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Trying to find the perfect beach location for your beach wedding?
Here are some tropical wedding ideas!

100 Best Romantic Resorts of the World, 4th (100 Best Series) (Paperback)

Review: A great resource for those seek a place for passion!

Define "romantic", my girl friend said to me, as I looked at her with my best 'I know what it means, don't press me' look. Being slightly romantically challanged, my understanding of the world comes from Clark Gable in 'Gone with the Wind' "Frankly Scarlet, I ...".

Katherine Dyson defines romantic with 100 different definitions via 100 different resorts. These selections span the world, so wherever you're are inclined to stoke the fire of `amore', Dyson has a suggestion. With each resort section you get a detailed profile, as well as web-site and e-mail addresses (impressive!).. Especially useful is the specialized indexes she provides: romance by the sea, romance with tennis, romance with golf, romance with a horse(!), romance on a safari, romance with a private pool, romance with a private fireplace and romance in a city for convenient shopping (Oops, there goes the romance).

Though I could only get to a half dozen of the recommended romantic resorts before I wanted to get back to fish'n in Southern Georgia, I got the general idea. I applaud the great research that Katherine Dyson has done, though I take exception to listing huge commercial resorts as romantic (Half-Moon Club, Sandals Resorts, Disney's Resort etc.). Also helpful would be a list of the most expensive to the cheapest romantic spots; it is amazing how money affects romance with most men. But, pushing these observations aside, "100 Best Romantic Resorts of the World" is an excellent guide for those that have a moon in their eye "like a big pizza pie". Recommended.

Perfect for planning your honeymoon
The biggest thing I had to do to for our wedding (besides show up) was to plan our honeymoon. This book was the only resource I could find that didn't just list the "if-money-were-no-object" type of resorts. It also listed amazing hard-to-find places that actually fit our budget. The result -- our honeymoon was perfect. I highly recommend this book.

Review: As Seen On TV
This book was used as reference in a "10 Best" show on the Discovery Channel. It was also named as reference in a "Travel & Leisure Magazine" article for the World's 10 most romantic travel destinations.
If you're a guy and need help planning a romantic vacation getaway, this book is a definite necessity.

Hawaii's Best Beaches (Paperback)

Review: GREAT REFERENCE BOOK! A++,

I used this book extensively, as I was shooting the best beaches we could find for our DVD "Hawaiian Dreams" here on Amazon. It saved us a lot of time with great descriptions and informative facts. I highly recommend it, and if you want to actually see, hear and feel what these beaches look like, check out our DVD as well as this book.

Review: Hawaii's best beaches is very informative.
I've read John Clark's other books, and this one tops them all. It combines the information from all of Hawaii's best beaches in a creative and informative way. I am new to the Hawaii islands, so I also enjoy reading part of the history of the beaches as well as the meaning of the Hawaiian beach names. This book is also complete with beautiful color photos. I would recommend this book to anyone visiting Hawaii. Beaches are Hawaii's greatest asset.



Beaches (Hardcover)

Book Description
The authors of The Beach: The History of Paradise on Earth, the best-selling history of everyone's favorite place, are back with a breathtaking visual companion. From moody, craggy coastlines to serene swathes of turquoise water and white sand, Beaches is an astounding photographic survey of the ineffable allure of paradise on earth. This spectacular collection of images from renowned photographers, including Robert Misrach, Joel Meyerowitz, and Art Wolff, stirs the spirit, capturing the mutable beauty of sand, sea, and sky. Throughout, concise and poetic pieces of historic and scientific lore unveil little-known facts and curiosities. With an astonishing range of vision, Beaches evokes the idiosyncratic beauty of the world's most stunning coastlines.

About the Author
Gideon Bosker and Lena Lencek have collaborated on a number of books, including The Beach and Making Waves. Lenek is a professor of Russian and the humanities at Reed College, and Bosker, a physician, is an assistant clinical professor of medicine at Yale University School of Medicine. They live in Portland, Oregon.

Gorgeous Pictorial for Beach Lovers
This book is filled with stunningly beautiful photos from beaches all over the world. The brief text is also interesting, but the images will make you crack this open when you want to remember the magic that happens when the ocean meets the land. I don't know exactly what is different here but the photos look especially vibrant and kind of jumped out at me.

From Antartica, to Cape Cod, to Tahiti, Indonesia and Newport Beach to name a few you'll see all the different elements of beaches around the globe. I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't love having this book around. This would also make a great gift.

I used to live in Capitola on the sand and looking through this reminded me of all the reason I love the beach. It's obvious that the authors must have the same passion. Also the book cover and pages are high quality and physically look and feel great

Review: My Favorite Beaches Book - Inspirational !
I am a beach lover, and as the DVD producer / cameraman of the "Waves: Virtual Vacations" Series here on Amazon.com, this book has been an inspiration to me. The spectacular shots of beaches from around the world are truly extraordinary. Having shot myself hundreds of the best beaches from California, Hawaii, Florida, the Caribbean both with stills and for the DVDs, I can easily say this book is top notch. I highly recommend it. It sits proudly on my desk. And for those who want to see and hear what some of these beaches really feel like, bring this book with you and check out our Waves DVDs here on Amazon.

Review: Beautiful Book
This is a beautiful little book that would make a great addition to any ocean lover's collection.

Review: A Retreat in Itself
The is a stunning book. The photos come from diverse parts of the globe and diverse coastal landscapes. At first, I was skeptical of the small-ish size. But the photos are very high quality and beautiful to look at. Maybe someday I'll get around to looking at the text?
Now and then, I pull the book off the shelf and flip through the photos -- an instant retreat to the shore. Great for anyone who loves the sea but can't be there very often.

Review: BEACHES - A POEM
BEACHES -- the book [revised] When my eyes grow too dim to read, this book will be at hand to refresh my spirit, eyes, and memories.

Reminders of the beaches I have seen, and many not-seen scenes. I see familiar translucent jewel green waves and turquoise bays, ice blue coves in Oregon, huge translucent waves curving to meet the sea, another deep blue wave with incredible froth, like crystals suspended high above its majestic curve -- golden grassy sea shores, blazing sunsets -- also purple sunsets, one at Brighton pier, and other channel scenes -- rocky Brittany shores and White Dover cliffs, and curves and caves and coruscated sands. There is a tide pool like a giant blue eye with sun-bronzed eyelids -- white iceberg-rocks floating in a mirror-sea -- one real iceberg, a huge dollop of meringue reflected in a heliotrope bay --

An endless treasure.

Review: Beyond the Most Beautiful Beach Scenes You've Seen

Review Summary: Take the most talented photographers in the world. Review thousands of their best color beach photographs. Select a few dozen. Fill in with intriguing, inspirational essays about the origin, geology, physics, terms, and biology of beaches plus describe great beach activities like surfing. The result is a stunning work that makes you wonder how come you've never seen a beach scene as beautiful as these. It's the most fun at the beach you can have without going out into the sun!
Review: "The beach, after all, is among the most challenging and rewarding of photographic subjects . . . ." The shifts between land, water, and sky are often subtle. The light has an enormous influence on the colors and the mood of the scene. Light changes swiftly. The activity of the waves changes even faster. In many cases, a photograph is capturing a unique and fleeting moment, almost like a snowflake about to melt on your hand, that could not otherwise be as fully appreciated. While the editing could have selected scenes built around the nostalgia of your own experiences at beaches, the book instead takes you around the world and to rare moments to see beaches as you will probably never see them in a lifetime, even if you visited these same sites. I was particularly impressed by the scenes of waves (which must have been taken from surf boards) and through rocks.

The editorial selection criteria were intriguing: To show "how the beach might see itself if it were to ponder its own face without the intermediary of the human eye." That concept would not have occurred to me, and I am sure I will think about all scenes in nature differently in the future as a result. I am sure you will, too. Next, the editors looked for "the most crystalline, intelligent, and evocative portrait . . . ." They also wanted the book to show a "shining range of visual sensiblities." This sense is nicely captured by looking at scenes from dawn to dusk, and from full sun to fog. Panoramas alternate with tight shots of a single element. The book is not limited to ocean beaches. Estuaries, rivers and lakes are also pictured. When in doubt, the book's editors seem to have selected the images with the highest levels of unusual color, along with stunning compositions from unusual angles.

My favorites in the book are Art Brewer's Talava Arches on Niue Island in the Cook Islands, A. Blake Gardner's shot of Padre Island National Seashore in Texas, Michael Ventura's image of Natural Arches in Bermuda, Craig Tuttle's Tide Pool at Bandon State Park and his shot of Ecola State Park both in Oregon, Ron Romanosky's beautiful Newport Beach, California, Daryl Benson's Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, Peter Lik's Australian shots of Orpheus Island in Queensland and Twelve Apostles in Victoria, and Joe Cornish's North Yorkshire Coast in England.

After you have bathed in the beauty of these rare natural wonders, I suggest you think about other rare moments that you may never experience. What are they? How can you seek them out? Can others help you? One of the great wonders of books, videos, and recordings is that they can bring us into extended communion with sights, sounds, and feelings that we have not directly experienced.

Let choosing rare, rewarding moments be a guide to your fulfillment!

Other Invitation Ideas:
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