Take Back Your Wedding

Why do professional wedding planners, engaged couples, parents, clergy, and therapists rave about this book? Take Back Your Wedding combines wisdom from the world of family therapy with a realistic picture of how couples and families behave under the stress of planning a wedding. Weddings bring out the best and worst in all of us because they combine romance, money, loyalties, jealousies, new in-law relations, and endless practical decisions-all played out in front of your whole community of family and friends! No one get through this without times of frustration, confusion, and sometimes anger. This book is an essential guide to handing the stress, avoiding the common pitfalls, having a great wedding, and launching a successful marriage. The website from the book is www.TheFirstDance.com

All couples walk to the altar dreaming of happily-ever-after, but many forces in our society work against healthy lifelong commitment. Renowned family therapist William J. Doherty reveals how cracks can develop in even a rock-solid marriage, and what steps you can take to keep your love strong. Learn ways to break free of common traps like confusing desires with needs, comparing your spouse to your fantasies of other relationships, or becoming overtime parents instead of full-time partners. You'll get suggestions for creating relationship rituals--from mundane to celebratory, sexy to silly--that build closeness and connection every day. The updated second edition incorporates Dr. Doherty's ongoing experience counseling couples, plus the latest information on marriage and health, how divorce affects kids, the impact of new technologies on family life, and more. Winner--Best Self-Help Book, ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Awards

All couples walk to the altar dreaming of happily-ever-after, but many forces in our society work against healthy lifelong commitment. Renowned family therapist William J. Doherty reveals how cracks can develop in even a rock-solid marriage, and what steps you can take to keep your love strong. Learn ways to break free of common traps like confusing desires with needs, comparing your spouse to your fantasies of other relationships, or becoming overtime parents instead of full-time partners. You'll get suggestions for creating relationship rituals--from mundane to celebratory, sexy to silly--that build closeness and connection every day. The updated second edition incorporates Dr. Doherty's ongoing experience counseling couples, plus the latest information on marriage and health, how divorce affects kids, the impact of new technologies on family life, and more. Winner--Best Self-Help Book, ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Awards

A step-by-step approach to making your marriage loving again.

A companion to the popular website APracticalWedding.com and A Practical Wedding Planner, A Practical Wedding helps you sort through the basics to create the wedding you want -- without going broke or crazy in the process. After all, what really matters on your wedding day is not so much how it looked as how it felt. In this refreshing guide, expert Meg Keene shares her secrets to planning a beautiful celebration that reflects your taste and your relationship. You'll discover: The real purpose of engagement (hint: it's not just about the planning) How to pinpoint what matters most to you and your partner DIY-ing your wedding: brilliant or crazy? How to communicate decisions to your family Why that color-coded spreadsheet is actually worth it Wedding Zen can be yours. Meg walks you through everything from choosing a venue to writing vows, complete with stories and advice from women who have been in the trenches: the Team Practical brides. So here's to the joyful wedding, the sensible wedding, the unbelievably fun wedding! A Practical Wedding is your complete guide to getting married with grace.

In the long-awaited follow-up to her groundbreaking, million-copy bestseller The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands, Dr. Laura now focuses on how men and women need to understand and appreciate the uniqueness of masculinity and femininity; what the best ways to relate, caretake, and nurture each other are; and how to bring a marriage back from the brink of disaster. Dr. Laura asserts that in order to produce and sustain a wonderfully satisfying marriage, spouses must recognize and appreciate the polarity between the masculine and the feminine. Both husband and wife have power in the relationship, and each needs to realize this in order to ensure personal satisfaction. Using real-life examples from her call-in radio show, and giving real-life solutions, Dr. Laura focuses on the typical mistakes made by men and women in their relationships and shows how marriages can not only survive but thrive.

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.”

Our culture is determined to redefine masculinity as something it was never meant to be. The American Psychological Association asserts that “traditional masculinity is psychologically harmful.” Many agree that “forcing men to behave in accordance with the worst stereotypes of manliness harms them, and it harms others.” But is the answer then to marginalize and feminize men? Despite culture’s determination to redefine masculinity, the great heart cry of our day is for men to rise up and take back their rightful place. It’s a cry that echoes deep in the soul and from all ends of our society, and particularly from the women who love their fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons. Most women want their men to be honored and to stand up and be men. Men have faltered and lost a lot of influence and territory. The good news is that for many who struggle there is often a daily yearning to make it right. The reality is, masculinity is not and never was “toxic.” Tim Clinton, president of the American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC), challenges readers to reject culture’s redefinition and seek biblical examples of true manhood. Fast-paced, filled with relevant biblical and contemporary stories of godly men like David, Nehemiah, George Foreman, and Tim Tebow, Take It Back empowers men to be who God created them to be and to impact the culture that is in desperate need of their influence. Readers will find encouragement and affirmation that they matter as men, that they can be difference-makers in their circles of influence and have a positive impact on the culture. They will find grace for their shame over past mistakes and find the ability to move forward. This book will help you find encouragement and affirmation that you matter as a man, that you can be a difference-maker in your circle of influence and have a positive impact on the culture. You will find grace to overcome your shame over past mistakes and find the ability to move forward.

This book presents Lee Baucom's system for saving your marriage in three easy steps: connecting with your spouse, changing yourself, and creating a new path.

The Idea Book. The How-to Book. The Everything Book. It’s the ultimate wedding planning bible from the ultimate wedding planner. From getting engaged to getting to the altar to taking off for your honeymoon to preserving the memories forever, this is the book to help you bring your dream wedding to life, no matter how big or small your budget. The Wedding Book is: Your fashion consultant, menu planner, etiquette expert, and floral designer An insider source for stretching budgets and negotiating contracts A digital-savvy friend for making the most of Instagram, Etsy, Pinterest, and wedding planning websites and apps A wise shoulder to lean on when sticky family issues come up Whatever the subject—cakes, stationery, dress shopping, lingerie, tents, Uber, insurance, porta-potties, party favors, the toasts, looking great in photos, tipping, and thank-you notes—The Wedding Book has the answer. Includes lists, schedules, budgeting tools, and timelines.