From great ideas on how to save money to stressing the complete importance of entertainment, this book is a bride's best friend. The Best Wedding Reception...Ever!™ is broken down into three easy to read sections that each focus on all of the aspects of planning your perfect day. Mr. Merry uses easy to understand analogies to get his point across to his readers. He refers to the Bride and Groom as the Actors in the Starring Roll as well as the Executive Producer, and the vendors (caterer, florist, photographer etc...) as Supporting Actors. The Wedding Consultant or Coordinator would fill the roll of Co-Producer and the DJ would be the Director, otherwise known as the Wedding Entertainment Director™. It is this reviewer's opinion that Mr. Merry deserves an Oscar® for Best Original Screenplay . Note to brides..Definitely read this book!!!!"

--Shelley Skaggs from Louisville, KY (submitted via E-Mail)
...getting married soon!

informative and comprehensive

"My fiancee and I really enjoyed this book as it brought up many celebration ideas that we had not even heard of let alone considered. there's a lot of information in the book and it really covers every type of reception from elegant to raucous. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in having a good time at their wedding."

--D. McAlester getting married in October 2007
...posted March 15th, 2007 on Amazon.com

Fantastic and much needed tips for a successful wedding reception

"My fiance and I are experiencing a bit of a role reversal, in that I am in the minority of grooms, one who is the primary planner/coordinator of our upcoming wedding. My fiance has great taste and is involved with all major decisions, but is also an extremely busy professional, so I was happy to step up as the experienced party planner, doing the homework and pre-negotiating with vendors, before my fiance and I together make final selections of vendors and the plan. However, I had never planned a wedding before, so I've bought many books and read lots of websites and paged through many magazines (I don't think I can look at another magazine ad of a bride-model laying horizontal on a couch without snickering).

Virtually everything is written for the bride who typically plans the wedding - which to me means there is a heavy emphasis on decorations and flowers and invitations and linens and color schemes... it was all driving me crazy as a guy trying to put together a wedding plan that is simply fun and action oriented, while still allows for nice things.

I've attended many dozens of weddings over the years and I've kept an eye on what makes weddings enjoyable and memorable: keep it festive, keep guests involved, and make sure there is time for the happy couple to spend time with each of the guests. I never saw any correlation with the size of the party, the location, the decorations, even the food quality (and I'm a big foodie), with how successful and fun the wedding was. Given this perspective, I looked and looked for wedding planning advice in all the books and magazines and websites, hoping to find action oriented advice for having a festive wedding reception - frankly, I found little useful advice.

Finally, just three months before our upcoming wedding, I have found the book I really needed - on the recommendation of a wedding DJ friend (who lives and works in another state), I ordered Peter Merry's book, which I have found to be chock full of actionable ideas from an experienced wedding DJ/entertainment director. He focuses on the concept of entertainment and leaves decorations and other more frivolous things to the other books. He is a welcome voice, a rare male perspective in wedding planning books, that a planning groom, and presumably planning brides as well, needs.

I've already made adjustments to the reception agenda and found validation with some activity ideas we already had in place. Rest assured, there will be great food and many touches of elegance in the design of our wedding, but I am now more confident as ever we will have a truly festive wedding with Peter Merry's advice influencing our plan.

Many thanks to the author - the advice is easily 10 times worth the cover price of the book. I strongly recommend this book to anyone planning their wedding."

--Benny Choi from San Francisco, CA, getting married in July 2007
...posted April 22nd, 2007 on Amazon.com

The Best Wedding Reception Planner Ever!

"As not only an event coordinator, but a bride-to-be I found this book extremely helpful. After having experience as a wedding planner I didn't think that I needed any reading materials to help plan my reception. I'm so grateful to have received this book as a gift! There are so many awesome ideas and tips that I'm excited to use or create my own spin off.

Another nice thing about this is that it's broken down so it's really easy to find what you want. So even if you don't think you want to read all of it, it's not an issue to go through and find the things that you need the most guidance on.

Be sure to check this book out. It will be one of the best wedding planning tools that you can get!"

--Amy Korschot, event coordinator and bride-to-be
...posted April 30th, 2007 on Amazon.com

Lots of great info in this book...

"This book contains a lot of wonderful ideas for making your wedding reception uniquely your own. I had two main reasons for buying this book: one was that I wasn't sure what the "rules" were for all the do's and don't's and this book is a great help with all that; the other was that I was looking particularly for ways to keep children occupied and entertained during the festivities. While it wasn't a huge help in that area, the author does touch on it and offer some good suggestions. The section on resources in the back of the book, including website addresses, was particularly helpful. I can certainly recommend this book to anyone without reservation, although I don't think it's going to be the one and only book you'll need."

--D. Hagan from Arizona
...posted July 14th, 2007 on Amazon.com

Wow, a wedding help book that is helpful!

"I flipped through a couple of wedding help books that were not so helpful. This one, however, was given to me halfway through my planning process and it's too bad I didn't have it sooner. This book contains ideas that most people never think of. There is something for everyone in this book. The ideas are unique, creative and even keeps budget in mind! Great gift!"

--Munkers from Missouri
...posted August 25th, 2007 on Amazon.com

"This book suggests so many creative ways to make our wedding reception fun and unique.   There are smart tips for scheduling and timing all the events for our wedding day, as well as exciting ideas to add personality to make it our own. This book is so entertaining that we read it cover to cover in no time.  We just couldn't put it down!  Our wedding is going to be perfect. Thanks again to Mike Anderson of Creative Memories Entertainment for giving us this book!"

--Tamara from Sacramento
...Submitted via E-Mail to the Author on September 3rd, 2007

Peter Merry knows how to do Weddings

"My husband and I were blessed to have Peter Merry be the MC at our wedding. From the very start it became clear that Peter Merry was a master of wedding entertainment. He worked with us to create a wedding reception that is still talked about 3 years later. Through his guidance, we were able to make every guest feel special and honored and it truly enhanced the enjoyment of our special day.

As a client of Peter Merry's, I was excited to read his book and I have to say he is right on. This man knows his stuff and anyone looking to put together a reception that will be remember for years to come should look to him, and his book, for advice."

--Victoria (got married in May of 2004)
...posted September 20th, 2007 on Amazon.com

Extremely helpful and fun!

"Our DJ Mike Anderson of Creative Memories Entertainment gave us a copy and we love it! This book has given me so many useful tips and things to think about. I think our wedding would have been hectic had I not read this book! Things that seem simple like the arrangement of your tables were clearly thought out to make sure everyone has a good seat. Every bride should have a copy of this."

--Cari A. Scott from Sacramento
...posted November 19th, 2007 on Amazon.com

It truely is the best wedding reception ever... thanks for the great memories

"This book is a great buy! Our DJ - Greg Lowder recommended this book and it truely made our wedding a success. My parents friends wrote many thank you cards saying "it was the best wedding they ever attended." My wedding was a memorable event for everyone and I could not have put on a wonderful wedding ceremony and reception without the help of this book."

--what more can I say
...posted December 31st, 2007 on Amazon.com

"I want to thank you for the suggestions in your book. I'm Elizabeth Clay from Florence KY and I got your book for my 10 year anniversary wedding. The reception was great! So many people said it was the best reception they've ever been too! One even said they felt like they were watching an exciting movie wondering what fun thing would happen next.

The intro of the wedding party went wonderful. We selected a "dream team" of friends and family to be a part of the show. Each person had their own theme music and the bio form you sent me really came in handy for their introduction. The crowd laughed and really enjoyed themselves.

I don't have a copy of the surprise dance from the videographer yet but I have a few photos from the event. People stood and cheered for us as we danced. Especially when our son's joined in on the surprise dance!"

--Elizabeth Clay from Florence, KY
...Submitted via E-Mail to the Author on February 20th, 2008

Best advice for your money

"Of all the wedding books and websites I've seen, this book was the best. It really focuses on how to have a fun reception. It was a 1000 times more useful than another book about sending invitations or any of that. This book is a great investment and a fun read."

--Rebecca Lester from Portland, OR
...posted May 10th, 2008 on Amazon.com

Good for a Large Wedding with an MC/DJ; Not as Good for the Small Budget Wedding

"Useful if you are planning a large wedding reception. Very useful if you can afford to hire a super talented DJ/MC and/or a band (as Chapter 7 will scare you away from any other option).

However, for the "intimate wedding" or "destination wedding", like the one I am planning, the book is not as helpful. With a budget of <$10K, only about 40 guests attending, 1 bridesmaid and 1 best man, and guests who would leave a reception rather than run the risk of being singled out to play a game or dance, I did not find a lot of useful tips in the book.

On a positive note, there was one example in the book that included a wedding without dancing where they filled the time with games, instead (which wouldn't work for guests that are scared off by the threat of public humiliation). Plus, there were a couple of nice sentimental ideas such as the Unity Candle and the Anniversary Time Capsule, where the guests filled out advice cards to be placed into a metal container and opened on the couple's 25 wedding anniversary. But those ideas comprised about 3 pages of the book and many of the other suggestions needed an MC to execute.

I still think you can have the best wedding reception...ever! without having a large guest-list, large budget, dancing, games and an MC. Perhaps there are restaurants that specialize in this kind of thing? Perhaps providing icebreakers at the table? Perhaps, if the wedding is small, a large dining table that everyone sits at so everyone feels included? However, you won't find ideas for that kind of wedding in this book.

My advice to you if you are not planning to have a DJ/MC or you have a quiet family is to either avoid the book altogether, or go to a bookstore and flip through it for the occasional sentimental idea to incorporate into your ceremony."

--Eva
...posted August 3rd, 2008 on Amazon.com