Just as the name of this book implies, it is about not only Amish weddings, but the courtship leading up to the ceremony, as well as what happens with the bride and groom directly after the nuptials. This read was so incredibly fascinating. It kept me engaged and enthralled the entire time I was reading it—which didn’t take long, because I just didn’t want to put it down. As someone who loves Amish romance, it is so captivating to see the actual process—things that they don’t say in the romances or that aren’t spelled out. It also helps to understand how members of the Amish faith feel about their different roles during the celebration and to see how well they all work together.

When you first start reading this title, you feel like maybe some of the details are being repeated, but once you get further in, you understand the rhyme and reason of that. It might be mentioned one time because it’s related, but then it will be talked about again later on with greater detail so that you have a better understanding of what that point is. The pictures are gorgeous and make me want to go live on a farm. I would really enjoy the opportunity to spend some time in Pennsylvania Amish country after seeing these images.

Anyone who is interested in other religions, particularly in how the Plain community goes about their traditions, will greatly enjoy this work. I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. The opinions written are completely honest and my own.

I never really thought about Amish weddings until seeing this title on the Netgalley site. I'm glad I decided to learn more about Amish courting and wedding customs, the book just made me happy. I'm not sure what it is, it feels peaceful and simple although it is anything but.

I've read many books that included an Amish wedding but the wedding itself was usually skipped over as the story moved on. I never wondered about that fact until now. Beth Oberholtzer's AMISH WEDDINGS is a nonfiction look at the history and tradtions involved in the planning and execution of a wedding that becomes an "event" that the whole community attends. The book is slightly over novella length but this is one book you'll want to read again because you'll never remember all of it and your reading friends will want to share in the story. Better yet, get then their own copy. If you have someone planning a wedding, this would be an excellent gift to make them feel better about their "bridezilla" moments!

Readers will learn a great deal about the Amish, their history, faith and life in this week researched book. Their faith and love of family is deeply rooted. Highly recommended!

I have always had a respect for the Amish and their traditions. They have stayed as true to their lifestyle and beliefs in our ever changing world. I love how this author did a deep dive into Amish Weddings and the traditions behind them. It was interesting to see this sacred ceremony through their eyes. I will need to read more from this author. I received a copy through Netgalley. A review was not required.

Amish Weddings: From Courtship to Celebration by Beth Oberholtzer
Suzanne Woods Fisher (Foreword)
The true story of Amish romance.
While fiction lovers may find Amish romance novels beguiling, the surprising true story of Amish courtship, weddings and marriage unfolds in a new, richly researched book that strives to portray the Plain community with respect and authenticity. Author Beth Oberholtzer introduces real Amish couples in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, inviting readers into the entire process of Amish courtship as well as the inner workings of a daylong wedding event like no other.
Amish Weddings offers a true insider’s look—through stories, history, and evocative photos—into the community-wide “making” of an Amish wedding. Personal stories from brides and grooms, attendants, servers, paper ladies, ushers, hostlers, and others provide a window into a unique celebration that honors the couple while enveloping them in their community of faith. In addition to photos from actual Amish weddings, menus and recipes enjoyed by generations of celebrants offer a front-row seat to a fascinating and unique ritual that is supported by a vast community.
An Amish wedding lasts all day.
This book has recipes.
Amish Weddings: From Courtship to Celebration by Beth Oberholtzer has
photos.
Very good researched to portray the Plain community.
I recommend this book.
Amish Weddings: From Courtship to Celebration by Beth Oberholtzer
is a wonderful 5 star book.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced readers copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions shared here in this review are my own.

This book follows real Amish couples from courtship through to the marriage ceremony. This is a good resource for all the customs and traditions. Good read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of Amish Weddings in exchange for a review. If you’re looking for an in-depth, well-researched nonfiction book on Amish weddings and the romantic culture within the religious group, this book is an excellent way to start.

This book is QUITE impressive! From the research, the quotes, the pictures, and the diagrams, I was fascinated and extremely enthralled by this book. Beth Oberholtzer, the author, certainly conducted extensive research for this book. I learned SO much from Amish Weddings. If you are interested in Amish culture, I’d highly suggest picking this book up as soon as possible. I still can’t believe the meal planning that goes into an Amish wedding. There are so many other aspects to this book that are intriguing and educational. For instance, you’ll learn about all the people and their assigned jobs that help make an Amish wedding possible. Also, I loved that the author focused on the Amish’s style of courtship and dating. She covers so many interesting topics that surround romantic relationships within the Amish.

I’m so glad books like this exist—books that help me understand other cultures and grow my fascination with them!

Happy reading,

Bethany the Bookworm Girl

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

I am a huge Amish bookbfan and this book was top notch.

I loved the characters and the story line.

Highly recommend.

A great account of what an Amish wedding celebration and all of the connected events looks like. Great pictures are included with fantastic descriptions.

I superb written book on Amish weddings. Detailed and provides the reader with the feeling of being a participant. It answers any questions that an Englisher who have about the fine tuned workings of weddings. It takes a village of family and friends to pull off the massive and intricate details from the smallest to the largest of weddings. A highly recommended read and a good reference book.
I received a complimentely copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Interesting book written to share customs for the Amish people. Beth Oberholtzer goes into great details and includes pictures.

Before the wedding: Amish youth join a youth group around sixteen years of age. Amish youth end their school days end after the eighth grade. They begin their progress to adulthood. Both male and female youth work outside the home. They learn to manage their finances.
“Dating is serious; the goal is to find a life partner.” The girl doesn’t make the first move; she waits for the boy to approach her. A first date could be the boy escorting the girl home after church. A young couple may date for several years before deciding to marry.
An Amish wedding emphasizes the importance of relationships, of family, of the church community, and their faith in God. The couple must be members of the Amish Church before they marry. The couple do not exchange rings nor is the wedding attire fancy, there are no photographers or dance bands. The Amish have what they call Plain weddings, of course they add personal touches. An Amish wedding is joyful and traditional. The Amish gather from other communities nearby and far away to witness the joining of two into one (it is not unusual for there to be several hundred attending the wedding.) An Amish wedding lasts all day. There is a long church service followed by a brief wedding ceremony. After a large meal the people play games, sing and play harmless pranks. Often family and friends stay for another meal. A traditional Amish wedding takes place on a Tuesday or Thursday after the fall harvest.
As I read the Foreword of Amish Weddings I contemplated the meaning of a wedding. Have the vows become secondary to dancing down the aisle. I think the Amish may have this right.
Amish Weddings is an informative book explaining the views of the Amish and their traditions from youth to a wedded couple.
Thank you for the ARC

An insightful book on the true meaning of community and marriage within the Amish lifestyle. Very interesting read and I learned lots I didn’t know before!

I enjoy reading anything I can about the Amish culture. It has always intrigued me and I always discover something I didn’t know. This book was full of a lot of things I was not aware of. Great read if you are interested in how the Amish choose to live.

I was given a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher. All words are my own.

4 stars, if you are interested in the subject.

Oh, those crazy Amish! Cults, the Amish, kids who kill, those are subjects I just can’t get enough of (oh, except for all those horrible looking Amish romances out there. I hate romance in general, and nothing sounds worse than a nice, hot session of AMISH romances….”Hey, ma’am, mayest I look at thou ankle? Well, I guess we’re engaged now.” Sexy!

Oh, and puppy mills. My fascination with the Amish turns to murderous rage then. Don’t get me started.

However, I’m guessing that probably wouldn’t apply to any of the Amish featured in this book as they look so squeaky clean you could eat off their foreheads (ugh.). This is true life wedding stories of real Amish couples in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, as will as information about the history of Amish weddings and some photos, but none of any actually weddings since the Amish don’t care to be photographed. So that’s kind a bummer for a book like this but the author gamely does her best and generally succeeds.

Lancaster County was home to approximately 44,000 Old Order Amish (spell check does NOT want to recognize “Amish” as a word. SPELL CHECK HATES RELIGIOUS FREEDOM! Or puppy mills.) in 2023, and Old Order Amish will occasionally arrange for their kids to meet other OOA from other places, so sometimes newcomers show up. Anyway, most Amish get hitched, so there are a fair number of weddings each year.

Those weddings can comprise up to 400-500 guests AT THE BRIDE’S home. I can hear my dad off being grateful somewhere….the 300 I had a mine made him suggest elopement and a down payment on a house (but not really. I’m the only daughter and he actually loved playing host. He may be one of the few men I know who, himself, made the wedding MORE expensive.) But I digress. I’m missing my dad.

The Amish construct WEDDING HOUSES (Daddy, are you hearing this???), special kitchens, extra bathrooms, benches, etc. Otherwise they rent these things for a few days as well as things like cooling trucks and port-a-potties. It’s a massive undertaking. And think of how many daughters some of these families have!

The wedding day itself is fourteen hours with multiple meals, each with multiple seatings and the book covers each. You won’t believe how important creamed cooked celery is, and it sounds just awful, so best of luck to them! Meanwhile the bride and groom made be eating LOBSTER or something while you’re there trying to choke down a disgusting plate of creamed celery while trying to pretend like you are happy for the fifth Yoder daughter.

And volleyball. Boy, according to this book volleyball is very important in the lives of the young Amish. Basically I think I learned that I would have never had a chance to get married at all, as I am an abysmal volleyball player. Tending my papa’s cows for life because I can’t set. Tragedy.

So, since I’m low key obsessed with Amish traditions like this (I’m not as much interested in, you know, boring stuff like theology, this book was perfect for me and I quite enjoyed it.

I love everything about the Amish. I love non-fiction books about them. This book is behind the scenes that “English” don’t get to see. This is a great read.

It may be tempting to think I approached Beth Oberholtzer's "Amish Weddings: From Courtship to Celebration" from a place of fun or even from a place of fetishizing the Amish.

This is far from the truth.

No, I am not Amish. No, I have never been Amish. Yes, I do know members of Indiana's Amish community. Yes, I spent several years in ministry in a branch of the Anabaptist tradition (of which Amish is part of).

The truth is that while I've long recognized the humanity (rather than the public image) of the Amish, I've also long embraced literary efforts to educate and understand.

Oberholtzer's "Amish Weddings" is a deep dive immersion into the world of Amish weddings, a factual and respectful book that strives to portray the "Plain" community with the respect and authenticity it so seldom actually receives. Oberholtzer focuses her lens on real Amish couples across the age spectrum but largely from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. From courtship to the traditions, practices, expectations, and occasional deviations involved in a daylong wedding event, Oberholtzer has crafted an engaging, informative look - often including stories, history, and remarkable (yet respectful) photos - into the community-wide effort involved in "making" an Amish wedding.

Oberholtzer has long written about Lancaster County and is a trusted writer within the community. This has offered her uncommon access to personal stories from brides and grooms, attendants, "paper ladies," ushers, hostlers, and more. She captures what it's like for a couple to both "celebrate" (in a rather plain way) and also be enveloped by their community of faith.

When I read books about the Amish, I often feel this sense of exploitation of who they are and how they believe. However, I don't get such a sense here even as Oberholtzer provides actual photos from Amish weddings (for the most part avoiding people; when people are involved it's with their permission), menus from weddings, and even a wealth of actual recipes because, of course, food is very much a huge part of weddings.

What I appreciate most about "Amish Weddings" is that Oberholtzer humanizes the journey in a way that makes one appreciate human beings within the experience that is both traditional and remarkably sacred. While many of us, perhaps even most, may not identify with the more plain and traditional ways of the Amish, Oberholtzer helps us understand them, appreciate them, and at least realize the intentionality with which all involved into courtship, dating, and marriage.

Oberholtzer moves well beyond the fetishized Amish romance novel and into the surprising true story of what it means to experience dating, courtship, a wedding, and a marriage as a member of the Amish (in this case, Old Order from Lancaster).

It's an interesting read. I always had an interest for Amish culture and this book is a documentary about Amish weddings and the things around. I don't understand everything of that culture but it's ok. There were sometimes too much details for me. But still interesting in the all.

I've never read the Amish romance genre, and I've been missing out. I absolutely loved this book. This book is a great introduction to the genre because it's based on true events. I'm going to check out more. I highly recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book.