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Looking for some butterfly inspiration for your butterfly themed wedding? Try these books for some beautiful ideas!




Garden Butterflies of North America Book (HC)

Product Description:
Garden Butterflies of North America Book by Rick Mikula is a vivid color portfolio of 40 of North America's most treasured and colorful garden butterfly varieties. Its loaded with information including how to design and manage gardens and backyards to attract butterflies. Includes plans for gardens from a container to a full-sized formal garden sure to attract many beautiful butterflies.



National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Butterflies (National Audubon Society Field Guide Series) (Turtleback)

Review: Good field guide for the interested amateur.

This field guide has significant strengths and weaknesses. First, the strengths. This book provides what most casual butterfly enthusiasts want, page after page of photos of butterflies (several hundred photos as a matter of fact). The photographs are good, for the most part, showing differences and similarities between many butterflies included in the book. (Most taxonomic characters are not readily seen in photos though.) One particularly helpful feature is that for many butterflies, such as skippers and those bearing eye-spots, both the upper and underside of wings are shown.

The butterflies are arranged, for the most part, by wing coloration or shape. This can help with more rapid field identification. There is also a section in the back of the guide that provides more information on butterflies listed.

The book is a convenient size, readily able to fit into a jacket or back pocket.

OK, now for the weaknesses.

As with other field guides published by the Audubon Soc...I can't figure out why the editors didn't include the scientific names along with the common names by each photo. If you want to use this book for any kind of taxonomic work, it becomes an annoying exercise in page flipping from the front to the back of the book. More serious entomologists will, of course, use taxonomic keys to identify specimens, but for the amateur collector who may not have or know how to use such keys, the format of the book can be frustrating.

There are too few photos of caterpillars, chrysalises, etc. at the front of the book. I know of no field guide that provides much on early life stages, and this guide is no different. Don't get me wrong, I'm pleased that they included a section on caterpillars, I just wish there were more.

There is very little information on the kinds of characteristics usually used in butterfly taxonomy...antenna type, wing veination, etc...presented in the book. A significant weakness.

Even with the large number of photographs, a photo cannot, in my opinion, do the same job of a well-done illustration in helping someone identify what they are looking at. As photo-based guides on butterflies, this is probably one of the best out there. Still, I wish there were a good general guide based on illustrations.

With that said, it is important to realize that no single field guide can ever hope to be comprehensive in treating the butterflies. There are simply too many species and variations out there to make a portable field guide.

With all that said, I think that this is a good, useful guide, but with a few changes it could be even better.

4 stars.

Happy butterfly spotting!

Review: Up to the usual Audubon Society high standards
I use both Audubon Society and Petersons small wildlife identification guides and find that are quite good with their own plus and minuses. Petersons is better for taking into the field for things that move (animals and insects) due to the layout which allows for quicker identification. Audubon is better for things that can't get away (plants) and with animals and insects, for obtaining data about the creature's habitat. This guide is as good as any other in their series, which is to say that it is very good.

Review: Just another winner from the National Audubon Society Book series,

This one was for me, well my husband and I and we both love it just like we love the other books in this series. We have also discovered that children who have access to the great outdoors adore these books as well as we have given them as successful gifts. They are great for outdoor family time as well as doing a little discovering on your own. Great descriptions and beautifully detailed pictures make these books tops in my opinion and that of the people whom we have give them to.

Review: A good serviceable field guide to butterflies
The Audubon Guides are almost always first rate and the way they are bound and covered make them perfect for the outdoors. This particular guide in typical fashion for the series is strong on color photographs but weak on taxonomy. That being said as the enthusiast continues in the hobby and their library on butterflies grows it is not the type of book one will discard, "re-gift" or consign to the back of the shelf. Used together with just one other book strong in taxonomy will be a winning combination for the lepidopterist.
Highly recommended.

Review: As good as the Kaufman Guide!

The Audubon Guide to Butterflies equals the completely perfect Kaufman Guide to Butterflies in every way. First, there are countless numbers of species listed, which is essential to identify a particular specimen. It is also very detailed in the description of the species in the back of the book. It is perfect for beginner naturalists and experts!

So, why is it so underrated? For one reason, many are too lazy to quickly flip to the back of the book and read the description. Anyone stating that this is for the very beginning amateur must have the wrong field guide altogether! Saying that the Golden Guides are for beginners is understandable, but saying that about an Audubon Guide is not.

This a "stonewall" entry in the long list of Audubon Guides, and may very well be one of the best

Review: Terrific Book!
I love this book. It has every catapillar & butterfly you can imagine in it. Nicely detailed & full of information. This was a great addittion to our other National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds.

Hosting Wedding Parties (Hardcover)

Book Description
From showers to receptions to bridal teas, you'll find everything you need to toast the happy couple in style. HOSTING WEDDING PARTIES offers the inspiration and the how-to instructions for planning and hosting unique wedding-related theme parties that will be remembered for years to come. Each party is beautifully photographed to show every detail, from handcrafted invitations to exquisite centerpieces to thoughtful and unique party favors. Decorations and specially crafted accents are explained in step-by-step instructions, yet all party elements are easy and affordable! Also included are complete party menus with easy but delicious recipes, along with suggested table settings and beverages. A special section on entertaining help includes etiquette tips, floral arranging ideas, and more. Whether you're the maid of honor, the mother of the groom, or the bride herself, this book has the details you need to plan the perfect party.

Just look what makes this book a must for your collection:

** Covers a wide range of parties, not just showers! Includes parties for rehearsals, engagements, and receptions.

** Perfect for anyone involved in a wedding - the maid of honor, mother, father, grandparent, bridesmaid, groomsman, uncle, or aunt.

** Contains complete menus and recipes for each party.

** Features easy and affordable party plans that don't require weeks of preparation.

** Includes a special section on etiquette tips, floral-arranging ideas, table setting, and more.

** It's the best book you'll find on the subject. Most "shower" books are one color, and don't have recipes. This one is full of full-color photos that help you make your wedding party a smash.




The Perfect Wedding Reception : Stylish Ideas For Every Season (Hardcover)
Book Description

Once couples decide to say "I do" there are dozens and dozens of decisions to be made. It's hard to know where to begin and even more difficult to fit all the dozens of details together into one wonderful event. Thankfully Maria McBride-Mellinger, author of acclaimed bridal books, stylishly illustrates just how to create a dreamy reception that will be forever memorable.

The Perfect Wedding Reception features exquisite wedding celebrations designed by Maria McBride-Mellinger that capture the magic of each season in refreshing, contemporary style. The nuptial adventure begins in a formal spring garden but soon its off to a beach front for a fanciful summer wedding, to a revolutionary era stone barn for a rustic fall wedding and finally to a gracious country home for a candle lit winter wedding feast.

Glorious photos of each location, flowers, menu selections, table details, centerpieces, bouquets, invitations, wedding cakes and favors tell the story of each wedding with helpful tips and most importantly McBride-Mellinger's favorite resources from around the country that will actually help bring your wedding reception to life.

Whatever season you choose to marry Maria McBride-Mellinger offers delightful flourishes to tempt every couple as they plan the party of their lives and create memories meant to last a lifetime.

Review: Perfection!
As a second-time bride, this was the book that "did it" for me. My October wedding reception, while not the exact replica of Ms. McBride-Mellinger's, incorporated as many of her ideas as I could. This is an absolutely beautiful book which will be an inspiration to any bride to be that wants a classy, memorable wedding befitting her chosen season. The settings, invitations, floral designs, cakes, and small touches are unique and certainly can be "scaled down" for those on a smaller budget.
Not the end-all, be-all catalogue of a bridal book...but a digestable and exquisite source of inspiration.

Review: Beautiful pictures, but not enough different weddings
This book has wonderful pictures of four weddings, one in each season.
The pictures are truly extraordinary, but they are almost exclusively of these four weddings, so there aren't tons of different ideas for each season, rather one "theme" idea for each season. One thing that disappointed me was that her summer wedding was a casual one on the beach, so if you want more formal ideas for a summer wedding you are out of luck. Like other reviewers have said, most of these perfect presentations would be completely out of a lot of people's price range, but you could definitely pull a few ideas that you loved from her spreads and make it work on a smaller budget. By and large this is a good supplementary book on reception ideas, with tons of photos and some good "idea" text (as opposed to "how-to" text.)

Review: OSTENTATIOUS IDEAS FOR EVERY SEASON BUT NOT EVERY BRIDE
If Kennedy or Vanderbilt is your last name and I mean The Kennedys and The Vanderbilts, if Bill Gates is your wedding sponser or if you are a member of the Royal Family then this book is for you. If you live in the real world you may not want to bother reading a book that would embarrass even Martha Stewart. Even if your wedding budget isn't that of a small nation you can uncover some ideas to use on a realistic day of bliss. But I would leave out the "Honeymoon bed out in the open" next to a swamp unless you are marrying Jeff Corwin or the Crocodile Hunter. Look at page 116 and see if you would like to spend your wedding night there but McBride-Mellinger says "far from sight of the area's inhabitants". It's also far from sight of a bathroom,room service and Walgreen's to get some mosquito spray and close to sight for anything with four or six legs or even eight hairy ones that hopefully would be four groomsmen rather than a spider. As in all the weddings in the book, the cakes are works of art, the prettiest I've ever seen (pgs 106&107, 214&215 "a masterpiece" and the chapter on Confections) and the flowers are magnificent. If you read this book make sure to have a dictionary for all the $2.00 words as it must have been written with a word processor in one hand an a Thesaurus in the other. Also, a really good cook book will come in handy to try and figure out what everyone was eating. McBride-Mellinger is even so helpful as to tell you how to dress the "help" as if in this day and time the guests even know what to wear, where the "help" should go to the bathroom, and to prepare food incase they work more then four hours. But do show respect because Maria McBride-Mellinger has a very high opinion of herself and a much over inflated ego. "The Perfect Wedding Reception" is that: perfectly ostentatious,pretentious,over the top and prefectly not for middle class America. The book is a "perfect" waste of a good tree. For over 30 years I have been a floral artist and wedding planner with the experience of over 500 weddings in all parts of the US and Europe.

Review: creative suggestions
This book suggests many creative ways to make your wedding reception fun and unique. The author describes 4 weddings (one for each season) thoroughly and with an artist's eye for detail and color. She also provides an extensive index for all aspects of reception preparation and planning. The pictures vividly display the character of each wedding, bringing them to life. I would have prefered some extra examples with illustrations of decorationg ideas for each season that were not part of the featured wedding. It would have been nice to have some more practical examples of possibilities. The featured weddings are gorgeous but, for people like myself, a bit out of reach financially. Surely, one can put a creative, unique twist on some less eccentric styles to make them equally as special, beautiful and perfect for any wedding.

Review: Very helpful
There are some wonderful suggestions here to make your day special. You will read this and remember the little things to do. One recommendation would be to direct readers to Katherine's Song, the wedding song in Defenders of the Holy Grail (Ken Agori)...this is THE song for this millenium. Of course, this may belong more at the service, but at the reception for the first dance, WOW!! THis book is worth the money...

Review: One of the Best
In preparation for our wedding, I ordered just about every book that I thought looked appealing and got great reviews, literally HUNDREDS of dollars' worth of books! This and its companion, The Perfect Wedding, stood out among the rest.
I liked it for the following reasons:

1. Beautiful pictures of original ideas. There were lots of pictures and lots of ideas. Obviously you aren't going to find a book that has absolutely every idea for flowers or cakes (it would be HUGE!), but the ones that this book included were very nice.

2. Good mix of pictures and text. About 3/5 of the book was pictures and ideas. It was divided up into 4 sections representing the 4 seasons, so you could get ideas for your specific season (getting inspiration from the best of your season is a great idea!). The other 2/5 of the book was resources with phone number, addresses, websites, etc., so you could actually get ahold of the people who put together the beautiful things in this book or go to the places that would give you more of a similar idea.

3. Not just for the wealthy. Granted that I personally am not too concerned with books geared for my budget, this book gave ideas for all ranges of budgets. Of course, some of the cakes, flowers, etc., must have been expensive, but she also gives ideas that are more budget-conscious.

I would recommend this book, no question. It's better than Colin Cowie's, on par with Martha's, and definitely much better than Vera Wang's.

The Ultimate Wedding Reception Book (Paperback)




Review: Wedding Details (Hardcover)

Book Description
Whatever the setting -- a minimal, modern buffet, an intimate wedding breakfast, or a sophisticated formal reception -- this invaluable book is full of elegant and imaginative ideas to help you transform your wedding day into a magical and memorable occasion.
Throughout the book, clear and concise text is paired with evocative, inspirational photographs that are guaranteed to capture the imagination.

About the Author
Mary Norden, a succesful textile designer, has been commissioned by Liberty, Ralph Lauren, Christian Dior, and Yves Saint Laurent. She has written for Homes & Gardens and is the author of Gift Wraps: Baskets & Bows and Decorative Embroidery. Sandra Lane is a successful still-life photographer. Her work appears in magazines such as Elle Decoration and Homes & Gardens, and she has photographed several of Mary Nodens's previous books. She lives in London.

Review: Great resource tool
I have a small wedding business and found this book very helpful. It is a very simple short book but it is loaded with great ideas for weddings and receptions. Pictures are excellent, lots of new ideas to try, I would recommend it as a resource guide and was very happy to receive it as a gift off my wish list.

Review: Big Things Come In Small Packages
A cute-sized book chockful of ideas! Creative ideas on favor packaging, table settings, floral arrangements. Inspirational ideas that can be easily adapted to your budget and style.

Review: Practical and modern-day ideas
Cute-sized book offering plenty of creative, practical and modern ideas on wedding favors, table settings, and floral decorations; beautiful still photography for inspiration.