Welcome, newly-engaged brides and grooms!

Congratulations on your Christmas Eve or Christmas Day engagement! Last night, as my husband and I celebrated our second Christmas as marrieds, counting our blessings and fielding many phone calls from family and friends wishing us a joyous day, I was also thinking about you, about the fact that you're just entering the exciting world of wedding-planning, and maybe this is the best holiday ever for you. Three cheers to your groom for a fabulous marriage proposal, and I hope you're waking up this morning beaming over how much fun stuff is ahead of you.

I know that wedding information world has gotten super-crowded and noisy with a ton of wedding sites and blogs, and of course all of the well-meaning suggestions from your own family and friends (and his mom!). And I know that the best, money-saving and stress-busting information you need can get buried by all of those fun quizzes and celebrity wedding stories, thousands of articles about wedding dresses and so on and so on and so on.

Consider me your sister in the wedding business -- I have the insider secrets to planning your wedding day, and I'm also going to make you smile and lighten your mood. I'll help you word that confrontation with your pushy future mom-in-law, jealous bridesmaid, and the groom who thinks he's supposed to just sit back and let you do everything. [It's not his fault...many grooms are just trying to let you have the fun, and they don't realize it's coming across as disinterest.]

You have my 35+ wedding books here to help you plan every element of your day, and -- most importantly -- avoid and handle some of the most common wedding mistakes. Visit my website to get your copies, and also reach me to ask your wedding planning questions.

My new book is a hit before it even launches!

Authors check Amazon all the time to see how our books are doing. It's exciting when a six year-old book is still selling like wild, and it's really exciting when a book that hasn't even launched yet is...well, selling like wild! I'm so proud of my new book Your Wedding, Your Way -- my idea-filled book on how to take all of the traditional wedding elements like the first dance, the cake-cutting, the bouquet toss, and give them a unique, personal spin that pays homage to your own personal love story. This book gives a spin to everything you can imagine, and it was one of the most fun books I've ever written.

And I LOVE the cover! My art team at Adams knocked it out of the park.

Here's a quick description of the book:


Wedding experts agree: Today’s bride and groom want a wedding that reflects who they are—without regard to tradition, convention, or in-laws. This guide shows you how to:
Break with tradition—on a budget!
Present nontraditional ideas to parents and grandparents
Build in time for visiting friends and family
Incorporate shared passions into the ceremony
Use elbow grease and inventiveness for a DIY wedding
Deal with vendors and suppliers
You will identify ways you can express your individuality during your wedding celebration, from rehearsal dinner to the morning-after brunch. The memories you take away will be of a ceremony celebrating your love—your uniqueness as a couple.

And here's where to get it: It's not even up on my website yet, so you're going to be among the first to get your copy when the book is released in a few weeks.

In honor of the military families who are going through so much these days, I am offering 5 free, signed copies to the first military couples who contact me through Twitter @sharonnaylorwed.

You HAVE to get "Signature Sasha"

It's new. It's amazing. It's my dear friend and colleague Sasha Souza's phenomenal book Signature Sasha, filled with breathtaking images of her wedding designs.

Sasha is known for her amazing color artistry, and you're going to find so much inspiration in here for your own big day. It's packed. And gorgeous.

And here's another awesome perk: if you order through Sasha's site, you can get an autographed copy. So, Moms and Dads, bridesmaids and friends, this could be a great gift for the newly-engaged couple. Brides and grooms, how great would it be to get personal congrats from one of Modern Bride's Top Trendsetters and our newest addition to the circle of celebrity wedding book authors?

Check Sasha out, follow her @sparkliatti, and follow her blog. She's a different kind of celeb wedding coordinator: almost sinfully talented, yet still the cool sister or best friend you'd like to hang out with and throw back some martinis. I'm thrilled to know her, and thrilled to point you to her site so that you can get to know her, too!

Win stylish eco-friendly guest welcome bags!

It's time for my newest contest! You can win 5 eco-friendly Envirosax bags for your stylish guest welcome bags! Justin Timberlake was recently spotted carrying his Envirosax bag, and now it's your turn to WIN a collection of your own!

Here's how to enter: just e-mail me at sharonnaylorweddings@hotmail.com with your name and what you're incorporating into your wedding to be a little friendlier to the earth. Are you supporting a 3rd world artisan co-op? Did you create a charitable registry? Did you use recycled paper for your invitations? Share your story with me, and you could win!

The winner gets to pick out his or her favorite design from Envirosax, and we'll ship your 5 bags right to you, along with a copy of my newest book! Which newest book? YOU get to choose from my website.

The deadline for this contest is August 31st, and you only need to enter once. Tell your friends!

My Mother of the Bride Book is #1 on Amazon!

Lots of Moms out there are getting the advice and ideas they need to be wonderful wedding-planning partners. My book The Mother of the Bride Book is the #1 book for moms on Amazon.com, with my Mother of the Groom book also tops on its own list.

Since moms are important members of the planning team, I've enjoyed focusing on them and helping them navigate the new trends and etiquette rules, both in my books and at my podcast "Here Come the Moms" at Wedding Podcast Network.

Another perk of giving Mom a book of her own? I say the things you want to say, like "Chill out," "It's the bride and groom's wedding, not yours," and "Stop trying to compete with your friends or the in-laws."

Sharon Naylor Wedding Books new slideshow