Wedding season is ultimately upon us and it’s the perfect time to delve into some wedding-themed books! It’s been two years since my wedding and especially after all the planning and stress I endured with trying to trim down the guest list, table seating arrangements, the restaurant changing the whole menu, and family drama these days I would much rather read about weddings! These are the kinds of books that teach you that weddings aren’t perfect but it is the one day that you will never forget!
Save the Date by Morgan Matson
Charlie Grant’s sister is having a wedding coming up and she is excited to escape her impending college plans and leaving her childhood home to have a three day weekend with her big rambunctious family! Her plans for a picture-perfect family wedding go awry when the wedding planner escapes due to fraudulent activity. The wedding service “Where There’s a Will” steps in as replacements to do damage control. Charlie meets Bill who works for his uncle’s company “Where There’s a Will” and Charlie teams up with him to help save her sister’s wedding. Charlie and Bill have no idea the wedding disasters that are in store for them but through the disasters, there is a sweet romance that develops between them. Charlie’s whirlwind wedding weekend helps her realize that things are not always what they seem and that change isn’t always such a bad thing.
Save the Date has been described as a “Father of the Bride meets Sixteen Candles” kind of book. It is a book that will make you laugh, drive you insane, and it will most importantly leave you with the heartfelt message of change being inevitable but the love of a family being unchangeable.
The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
Olive is someone who has always felt supremely unlucky. Although her twin sister Ami holds all the luck in the world from meeting her fiancé for the first time in a meet-cute rom-com fashion and financing her entire wedding through Internet contests. Olive’s bad luck carries onto the wedding when she is forced to spend a day with her nemesis Ethan who is the best man. When the wedding guests get food poisoning from eating shellfish they are the only ones who didn’t get affected. And now there is the once in a lifetime opportunity for them to go on a free vacation to Hawaii. Olive and Ethan decide to set aside their hate for one another and pretend to play newlyweds until they realize that they are not pretending anymore.
I am a sucker for the hate to love romance trope and I think that Christina Lauren will create the perfect blend of hot tension that will leave me wanting more. There is just something about a romance set in Hawaii that provides those perfect summer love feels. I know I am going to enjoy cracking open this book by the beach with a margarita in hand.
Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
Rachel is the girl that has always played by the rules. She is a successful attorney who lives in Manhattan. Her best friend Darcy throws her a birthday party for turning 30 and her best friends fiancée is also in attendance. Rachel has always harbored a secret crush on her best friends fiancée and always feels that she can never measure up to her best friend. Until that night she decides to throw the rules out the window and ends up sleeping with Darcy’s fiancée. When Darcy’s fiancée reveals that he always had feelings for her it puts Rachel in a difficult position and it forces her to choose between the love of her life or her childhood best friend.
When I was planning my wedding, I spontaneously picked up this book thinking it was a fluffy chick lit and I was completely blown away. I saw the movie before I read the book (The horror!) and the amount of emotion and turmoil that the book exhibited was so much deeper than the movie. The indecision that Rachel goes through is so well-written and believable. I love how the topic of cheating isn’t written in a way to paint Rachel as the other woman and it really explores the emotional journey that the character goes through. If you want a wedding-themed book that explores the complicated nature of the relationship between two best friends then pick up this book!