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.

Should you worry when a wedding expert doesn't have a 'package?'

No, don't worry. It's the new trend for more and more wedding experts, such as florists, photographers, caterers and wedding cordinators, to customize the details and plans they'll put together for your wedding. In past years, you'd see the Budget Package with just the basics, the Gold Package with lots of perks in addition to the basics, and then the Platinum Package that would blow your mind and budget. Now, wedding pros know that you want to create your own package of their goods and services, according to your own budget. And your wedding won't be similar to any other friends or relatives who had their weddings at the same place. So don't be afraid of the no-package pro. Just interview them with the same careful questioning you use for all of your experts and see what you might be able to create with them.

My new book on Amazon's Hot New Wedding Books list!

Seems like every bride wants to find out how to avoid some of the biggest mistakes possible! Amazon.com has included my newest book The Bride's Survival Guide in their list of the best new wedding books!

Cheers!

Since one of the top ways to personalize your wedding is creating a drink and/or naming a cocktail after yourselves, visit Cocktail.com for details on the top mixed drinks and coolers. Can't find the perfect drink to suit your shower or wedding theme? The site has an in-house Q&A expert, in their feature Ask Miss Cocktail. I featured this site in several of my books, most notably my Ultimate Bridal Shower Idea Book, and I highly recommend that you let your circle of party-planning friends and relatives know about it, too. Three cheers to that site for helping us pair drinks to the party decor colors.