Judith Sherven - The Smart Couples Guide to the Wedding of Your Dreams: Planning Together for Less Stress and More Joy

In my nineteen years as a wedding photographer, Ive seen too many brides miss out on the spiritual and romantic magic that a wedding should be about. I am thrilled to recommend this book because it can rescue all future brides from making the same mistake.

Practical, prescient, precious. Judith and Jim have created a wedding masterpiece!

Pat Love, EdD, author of The Truth about Love

The wedding market is flooded with how-to books planners that all say essentially the same thing. Finally, here is a new and interesting approach. This is a book for the modern couple, reflecting the growing trend of the grooms involvement. It recognizes that wedding planning today can be should be the beginning of a life together.

Gerard J. Monaghan, president, Association of Bridal Consultants

From Popping the Questions to The Honeymoon and everything in between, this book covers it all! It arrived just in time for our son and future daughter-in-law to plan the wedding of their dreams.

Charlie Bloom, coauthor of
101 Things I Wish I Knew When I Got Married

This book is a joy to read from cover to cover. Every bride and groom need to read it so they can enjoy planning their wedding while also building the basis for the success of their future marriage.

Susan Jeffers, PhD, author of Feel the Fear and Do ItAnyway and
The Feel the Fear Guide to Lasting Love

In this beautiful and sensible book, Doctors Judith and Jim have outlined a remarkable blueprint that will save couples time and money. The spiritual principles will help them to create deeper intimacy as they transition from twoness to oneness.

Dr. Grace Cornish, bestselling author of The Sacred Bond

This practical, helpful book guides couples through perhaps the most important event of their lives to date and makes the experience more joyful than they imagined.

Brian Tracy, author of Create Your Own Future

This absolutely great book is a fascinating, readable, and wise blend of romance and practicality! From the earliest considerations of engagement to the end of the honeymoon, this book is an amazing gift to those couples who want to make their marriage and their lives reflect their souls.

Sidra Stone, PhD, and Hal Stone, PhD, cocreators of Voice Dialogue
and authors of Partnering and Embracing Our Selves

Utilizing real couples stories and their own rich experiences, Judith and Jim brilliantly lead you through the rocky terrain of getting married, from pre engagement considerations to the wedding day and beyond. Throughout, they act as the little voice in your head gently urging you to be true to yourself by planning a ceremony that will genuinely reflect the bond between you and your beloved. I will, without hesitation, recommend this book to all my nervous brides-to-be.

Farah Husain, bridal makeup artist

Too often, men are encouraged to leave the wedding planning to their fiances with the result that their weddings and their marriages suffer. From a refreshing and very inspiring point of view, Judith and Jim reveal why its essential for the bride and groom to plan their wedding together. This book establishes the template for weddings of the future.

Melissa Wilt, public policy analyst, Mens Health Network

This book is hard to put down! Filled with invaluable information, its everything a couple needs to plan their wedding and their life together.

Richard Markel, president, Association for Wedding Professionals
International, and founder, Bridal Show Producers International

Judith and Jim give couples the tools to discover what matters most to them for their ceremony and its various celebrations, opening the door to rich communication, which is the basis for a strong marriage.

Julia Markel, vice-president,
Association for Wedding Professionals International

As a wedding gown designer whose main concern is that the bride receive maximum value, I applaud Judith and Jim's practical, enthusiastic guide showing the wedding couple how to maximize the value and meaning of every aspect of their journey into marriage.

Madeline Gardner, designer of bridal gowns, Mori Lee LLC

Copyright 2005 by Judith Sherven and James Sniechowski

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Text design and typography by Tona Pearce Myers

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sherven, Judith.
The smart couples guide to the wedding of your dreams : planning together
for less stress and more joy / Judith Sherven and James Sniechowski.

p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 1-57731-341-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. WeddingsPlanning. I. Sniechowski, James. II. Title.
HQ745.S59 2005
395.2'2dc22

A proud member of the Green Press Initiative

First printing, December 2005
ISBN-10: 1-57731-341-0
ISBN-13: 978-1-57731-341-X

Printed in Canada on partially recycled paper
Distributed by Publishers Group West

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

T his book was born during a lovely dinner on a snowy evening in upstate New York. We were absorbed in an exciting and intense conversation with our friends Art and Pat about how meaningful and moving our own weddings had been. We shared how the wedding process from the engagement through the ceremony and reception to the honeymoon had helped each of us prepare for life as part of a married couple.