My Fair Wedding

Fans of WE tv’s My Fair Wedding have watched celebrity wedding planner David Tutera miraculously create celebrations that are each as unique as, and perfectly suited to, the bride herself—and in keeping with the theme or mood that is her vision of her special day. From a chic city loft feel to retro Hollywood glamour, from exotic destinations to sleek winter landscapes, David has translated the oftentimes scattered, misguided, or underwhelming visions of his brides into brilliant and artistic expressions of love, passion, and personality. But only a handful of lucky brides-to-be get the wedding makeover of their dreams as part of the WE tv hit reality show. Now, you can plan the wedding you want and deserve with this wonderful companion volume. It not only features the stories of the most memorable My Fair Wedding brides from three fabulous seasons but gives you the “Tutera touch” as well as expert tools for creating an affair that you, your groom, and your family and friends will cherish forever. Not your average wedding guide, My Fair Wedding is grounded in David’s philosophy that regardless of budget, every bride can have a fantasy wedding as long as the right choices go into the planning—and every detail counts. Here you will find: • insightful and indispensable “What Would David Do?” sidebars • self-quizzes that help you zero in on your preferences and tastes for a truly personalized wedding • real-life etiquette and time-tested manners that add class to every occasion • advice and inspiration for choosing everything from gowns, shoes, hair, and makeup to invitations, photographers, music, lighting, centerpieces, favors, thank-you notes, and so much more • helpful pointers for logistical planning— transportation, outdoor ceremonies, timelines, and other factors for keeping things stress free. Most important, David Tutera helps every bride-to-be to reach deeper, aspire higher, become transformed from within, and radiate a special glow and renewed self-confidence that lasts long beyond her wedding day.

Seven essays celebrating the beauty of the imperfect marriage. We hear plenty about whether or not to get married, but much less about what it takes to stay married. Clichés around marriage—eternal bliss, domestic harmony, soul mates—leave out the real stuff. After marriage you may still want to sleep with other people. Sometimes your partner will bore the hell out of you. And when stuck paying for your spouse’s mistakes, you might miss being single. In Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give, Ada Calhoun presents an unflinching but also loving portrait of her own marriage, opening a long-overdue conversation about the institution as it truly is: not the happy ending of a love story or a relic doomed by high divorce rates, but the beginning of a challenging new chapter of which “the first twenty years are the hardest.” Calhoun’s funny, poignant personal essays explore the bedrooms of modern coupledom for a nuanced discussion of infidelity, existential anxiety, and the many other obstacles to staying together. Both realistic and openhearted, Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give offers a refreshing new way to think about marriage as a brave, tough, creative decision to stay with another person for the rest of your life. “What a burden,” Calhoun calls marriage, “and what a gift.”

A guide to party planning shows how to select invitations, themes, menus, table settings, music, lighting, flowers, and decor for weddings, holiday parties, formal dinners, and cocktail parties.

The media strongly influences our everyday notions of gender roles and our concepts of gender identity. The Encyclopedia of Gender in Media critically examines the role of the media in enabling, facilitating, or challenging the social construction of gender in our society. The work addresses a variety of entertainment and news content in print and electronic media and explores the social construction of masculinity as well as femininity. In addition to representations of gender within the media, we also analyze gender issues related to media ownership and the media workforce. Despite an abundance of textbooks, anthologies, and university press monographs on the topic of gender in media, until now no comprehensive reference work has tackled this topic of perennial interest in student research and papers. Features and benefits: 150 signed entries (each with Cross References and Further Readings) are organized in A-to-Z fashion to give students easy access to the full range of topics within gender in media. A thematic Reader's Guide in the front matter groups related entries by broad topical or thematic areas to make it easy for users to find related entries at a glance, with themes including "Discrimination & Media Effects," "Media Modes," "New Media," "Media Portrayals & Representations," "Biographies," and more. In the electronic version, the Reader's Guide combines with a detailed Index and the Cross References to provide users with robust search-and browse capacities. A Chronology in the back matter helps students put individual events into broader historical context. A Glossary provides students with concise definitions to key terms in the field. A Resource Guide to classic books, journals, and web sites (along with the Further Readings accompanying each entry) helps guide students to further resources for their research journeys. An Appendix provides users with a number of reports related to gender in media.

Entertaining expert David Tutera opens his files to reveal a wealth of detailed information about creating that perfect day, featuring advice about everything from wording invitations to negotiating with caterers, planning the meal to throwing an event on a budget. The same insight celebrity entertaining and wedding expert David Tutera gives to his A-list clientele is now at your fingertips in The Big White Book of Weddings: David's ultimate "how-to" guide designed to get every bride down the aisle in style! It's tough to be a bride on a budget—but David reveals his personal tips of the wedding trade that proves brides can be both sophisticatedly chic and realistically resourceful! Covering the entire wedding experience from brainstorming, budgeting, invitations, gift registries, food, music, traditional reception rituals, and even what happens after the wedding's over, Tutera has created a must-have for brides-to-be. Full of the personality that David brings to every wedding he plans and every TV show or magazine article he appears in, Big White Book of Weddings is the book every bride needs to make her wedding unforgettable for all the right reasons! Includes sections such as: - Create engaging menus and creative cocktails in "Eat, Drink and Be Married!" - Be Perfectly Polished with "Etiquette for the Elegant" - Make your entertainment a hit without needing a rock-star budget in "Strike up the Band" - Go from "Ordinary to Extraordinary" with decor and floral tips from the pro

A New York Times Bestseller From #1 New York Times bestselling author Julia Quinn comes the story of Gregory Bridgerton, in the final installment of her beloved Regency-set novels featuring the charming, powerful Bridgerton family, now a series created by Shondaland for Netflix. GREGORY’S STORY Unlike most men of his acquaintance, Gregory Bridgerton believes in true love. And he is convinced that when he finds the woman of his dreams, he will know in an instant that she is the one. And that is exactly what happened. Except ... She wasn’t the one. In fact, the ravishing Miss Hermione Watson is in love with another. But her best friend, the ever-practical Lady Lucinda Abernathy, wants to save Hermione from a disastrous alliance, so she offers to help Gregory win her over. But in the process, Lucy falls in love. With Gregory! Except ... Lucy is engaged. And her uncle is not inclined to let her back out of the betrothal, even once Gregory comes to his senses and realizes that it is Lucy, with her sharp wit and sunny smile, who makes his heart sing. And now, on the way to the wedding, Gregory must risk everything to ensure that when it comes time to kiss the bride, he is the only man standing at the altar …

Media Depictions of Brides, Wives, and Mothers, edited by Alena Amato Ruggerio, explores how television, film, the internet, and other media variously perpetuate gender stereotypes. The contributors to this volume bring a variety of feminist rhetorical and media criticism approaches from across the communication discipline to their analyses of how television, film, news coverage, and the Internet shape our expectations of the performance of women’s identities. This collection includes studies of Bridezillas, Jon & Kate Plus 8, Sex and the City, Sarah Palin, Nancy Pelosi, The Devil Wears Prada, Practical Magic, “momtini” blogs, and Mad Men fan websites. Readers will learn to apply the insights from each chapter to their own sets of myths, stereotypes, and assumptions about gendered roles, and to recognize the possibilities for both liberation and domination when women’s practices of marrying, mating, and mothering are represented and misrepresented in the media. This collection is an essential contribution to media studies and criticism of gender stereotypes in contemporary culture.

Engaging in a comprehensive examination of reality TV's advertising and promotional strategies, as well as the commodification of viewers, Consuming Reality dissects the unique and startling relation between mediation and consumption.