Wedding Flowers Made Simple: Over 80 Glorious Designs for That Special Day Review

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(More customer reviews)I got this book out of the library, along with "Bouquets: A Year of Flowers for the Bride" and the Knot book, and I would have to say, this was by far the least useful. For one thing, there was nothing simple about it-- the arrangements either involved mountains of flowers, or varieties of orchids I had never seen anywhere else, or arrangements that were closer to balancing acts. There is one picture that seemed to have literally hundreds of calla lillies around a doorway. Come on!
Compared to the Bouquets book, which offered a lot of variety and was pretty creative, this just seemed like a lot of lilies & orchids & roses, and compared to the Knot book, it wasn't as practical, cost effective, or even very descriptive. I am not a fan of the Knot website, but surprisingly, I found their flower book the most informative. I would recommend either book over this one.

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From a gorgeous bridal bouquet to fabulous table arrangements, flowers help make every wedding special. Now an award-winning florist shares more than 80 floral design "recipes" to suit any wedding style, location, or budget!Wedding Flowers Made Simple is conveniently organized into three sections, each focusing on a particular floral theme. "Timeless Classics" highlights traditional wedding flowers like roses, orchids, and lilies. "Seasonal Flowers" features seasonal blooms (tulips, hyacinths) and other elements like grasses, mosses, berries, and fruits. And "Sweet Perfume" showcases flowers with heady fragrances, like lilacs, lavendar, and sweet peas. Themes are presented in a variety of settings, ranging from a country mansion to a sleek urban eatery. Each set of designs centers on a stunning bridal bouquet and includes instructions for creating coordinating arrangements for attendants (boutonnieres, headdresses, and corsages), the ceremony (garlands, pew decorations, floor vases), and even for the reception (centerpieces, favors, napkin rings, and more).Wedding Flowers Made Simple not only provides dozens of helpful hints for selecting flowers, designing arrangements, assembly, and construction, but also gives the couple-to-be, family, and friends a wealth of dazzling, inspirational designs—and professional know-how—for crafting the perfect floral arrangements for that very special day.

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Hollywood Gets Married Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Sandy Schreier's "Hollywood Gets Married" is a delectable bon-bon of a book, and great reading for anyone who is either starstruck or interested in movie costume design. She admits in her foreword to being subject to those twin little girls dreams of a) being a movie star and b) being a bride, and her infectious enthusiasm for both subjects comes across brilliantly here.
Schreier offers us a delightful overview of Hollywood weddings here, with everything from silent films to modern-day set pieces to real-life Hollywood brides in both their Hollywood and their personal incarnations as brides. As you might expect, there are some omissions here (what, no Liza Minnelli? No Cher? No Lucille Ball? No Jane Fonda?), but for the most part, Schreier does a super job of hitting high points of Hollywood wedding lore including, of course, the much-married Elizabeth Taylor (who graces the front cover of the book and gets her own special section inside).
Aside from the terrific photographs--many of which I'd never seen, and I own entirely too many movie-oriented books--the eye candy is more than matched by the many anecdotes, like:
1) Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy's bridal gown designer was African-American;
2) "Bride of Frankenstein" actress Elsa Lanchester's bridal hairdo in the film was inspired by ancient profiles of Egyptian queen Nefertiti;
3) Olivia de Havilland kept her Dior costumes from the 1962 bridal picture "Light in the Piazza" and when she sold them later at auction, the successful bidder was the House of Dior, buying them for their collection;
4) Marilyn Monroe's gown from her first marriage (at age sixteen in 1942) was later worn, sans sleeves, by Monroe's niece on her first date.
This is a wonderful book and reading it is a completely pleasant way to spend an hour or two.

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Everyone loves weddings, and celebrity weddings—full of spectacle and scandal—are the best of all. This amazing pictorial history of Hollywood matrimony brings us to hundreds of weddings, both on-screen and off, from the 1920s to today."When I was a little girl, I dreamt about two things: being a bride and being a movie star," writes Sandy Schreier in the introduction to Hollywood Gets Married. Like many of us, Schreier grew up admiring the stars of her era, and she delighted in their weddings, both on-screen and off. Now, in a gorgeous and comprehensive pictorial history, she chronicles the glamour and the glitz of Hollywood nuptials. From Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier to Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovett, from the original Father of the Bride to Four Weddings and a Funeral, Hollywood Gets Married takes us on a sentimental and humorous journey through the most memorable unions of the twentieth century. With hundreds of carefully researched photographs and informative captions, Hollywood Gets Married provides an insider's look at the behind-the-scenes details of movie and real-life weddings: descriptions of the costume designs, photography, bridesmaids' dresses, food, and exploits of offscreen in-laws and wedding guests and, of course, the bride and groom. Hollywood Gets Married collects in its pages the most unforgettable marriage moments of our time, the ones we love to watch again and again. No fan of movies—or weddings!—will want to be without this exciting and unique celebration of cultural history.

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