Books for grooms

If you’re going to buy a book on etiquette to help you plan your wedding, get this one. Debrett’s is the king of etiquette guides and you won’t find a more authoritative source: these guys have two hundred years of publishing history behind them.

This book covers customs and manners for life in general but has a substantial section dealing with weddings. This answers just about every question you could possibly have - the legalities, different religious traditions, the responsibilities of each party including bride, groom, and parents, making the speeches, and much more.

Books for Grooms

This book combines humour with some very practical tips on getting married. It takes you through the whole planning process from proposal to the honeymoon. It covers many of the topics on this website, only in more detail.

This is well worth four or five quid of any groom’s money, even if you just leave it lying around to get some brownie points from your fiancee.

The Bloke's Guide to Getting Hitched

Debrett's New Guide to Etiquette and Modern Manners

The Groom's Secret Handbook

The subtitle of this book - How not to screw up the biggest day of her life - tells you everything you need to know. Again this book takes you through the whole planning process from start to finish. It’s also hilarious, so you’ve got an incentive to keep reading.

There’s a lot of advice on this website about wedding planning, but the wedding is the easy part. Building a successful marriage is a lot harder. This helpful book is a goldmine of information. It is based on a survey of men across the US and draws out some interesting conclusions. It also features real-life stories and practical advice. This book is a good investment for any man starting out on married life.

The Secrets of Happily Married Men

The author of this book offers you “Eight Ways to Win Your Wife's Heart Forever”, and he’s a professor of psychiatry, so he know’s what he’s talking about. This book is undoubtedly written from the male perspective: it’s packed full of useful lists, concrete examples and practical suggestions. It’s hard to put down, and when you finish reading, you’ll be a better man for it. There aren’t many books you can say that about.

The Engaged Groom

The author of this book, Doug Gordon, has a sensible approach: modern grooms are often expected to play a large role in the planning process, so play to your strengths. This book is aimed at helping you to choose what interests you and works well with your talents. If it’s not picking out the table cloths to match the flowers, than it could be working on the menu or the invitations or even designing the wedding website.

The Clueless Groom's Guide

A useful book with a chatty style, author Peter Van Dijk welcomes you to the world of of china patterns, ice swans, and boutonnieres, and gives tips to help you get through the many decisions your bride-to-be will pretend to want your opinion on. Learn how and where to pop the question (and when to cue the mariachi band) and why engagements of over two years are justified only by extended commitments to the armed forces and/or unusually long jail sentences.