Marguerite Smolen - The Mother of the Bride: A Practical Guide & an Elegant Keepsake

Published by Sellers Publishing, Inc.
161 John Roberts Road, South Portland ME 04106
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Text by Marguerite Smolen

Series Editor: Robin Haywood
Production Editor: Mary Baldwin

e-ISBN: 978-1-4162-0716-0

The Mother of the Bride copyright 2011 PM Design Group, Inc. Photography 2011 Carol Ross www.carolrossphotography.com. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form, by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Sellers Publishing, Inc. e-books.

December 2011

To Helen Levine, with love, for
being my mother of the bride, 1971.

Carol Ross

A s an editor involved in the bridal business for more than a decade, Ive witnessed dozens of weddings and heard stories about hundreds more. Im touched when Im told by a couple how much the efforts of the mother of the bride helped to make their wedding a dream come true.

Society has changed a great deal during the last few decades. Social institutions, such as weddings, have changed, too. Many mothers find the kind of wedding celebration that appeals to todays couples, and, often, the circumstances in which it takes place, very different from those of their own. Consequently, they are unsure about what role they are supposed to play or how to proceed with the wedding planning process.

If youve picked up this book, youre probably a mother who wants to know how she can best help a daughter who is about to be married or you might be a bride-to-be who wants to acknowledge the important role her mother, stepmother, or yes, even her mother-in-law-to-be, plays in her life by providing her with the information she needs to help out. Either way, this book is meant to help ground you, the mother, as you negotiate the complexities that are involved in helping the affianced couple to realize their dreams.

Orchestrating a wedding, no matter how small, is no simple matter. There are a myriad of details to attend to. Legal matters must be resolved. Caterers and musicians should be booked, limousines hired, and tuxedo rentals arranged. And of course, there is shopping for the all important gown. Add to the mix family politics. Marriage is not just the merging of two people, but two sometimes more families, who may be of different cultures or traditions. It is also a social institution; traditionally, where friends and family of different backgrounds and ages are invited to witness a solemn commitment. To deal with all of these variables, you almost need the expertise of a public relations firm, a psychologist, a party planner, a lawyer, and an embassy staff to boot.

Dont worry. As a mother, youve already honed many of the necessary skills you need to handle this task, and, moreover, you have an inside track on many of the parties involved. What you do need, though, is information. Thats where this book comes in. Drawing from knowledge acquired while planning more than one hundred weddings, the following pages provide you with what you need to know to help your daughter and her husband-to-be plan this affair of the heart. Whether your daughter asks you to plan the whole thing or wants you to lend a hand on an emergency basis, youll have the tools you need to succeed.

Weve organized the book into four sections, each geared to tackle an important aspect of the wedding planning process.

Section 1 describes the roles and responsibilities that mothers of the brides are traditionally responsible for. It provides an overview of the entire process, including a wedding timeline. This will enable you to orient yourself quickly, whether you are involved from the very beginning, or asked to lend a hand at key spots along the way.