This may be a nuts-and-bolts primer on fashioning the architecture and words for your marriage, but Reid keeps it sweet as...
A how-to guide for choosing the words that mean the most to you for your wedding ceremony, as well as designing the event.
In a welcome respite from the marriage-industrial complex, minister and officiant Reid takes the immensely practical tack of helping you select the right words for your wedding, from pure suggestions to full sample ceremonies. That’s not to say that the book’s cup doesn’t runneth over with glad tidings and peals of joy at the event; just that the author would like to see you get it right for yourself. To start the process, Reid offers a step-by-step overview of the many possible elements that can be included in a ceremony, from approval and dedication blessings, to the declaration of intent and pronouncement (the only legal stipulations involved), to vows and the exchange of rings, to the kiss and the close. Since the whole point of this project is to provide the reader with word choices, Reid serves up abundant samples for each element in the service. They might be spiritual or nonspiritual, traditional or alternative; they might be brief or extended, soupy or flinty. Her sources are rangy and inclusive—biblical scripture, Native American blessings and prayers, Buddhist homilies, rabbinical teachings, Irish blessings and toasts; Armenian, Hawaiian, Inuit; Rumi, Oscar Levant, Kierkegaard; song lyrics, movies, children’s books, television. Even if some of them make you recoil—perhaps Richard Bach isn’t your cup of tea—there is always a counterbalance somewhere in these pages. Reid encourages readers to use the words as a springboard to zero in on the day’s significance and intent, to embellish upon them, just as she recommends ways in which to broaden the ceremony with personal touches, such as the ringing of little brass bells instead of the shower of rice or birdseed. Lastly, she takes on the bureaucracy; obtaining license, filing paperwork, officiating.
This may be a nuts-and-bolts primer on fashioning the architecture and words for your marriage, but Reid keeps it sweet as the cake and smooth as the silk.Pub Date: March 19, 2011
ISBN: 978-1456491444
Page Count: 246
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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