A Practical Wedding Planner: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating the Wedding You Want with the Budget You've Got (without Losing Your Mind in the Process), Book Cover May Vary Paperback – Illustrated, January 5, 2016

To be completely honest with you, I had my doubts about this new book when it was out for pre-order. I thought, “What could possibly be covered now?” Between the 2011 guidebook, the website’s oft-updated front page and growing archives, and downloadable spreadsheets available online, I wondered if it was going to be a redundant piece of fluff. I bought my copy to see if it was worth suggesting to my couples (I'm a wedding photographer), or warn them not to waste their money. So for me to read it, cover to cover, and have my skepticism blown away actually speaks really highly of this book. It’s useful! It’s smart! It’s handy!See, the first book, A Practical Wedding: Creative Ideas for Planning a Beautiful, Affordable, and Meaningful Celebration, gets you into the *headspace* of planning a wedding. For many of us, our wedding is the first wedding that we’ve ever had to plan. Figuring out how to approach wedding planning, then feeling right about our decisions, is what the original APW book is all about.This companion book, A Practical Wedding Planner (“APWP”), coaxes you into actually taking action. Meg starts by asking you to think of your wedding’s “thesis” — not colors or theme, but the takeaway that you want your guests to feel after the wedding is over. (Best dance party? Amazing spiritual experience? Warm, casual vibe?) Then build your wedding around that thesis.While the planner, at around 9×7″ (notably bigger than the novel-sized 2011 guidebook), isn’t quite large enough to feel like it’s an essential replacement of a wedding-planning binder, it feels more like a notebook and has wide margins so you can scribble all in it (there are some dedicated spots for you to fill in your plans, but for the most part, the book tracks out to-do’s). It’s divided into sections that you can jump to depending on where you are in your planning process: budgets, venues, catering, etc.The best part about this book is that it can be scaled up or down depending on the type of wedding you’re going to have: Meg doesn’t assume that you’ll be having a giant wedding, a tiny one, or that you’ll hire all of the vendors that most wedding-planning books recommend you to hire. She outlines DIY projects, describes the risks and rewards of DIY, and suggests how to get the most out of DIY planning. It’s a little bit like a choose-your-own-adventure book. Want to do your own makeup? Here’s the path to take. Interested in arranging your own flowers? Here is what you need to look out for.Where APW used voices from married couples, describing how they created an authentic wedding instead of going with the traditional or expected, APWP interviews wedding professionals. These seasoned vendors explain how to get the best deals from different vendors (hint: it’s not always about negotiating, but by understanding what is typically included in the industry norm and what are additional fees), as well as the best questions to ask the vendors you’re vetting to work your wedding.Some of the best stuff is in the nitty gritty: there’s a chart of flowers, when they’re in season, their price ranges, and good substitutes. There’s an alcohol calculator. There are sample timelines, sample ceremonies of many religions and cultures, and even guidelines on how to address your invites in a “gently feminist” way.In short, should you get this book if you’re planning a wedding?Resounding YES.

So, I have had this for all of about 1.5hrs now, but I have been listening to the other version of this book on Audible. However, I'm giving it 5 stars because my fiancé who is a buyer/planner for a manufacturing company actually spent 20+mins browsing/reading it. This is a big deal because we have been arguing/fighting about how to go about planning with COVID-19 in the picture. We also have very different planning styles; I like to brainstorm and jump all over the place at the beginning, especially when we are so limited in what we can plan/control right now. This book gives me a bit more structure without forcing me to fill out one of those big planning binders (I hate planners, they have never worked for me, not even in school) and the book gives the actual guidelines/planning tools and things to consider that my fiancé's buyer/planner mindset needs. Even if we were to never pick it up again through this whole process (which I doubt, it will probably become indispensable), it would be worth the money simply because it ended an argument and put his mind at ease. I have the audiobook and a Kindle version, so the hard copy will be his; it's even sitting on top of his work bag right now. Seriously, this is a good buy!

GET IT NOW. i got this book too late into my planning process, but it still comforted me anyways. :-)this is perfect, very practical advice, none of the "YOU MUST DO THIS", "YOU MUST GET THAT" or "THE LATEST TREND IS TO...". it's simply a "how to throw the wedding YOU want...any wedding YOU want...and this is how to do it" book. The accompanying blog is great and has a lot of excel sheets you can leverage to start getting organized right away.This planner is more for implementation and it's accompanying book (sold separately) is more about the philosophy of throwing a practical wedding that matches your values and tastes. it also discusses navigating the emotions and conversations surrounding wedding planning which was really comforting for me personally. i recommend getting both and, like i said, reading them before you announce your engagement.why read it before you announce your engagement? it's nice to familiarize yourself with the types of questions you'll be getting once you announce your engagement. while some people think about their weddings beforehand, i never did. i did not envision my wedding and how it would go down. so i didn't really have an opinion and i didn't even know what all the options and feelings surrounding weddings actually were. if you read it ahead of time you'll be able to create some quiet space at the beginning of the process and start talking with your partner a little bit about what kind of wedding you both want. it's kind of awkward to get put on the spot unexpectedly when you get asked a million wedding questions by friends and family and then you both realize you haven't discussed X, Y, and Z. then you start feeling like you're planning the wedding over lunch instead of catching up and relaxing. :-( make room to breathe. :-) it'll be fun and it'll be worth it no matter what type of event you decide to have to celebrate the momentous occasion.

I started this book a few years ago when planning for my own wedding. It helped in cutting through the noise and figuring out what was really important. A good friend was stumped on planning her own and I sent her a copy. It did the same for her as it did for me. I can’t say that I used every aspect of it but it helped to focus and narrow down our thinking so we could make smarter choices.