Weddings

Weddings is the most anticipated wedding book of the year, and for good reason: it's as gorgeous, filling, and sweet as a double slice of wedding cake. As Colin Cowie explains in the book's introduction, he earned recognition as a wedding designer by paying attention to the personalities and desires of the bride and groom as well as the smallest, most excruciating details. "Style should prevail," he says, explaining that style has nothing to do with the design of the dress or the make of the limousine and everything to do with confidence, consideration, and graciousness toward others; it's a tone everyone can respect. The typical bride and groom may not be rich, famous, or personally acquainted with famous musicians who beg to play at the reception, and the example weddings pictured in the book are conspicuous-consumption daydreams for many. But everyone wants to plan their own perfect wedding, and Cowie is a genius at the fine embellishments that can make a modest wedding more memorable and easier on the pocketbook.