The New American Wedding: Ritual and Style in a Changing Culture

by Diane Meier, Diane Meier Delaney

There is a new breed of bride who comes to the altar looking to blend families and cultures, status and style, sophistication and mores, and who wants celebrations that appeal to her own unique real-life expression of values, background, customs, and romance.

Diane Meier Delaney was one such bride. While planning her own wedding, she grappled with wedding guides, magazines, and books that spoke to the clean slate of a wasp-waisted, twenty-two-year- old bride who had her whole life ahead of her. But she shared the frustrations of countless brides who couldn’t find anything that spoke to a grown-up woman with a richly lived life to be proud of.

The New American Wedding is the first book that acknowledges and speaks to this authentic American idea of the bride and groom and points the way to:

• creating their own ceremony with their own distinctive ritual
• looking for symbols of union that may or may not fit around one’s finger
• integrating children and families from previous relationships
• considering new issues of style and status
• managing the challenges of interfaith, interracial, and cross cultural partnerships
• balancing family expectations with the couple’s own desires

A comment on the good news of the changing culture that includes beautiful photographs and insider advice from top fashion and jewelry designers, florists, caterers, planners, and photographers who set the trends for American weddings, along with Delaney’s savvy, been-there-done-that tips, The New American Wedding will be the must-have guide for the modern bride.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Diane Meier Delaney is the author of The Season of Second Chances and The New American Wedding. She is the founder and president of MEIER, a full service marketing firm in Manhattan.

Reviews

[Stephanie H · Rating 2 out of 5]

A useful book if you're a bride who actually cares about diamonds or a traditional, expensive church wedding.

As a bride who wants something in a more casual style, this book was not very useful. It just made me realize that I should do what I want to do.