Book Description
Wedding experts Denise and Alan Fields say it isn’t necessary to spend the nationwide average of 11 months of planning and $20,000 for a fabulous wedding. In this new edition of the bridal bargain bible, they outline specific budgets for beautiful weddings that cost a fraction of the average price. This edition includes reviews and ratings of more than 50 new bridal gown designers, tips on surfing the Web and saving on honeymoon costs, and a guide to the best online wedding bargains in the aftermath of the dot-com shake-up. The authors explode the "three costly myths" about wedding catering, show how to negotiate a great deal on a ceremony and reception site, and point prospective brides and grooms toward savings on invitations, flowers, wedding videos, entertainment, and more. Illustrations are also included in this latest edition of the best-selling book on weddings.

FROM OUR EDITORS

This is one of the most informative and popular consumer guides to getting the best prices for your wedding. The book includes frugal tips from readers of previous editions -- a classic.

ANNOTATION

Faced with the average U.S. wedding costing over $16,000, couples are in need of creative solutions to planning a dream ceremony without a nightmare price tag. This easy-to-use, entertaining guide comes to the rescue with a wealth of wonderful ideas for that big event.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Since its debut in 1990, Bridal Bargains has provided over 300,000 couples with the ticket to affordable trips down the aisle. With U.S. wedding costs soaring and the age of marrying pairs on the rise -- the average age is now 30 -- today's brides and grooms are sophisticated consumers on the hunt for creative solutions to overspending. In their now-classic guide, Denise and Alan Fields debunk the myths and provide the tips that help contemporary couples plan the wedding of their dreams without a nightmare pricetag.

Bridal Bargains also features over 30 photos of flowers, cakes, and gowns; easy-to-spot icons that direct readers to money-saving secrets, shopping strategies, questions to ask, and pitfalls to avoid; more "Weddings Across America," spotlighting local wedding trends and costs in several new cities; and the all-time best frugal wedding tips submitted by readers. Complete with a detachable list of key questions to ask merchants, the book provides a one-stop road map for navigating the $10-billion wedding market.

FROM THE CRITICS

People Magazine

THE how to I do.

People

THE how to I do.

R Rhodes - Soozan Baxter, barnesandnoble.com

Weddings are expensive. You want the best bridal gown, flowers, cake, reception hall, photography, invitations, and music, and you don't want to compromise on any of it. You don't have to. Husband-and-wife team Denise and Alan Fields are the number one consumer activists, and in their fourth edition of Bridal Bargains, they share all of the secrets you need to know to have the best wedding on a budget.

One piece of advice that is repeated throughout the book is to check out web sites. The Fieldses have included web addresses that will lead you to inexpensive flowers (50 cents a rose), discount bridal gowns, and sample pictures taken by your potential wedding photographer. In providing you with these addresses, the Fieldses have done two things: 1. They have saved you time so you don't have to rummage through the 3,467 sites that come up on Yahoo when you do a "weddings" search. 2. They have reviewed the sites, explaining the good points and the bad points of each.

Since Bridal Bargains never suggests that you reduce the number of people coming to your wedding so you can get your fancy gown, or that you forget about flowers so you can have a better meal (in fact, the big "C"-- compromise -- is never mentioned), it obviously has to include some radical bargain suggestions for making your dream wedding come true. Consider transportation costs. If you dream of arriving at your ceremony in a luxurious limousine, then call funeral parlors. Most weddings occur on Saturday nights and few funerals do, so some funeral homes rent limos for the evening at a fraction of a regular limo company's cost. Another great transportation idea is to rent a trolley car for your large wedding party instead of hiring a fleet of limos; it is a cheaper and more creative alternative.

When it comes to invitations, you may be thinking that it's a no-brainer. Think again. Invitations can cost as much as $1,200 for 100, so this crash course will prepare you well. The Fieldses encourage you to look at stationery shops, mail-order catalogues, discount buying shops, and other places that you would never think of when ordering the invites. They also offer questions to ask a stationer, tips for choosing how you want your invitation to be printed, ways to save money on postage (consider a response postcard and never send your invitations with the bulk rate), and information about doing the invitations yourself. And to top it all off, Bridal Bargains (as it does in many chapters) reviews and letter-grades some of the top invitation brands that are sold through retail dealers.

The Fieldses also arm you with information about bridal gowns (who knew that expensive Vera Wang dresses are actually shoddy in quality?), ceremony and reception sites (it's essential to get everything in writing), wedding flowers (they cost more near Hallmark holidays like Mother's Day and Valentine's Day), videography (ask if the person doing the consultation will be shooting your wedding), and much more. In addition, you can reap the benefits of other brides' experiences with Bridal Bargains "Real Wedding Tip" boxes and avoid common bridal mistakes with the "Pitfalls to Avoid" suggestions, and you can get bargain deals with the "Top Money-saving Secrets" that are listed throughout the book. From frosted roses on a cake and silk roses on your dress to rose-colored bridesmaid dresses and rose centerpieces, the Fieldses provide you with honest, well-researched advice, so that saying "I do" doesn't mean "I'm now broke, too."

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING