Bride and mother-of-the-bride rebel against today’s monster weddings and explain how weddings can be charming, affordable—and excruciatingly correct. Today’s brides are bombarded with wedding advice that promises perfection but urges achieving it through selfishness (“It’s your wedding, and you can do whatever you like”), greed (choosing the presents that guests are directed to buy), and showing off (“This is your chance to show everyone what you’re about”). Couples wishing to resist such pressure see elopement or a slapdash wedding as the only alternatives to a gaudy blowout. But none of these choices appealed to a bride who happened to have been brought up by Miss Manners. Judith Martin and her newlywed daughter, Jacobina, explain how to have a dignified ceremony and delightful celebration without succumbing to the now-prevalent pattern of the vulgar, money-draining wedding that exhausts families and exploits friends.

Presents advice on weddings discussing the responsibilities and obligations of friends and family, and covering subjects such as the engagement, shower, gifts, and the reception.

Details the responsibilities of the bride, groom, their families, and their wedding party, and covers showers, the guest list, invitations and announcements, gifts, and thank-yous.

America's leading civility expert knocks household discourteousness off its foundations. As the rudeness rampant in America's streets sends its citizens fleeing inside to bolt the doors and draw the shades, they are finding what was once the relative safety of the hearth threatened by an unwelcome addition to their living space--the same rudeness presumably left behind when they stepped across their own cozy thresholds. With the keen wit and insight that distinguishes her column and previous books, Judith Martin's newest work equips residences everywhere with the tools to return manners to domestic life. Refusing to recognize that the harried household cannot meet her standards of propriety--especially since all households are now harried--Miss Manners explains how this is done. Whether your family is nuclear, blended, extended, or unrelated; whether you are single, divorced, living together, or married; at a family dinner or dinner party; engaged in combat with the neighbors or with the relatives--there is simply no substitute for the core of civility that must reside at the heart of every house, condo or apartment if it is truly to be a home. Miss Manners is prepared to sweep through your house and get rid of those lurking traces of rudeness that you were pretending not to notice. You know you are not going to be able to enjoy a pleasant and peaceful household until these few chores are done. Table of Contents Chapter One--The People Allotting due space and respect to parents, children, roommates, relatives--and whoever those other people are whom one of them must have brought home Chapter Two--The Place Making use of the rooms instead of turning them into a mess or a museum, while everybody huddles upstairs Chapter Three--The Rules Negotiating compromises without having to leave home for Domestic Dispute Court Chapter Four--The System Keeping track of where everybody is, where they are supposed to be, and what they are supposed to be doing (if they remember) Chapter Five--The Help Getting the housework done when you can't complain about the Servant Problem--because theservants are you and the people in the phone book who may be there sometime today Chapter Six--The Visitors Offering hospitality without surrendering your privacy or your resources to the thankless Chapter Seven--Entertaining: The Social Contract Reviving the art of not-for-profit entertaining to make friends who will love you for yourself Chapter Eight--Entertaining: The Social Event Learning to give a variety of parties, formal and informal--because it beats staying home alone watching TV Chapter Nine--Entertaining: The Relatives Kindling warm memories rather than heated conflict at family occasions Chapter Ten--The Community Being pleasant enough to the neighbors so you're not afraid to walk out your own front door

The etiquette expert and “authentic comic genius” guides us through the Age of Incivility (Chris Buckley, New York Times-bestselling author of Has Anyone Seen My Toes?). We seem to be entering a new era, liberated from oppressive, old-fashioned rules of etiquette. We’re finally free! Free to shout insults at strangers on the street! Free to pressure people to give us money! Free to use all sorts of offensive language! In this book, New York Times-bestselling author Judith Martin, aka Miss Manners, reminds us that living in an etiquette-free paradise is not all it’s cracked up to be. In wise, witty commentary and responses to letters, she addresses vexing problems in the workplace, at the wedding, on the web, and beyond, in hopes of saving civilization. But fear not, Gentle Reader—she also allows us some important exceptions. For example, despite the rampant oversharing that social media has encouraged, you can politely refuse to answer nosy questions. And you are decidedly not obliged to respond to every inane post; stay on the phone with a telemarketer; or hug your colleagues. “An extremely useful philosopher . . . I consult her frequently, in order to behave better.” —Daniel Handler in TheNew York Times

An indispensable manual to navigating life from birth to death without making a false move. Your neighbor denounces cellular telephones as instruments of the devil. Your niece swears that no one expects thank-you letters anymore. Your father-in-law insists that married women have to take their husbands' names. Your guests plead that asking them to commit themselves to attending your party ruins the spontaneity. Who is right? Miss Manners, of course. With all those amateurs issuing unauthorized etiquette pronouncements, aren't you glad that there is a gold standard to consult about what has really changed and what has not? The freshly updated version of the classic bestseller includes the latest letters, essays, and illustrations, along with the laugh-out-loud wisdom of Miss Manners as she meets the new millennium of American misbehavior head-on. This wickedly witty guide rules on the challenges brought about by our ever-evolving society, once again proving that etiquette, far from being an optional extra, is the essential currency of a civilized world.