Book excerpt: The author of A Practical Wedding offers a no-nonsense wedding planner, with all the tools, tips, and strategies to get the celebration you want, on a budget you can actually afford Whether you're newly engaged or haven't quite made anything official yet, but you know you want to spend your lives together, you're going to need help planning your wedding. When you're ready to take a deep breath and start, this is the book you want--need--to have. From figuring out what you really want--as opposed to what everyone else thinks you should want--to helping you keep an eye on the ceremony itself and the vows, Meg Keene, founder of apracticalwedding.com, covers all the essentials. With checklists (such as flowers, food, final venue walk-through) and key spreadsheets (guest list and seating chart, budget, venue search, and more), A Practical Wedding Planner helps you: Set a budget--and stick to it Choose a venue: traditional, non-traditional, and everything in between Hire good vendors and keep your friendors (and tells you why DIY doesn't always save money) Figure out catering, rentals, and everything else Pinterest forgot to tell you Reality-check wedding dér Create and write a ceremony that really represents both of you Get everyone to show up...and have a good time