Bussen draws on her long experience as a wedding and party planner to guide the shower-giver through each step, from budgeting and etiquette, to choosing refreshments that enhance the ambience, to devising activities that break the ice and heighten the fun.

What’s the preferred way of wording your invitation? How should guests at the wedding dinner be seated? What do you say to people who ask to bring their (uninvited) children to the reception—or, scarier still, to your prospective mother-in-law when she picks out the World’s Ugliest Dress to wear on your big day? Brides-to-be have a lot on their minds, including making sure that everything connected with the wedding is done the “right way.” But nowadays few people are adequately schooled in the do’s and don’ts of proper etiquette—and that’s where Simple Stunning Wedding Etiquette comes to the desperately needed rescue. This newest volume in Karen Bussen’s Simple Stunning Wedding series—whose four previous books total more than 130,000 copies in print—is the perfect marriage between the timeless and the new. Bussen celebrates the beloved rituals (cake-cutting, toasts) that are well worth preserving, while dispensing with outmoded rites (the garter toss) best left by the wayside. And Bussen’s guide goes beyond other wedding etiquette handbooks by dealing sensitively with the sometimes-fraught issues (divorced parents, second marriages, blending religious traditions) so crucial to contemporary wedding planning.

The three biggest trends in weddings today are simplicity, personalization, and color. Wedding design expert Karen Bussen highlights these elements as she shows couples how to design their own weddings without going crazy or broke. Simple Stunning Weddings is the first wedding design book to focus on the where of the wedding. Location is the first and most important decision brides and grooms must make: everything else flows from that. Bussen showcases 12 popular wedding settings, including the city loft, country inn, art gallery, botanic garden, and private club, and demonstrates how to make them extraordinary. With the site as the starting point, she creates unifying themes with color, flowers, and personal touches. She explains how to deal with vendors, how to spend the wedding budget, and when it makes sense to hire a specialist. Sharing all her trade secrets, Bussen teaches the power of simplicity and the impact of color, which can be tailored to any budget, always to stunning effect: substituting cotton tablecloths for silk in the same eye-dazzling color combinations, for example, or creating striking flower arrangements using only one or two types of blooms. Whether for a barefoot union on a beach or a formal affair in a hotel ballroom, this fully illustrated, information-filled book is like having Bussen on hand as your personal wedding designer.

The three most important facets of wedding design today are simplicity, personalization, and color. Bussen shows how to design their own weddings without going crazy or broke.

Never Forget Your Most Wonderful Wedding Day and All Those Amazing Guests That Celebrated With You Beautiful Guest Book With 100 Unlined Pages Elegant Flourishes at the Bottom of the Interior Pages Clean Design With a Golden Heart Wire Frame on a White Background This Guest Book Makes the Perfect Keepsake for Wedding Registries or as a Great Bridal Shower Gift Dimensions: 8.25" x 6" Beautiful Glossy Cover Paperback Cover Order your book today!!

Your best friend is getting married, it's up to you to throw the shower. Now what? Forget the paper plateribbon bouquet. Times have changed and people are delving into tradition with contemporary flair. With four unique party themes, Wedding Showers offers menus, decorating ideas, creative projects, and activities to suit a range of personalities and visions, making it the ideal guide for today's shower host. A traditional afternoon of tea invites guests to a selection of mouthwatering cakes, tarts, and cookies. A tropical cocktail party carries the festivities outside. The day-at-the-beach shower takes a fun and casual approach with its bountiful barbecue and brightly colored canopies. An intimate beauty shower centers around luxuriant home-spa treatments followed by pretty boxed lunches. From making the plans to decorating the venue, the authors breathe new life into the long-standing tradition of the wedding shower.