Intimate Weddings Are The New Chic

The average wedding costs $22,000 and in major cities like New York that number jumps to $33,000. That’s the price of a new car, a healthy down-payment on a home or one heck of a great vacation. With parents no longer footing the bill (nearly half of couples are paying for their own weddings), couples are thinking twice about raiding their bank accounts and their lines of credit to fund their big day. But many are still having lavish weddings. How? By scaling back the guest list.Intimate Weddings: Planning a Small Wedding that Fits Your Budget and Style by Christina Friedrichsen (www.intimate-weddings.com) speaks to couples who are part of this growing trend.

Friedrichsen’s book, which is the only book on the topic of small weddings, dispels the belief that a wedding has to be big and white to be grand. It lets brides know that a wedding doesn’t have to cost $22,000 to be amazing. It helps couples realize that the guest list doesn’t have to include second cousins and great aunts that haven’t visited the couple within the past year, co-workers that are never seen after work hours, or acquaintances that are invited only out of a sense of obligation. According to Friedrichsen, there’s a growing trend towards small, personalized weddings. Aside from the intimacy they provide, small weddings offer more choice of venues, they’re easier to personalize, and they allow couples to feel more relaxed not only during the planning of their wedding, but also on their big day.

For couples that want to pull out all the stops, a small guest list allows them to do just that without going into debt. One other advantage of an intimate wedding is that, unlike a wedding with a large guest list, couples can spend time with their guests on their big day. With stories and wisdom from real-life couples, Intimate Weddings offers practical advice on getting family and friends involved in their wedding plans, suggestions about personalizing a wedding, and creative ideas for venues. It offers ideas for indoor weddings, outdoor weddings, second weddings, destination weddings and theme weddings, which are becoming increasingly popular.Christina Friedrichsen is a freelance journalist, whose work has been featured in a wide variety of national newspapers, magazines and radio shows. North Light Books is an imprint of F+W Publications, a special interest publisher.Friedrichsen’s guide helps (couples) create realistic budgets, intimate ceremonies and memorable receptions … Brides can get inspiration from couples who invited fewer than a dozen guests to luxurious events or from other couples who entertained over 50 at low-key receptions … Recommended.

Library JournalIntimate Weddings is beautifully designed, has been painstakingly researched, and is written with style and elegance. Ann Douglas, author of 27 books, including ‘The Mother of All….’ series.Any couple considering an intimate wedding will be energized and ready to get started after reading this book. It is attractive and easy to read … I encourage all of my clients to read this book. Lisa Light, international wedding planner and author of the forthcoming Destination Bride: A Complete Guide to Planning a Wedding Anywhere in the World.Intimate WeddingsPlanning a Small Wedding that Fits Your Budget and Styleby Christina FriedrichsenNorth Light Books, $14.99 US/$22.99 CAN, ISBN 1-55870-692-57″ x 9″, 192 pages, PaperbackAvailable, WeddingsContact:Christina Friedrichsen e-mail protected from spam bot.