Great piece for any bride to be as it has a lot of great tips and is beautifully presented. It does exactly what it’s supposed to do and does a great job of it.

No, I'm not getting married any time soon. But yes, I was curious.

Honestly, I liked Maddie Eisenhart's <em>Wedding Hacks: 500+ Ways to Stick to Your Budget, Stay Stress-Free, and Plan the Best Wedding Ever!</em> Though, between you and me, that title is a bit ridiculous. Still, this was a pretty comprehensive compilation of some very useful tips that I'm sure I will one day return to if and when I do ever get married.

<b>That Said...</b>

So Eisenhart does a fantastic job of providing you with a plethora of tips for how to plan your wedding. She anticipates all the problems and roadblocks that might arise and gives you a variety of suggestions for how to address them. She gives you tips on how to save money, the best websites to use, and more.

All in all, the book was pretty great.

But the formatting was <em>awful.</em>

<b>Organization</b>

The book does have a general organization strategy to it. Various umbrella topics precede all the information surrounding it. But the read-through was rather frustrating.

The whole book is basically just a list that you can read through. 500+ ways means each way is practically bullet-pointed from start to finish. I hated this. It made me feel as though there wasn't a lot of substance to the book and Eisenhart could have just posted this list on a blog page. So...what was the point of the book?

I genuinely feel like there needed to be <em>chapters</em>. And those chapters could have had descriptive tips as well as bullet-pointed asides. That way you can get the quick information while still having detailed sections throughout. Instead of mini paragraphs existing in a bunch of bullet points, you actually have a book.

<b>Still, It's Useful</b>

That said, my complaint doesn't change the fact that this book is incredibly useful. Yeah, it'd be nice if it were better organized and written in a way that didn't make me feel like I was just scrolling through a list of details. I genuinely felt as though the author only did the bare minimum of sorting all her tips to make sure they followed other relevant to the moment tips.

But, I can definitely say I came out of this book having learned. I know more than I used to about how to plan a wedding and I feel confident I'll be able to implement them if I ever have one of my own. So, not bad.

<em>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</em>

What is the one occasion that people dream of for years, not just for themselves but also for their children and grandchildren? What is the one occasion that everyone is going to have an opinion about? What is that one occasion you probably get to do only once, and you really hope to pull it off awesomely? A wedding, of course!

Deciding whom to marry comes with its own share of trysts. And planning a wedding with your significant half can put a relationship to its test. With all the demands and expectations from various people about a wedding, you really need a fairy godmother. This fairy godmother could be a wedding planner, if you have the big bucks. Even with a wedding planner, the number of options to consider and opinions you have to deal with can make the couple dizzy.

This book of Wedding Hacks speaks to the soul of a couple to be married. It makes you feel special and excited about your grand day and helps in the wedding planning in a big way. There are hacks for organising the budget and the to-do list, looking at venues and selecting vendors, inviting guests and how to avoid the gifting faux pas, how to select a thematic attire, the planning for the actual day - the reception and the decor and the other hacks for the actual D-day. The tips are giving in numbered bullet point format which makes it easier to understand as well ask quickly implement while planning the wedding itself. The tips are true and tried and tested (since it's been written by someone who has done a million weddings before) and thus it soothes your nerves and gives you great insight.

Most of us get married just once and this once in a lifetime opportunity should be one to cherish and enjoy ! It's a great engagement gift for a friend or your fiance.

I honestly didn't expect to get so many great ideas from this book.
There is a lot of knowledge here it feels only an experienced wedding planner has.

There are many ideas about budgeting and also many pieces of advice for DIY weddings that seemed very useful to me. This is a very down to earth approach, down from Pinterest approach :) focused on the couple, their possibilities and wishes.

While there were not many pieces of advice on how to handle difficult guests or navigate difficult relationships between them there are a lot of ideas about sensible matters. There is a great deal of attention given to the couple and to their emotional needs which I really appreciated. There are also a lot of mentions and ideas that could be useful to LGBTQ couples trying to create their perfect day.

These details made me love this book and recommend it wholeheartedly. It's a treasure chest filled with helpful ideas on how to create one's own modern best day.

This cover is in a classic cream, ivory colour brides may choose as a dress shade. It also has lots of wedding themed items bursting out all over the cover. The title says it all “Wedding Hacks” ways of cutting all the extra work you really don’t have to do if you don’t want to.

So, the book begins by introducing the author, Maddie Eisenhart, a maine native, who is a wedding industry veteran who has about a decade of working in wedding planning. Maddie did begin as a photographer and a writer for a wedding website called A Practical Wedding.
I should say before I begin my review that this book does have some American aimed things that perhaps the British bride and groom would not have at their weddings, but we all know that US traditions, or new “things” tend to work their way over to the UK.

Wedding Hacks states that this book is like having a Wedding Planner in your pocket. It contains around 500 tips and lots of practical advice for how to keep your cool in the face of both your own impractical expectations, and the thoughts of those involved with the wedding planning with you along with the almost inevitable family drama, and financial realities.
The book contains information of invitations, vendors, venues, and setting (and sticking to!) your budget. It also states that planning your big day can start to feel more stressful than the exciting adventure you thought it would be. Wedding Hacks reveals ways to prevent planning burnout, along with tips on how to stay organized. It’s all in the book, want to know how to pull off a magical reception? Need help and ideas on how to find the perfect dress, that’s also well within your budget too? Shop “trunk shows” to find discounted dresses from your favourite designer. It also suggests earning air miles to use towards your honeymoon by using a travel credit card to pay for all wedding expenses. I thought the advice about opening an account just purely for the wedding was a great way of not dipping into savings earmarked for other things and ending up over spending.

There are tips for how to have a great reception such as playing the older classic songs first to pack out the dance floor. Then some problem solving, such as having a sweetheart table (just the bride & groom) to prevent the potential aggravation out of choosing who actually sits at the VIP table when dealing with divorced/remarried parents, or large bridal parties etc. A tip to help avoid lines at the bar is giving out cocktails. This book has all this and even more!

Some other tips are to use trainees for things such as hair, make-up, photography and cakes, but I guess it depends on how much risk you want to take on your cake & photographs. I suppose with the hair and make-up you could at least have a trial before the big day. Another option talked about is calling in favours such as an Auntie who does great cakes, or a relative who is great with floristry. Hmm, my opinion on this is it depends on what you are asking them for, as for example a photographer or DJ friend/relative doing you a favour along with being invited to the wedding as a guest means they will actually “working.” I guess its up to you and those you ask the favours of to decide. There are also some tips on doing things yourself on your big day, but do you really want to be rushing around decorating the local town hall, or buttering bread for sandwiches for a buffet on the day of your wedding?

Hopefully with help and ideas from this book/guide you can avoid the family drama, all those unnecessary expenses, and typical wedding mistakes. Wedding Hacks boasts it has everything you need to have the wedding of your dreams!

There is loads of advice that yes, makes sense and is easy enough to read about but harder to put into practice. Such as dropping traditions you personally don’t want. . . .easy to say, but much harder to do, for example, if you have pressure from your parents who are helping to finance your wedding to do a specific tradition. Then there is the don’t overspend, easy to say when you haven’t just seen your dream dress and its more expensive than you really wanted to spend. To be honest organising a wedding can be a literal minefield such as choosing bridesmaids, from both the bride & the groom’s family/friends at the same time as keeping numbers down to save money but not offend anyone that isn’t asked.

My final thoughts about the book are that it does have some really useful tips, but others are kind of obvious. I think it’s worth reading and will certainly have you removing those rose-coloured glasses you are probably wearing, when as a couple you have just decided to get married and are literally in your dream world bubble!

This book is full of helpful tips and is a very good guide for a practical wedding. I loved all the tips and insights from the author, and I low-key felt excited to be wed while reading this book. It's also very inclusive to LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and people with disabilities.