfully handle conflicts and problems.

The Modern Bride Survival Guide by Antonia van der Meer, with Lisa Milbrand and the Editors of Modern Bride (Wiley US$29.95, www.Wiley.com).

Celebrations between the Engagement and Tossing the Bouquet
Weddings are more than the big day—the parties start months in advance and often continue after the wedding. Celebrations often have a traditional perspective and explores trends in wedding parties and entertaining styles. Emily Post's Wedding Parties book contains the common sense etiquette guidelines to help hosts plan and execute pre and post-wedding gatherings with confidence.
 
The book includes creative ideas for indoor and outdoor parties such as when to hold the engagement party, showers, gatherings for attendants the week of the wedding, stocking the bar and choosing the menu, who to invite and when to send out invitations, how many parties are too many and guidelines for belated receptions 
 
According to author Anna Post, pictured right, etiquette is based on the three principles of consideration, honesty and respect. These principles help couples deal with many situations, some of them awkward or difficult, that happen between announcing the engagement and tossing the bouquet.

She also deals with question such as - do bridesmaids have to host a shower? Should you bring a gift to an engagement party? Who pays for the bachelor party? Should all of the out-of-town guests be invited to the rehearsal dinner and more.
 
Anna Post is the great-great-granddaughter of Emily Post and the newest member of the Post family to write about etiquette. The book includes an introduction written by Anna’s aunt, author Peggy Post, who has written more than twelve books and is a director of The Emily Post Institute. Visit Anna's blog at http://annapost.typepad.com or www.emilypost.com.

Emily Post’s Wedding Parties by Anna Post (Collins/An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers; ISBN 978-0-06-122801-8; US$22.95 www.harpercollins.com).

Personalities of In-laws
I (Heart) My In-laws is the definitive guide to knowing your spouse’s family from your first date to your first born, featuring interviews with women who have overcome situations, tips and damage-control ditties. It aides you in each precarious step on the ladder when you meet your in-laws: first meetings; determining your allies and enemies (which includes knowing the “Seven Personalities of In-Laws”); surviving holidays, weddings, and vacations. A guidebook. A road map. A beacon of hope and light when, for the fiftieth time, you’ve told your in-laws what you do at your computer hi-tech company and that your name is Christy, not Crispy!

I (Heart) My In-Laws by Dina K. Poch (Amazon.com)

Your Timeless Wedding Photos
Los Angeles based wedding photographer Barbara Smith has combined her passions for photography and the paper arts into a new book,The Art and Craft of Keepsake PhotographyEngagements and Weddings. The guidebook is a how-to that is packed with tips for you and / or your photographer to learn how to add text and graphic design elements to images to create stylish layouts then print them on elegant fine papers.  

Smith shows how to shoot dynamic images to show the emotion of the all-important event. Chapters detail simple, straightforward, step-by-step projects that demonstrate how to transform those photos into announcements, invitations, albums, thank you notes, table and place cards, wedding favors, guest book and wedding albums. 

Photography Tips
When the bride is getting ready
A still life composition of shoes with flowers or jewelry. The wedding gown on its hanger. Detail of the wedding gown. As her hair is being styled and / or makeup is being applied. In her lingerie – these shots may not make it into the wedding album. Slipping into the wedding gown and it being buttoned. Putting on special jewelry (with Mom or Maid-of-Honour helping). Putting on her shoes. Putting on her veil. In veiled silhouette. Peeking out the window right before departing for the ceremony. Getting in and out of the limo. A sequence of shots: something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. 

Barbara Smith is a Los Angeles based wedding and portrait photographer who specializes in creating photography-based stationery products and teaches workshops on alternative photographic processes and paper arts. The Art and Craft of Keepsake Photography Engagements and Weddings: How to Take Perfect Photos and Make Stunning Invitations, Announcements, Albums and Thanks You Notes, and More (AMPhoto Books $21.95 U.S. www.amphotobooks.com). Visit Barbara Smith’s website at www.bsmithphotography.com.

How to Use your head as well as your heart in love!
First you have to find the right person to enter a long-term relationship. The book is to help men and women figure out who will make an ideal marriage partner while preventing one’s judgment from destroying the bonds of a growing relationship. It presents an easy-to-use, scientifically-based approach for figuring out what a person will be like as a marriage partner, and provides the tools to do so. Designed to help readers balance their head and their heart in a romantic relationship, this book outlines simple steps to take so they’ll be much less likely to get emotionally involved or prematurely physically involved with the wrong person.

Author John Van is a therapist in private practice who conducts seminars and workshops on topics related to marriage, family, single living, relationships, and divorce. How to Avoid Marrying a Jerk by John Van Epp, Ph.D. (McGraw-Hill Publication $26.95). Visit www.johnvanepp.com.