Weddingbee Blog

Weddingbee interviewed Doug Gordon about his new book for grooms titled The Engaged Groom.

1) Why did you decide to write The Engaged Groom?

The book grew out of a blog I kept, www.planetgordon.com, that documented my year-long engagement and 2004 wedding. I wrote about some of my frustrations with our own wedding planning and with the wedding industry in general and started to get a lot of feedback from readers. Guys weren’t exactly writing in with their stories of picking out flowers or decorations, but they did have more technical questions about budgets, wedding licenses, and schedules.

I wrote the book that I would have wanted to find when I was engaged. I’m not an idiot, a dummy, or clueless, but most of the existing books for guys talk down to them and tell them to get out of the way. But that’s not realistic. A guy isn’t clueless if he doesn’t know when save-the-dates go out. Why is that anything any man who hasn’t been married before should know? So I decided to provide a guidebook for well-meaning guys like myself. I also wanted to make it a little funny, to take some of the edge off of reading a book about wedding planning.

2) Are grooms buying your book, or are brides/mothers/sisters/friends buying it?

I don’t have any hard data on this, but based on anecdotal evidence from friends and family, I’d say that a lot of guys are getting the book as a gift from their moms, future in-laws, sisters, and even brides. Guys don’t exactly rush out after they get engaged to buy every last wedding book the way some women do. Interestingly, I’ve had some women tell me that they read the book before giving it to their grooms and they thought it was as helpful as any book written for brides!

3) Any words of wisdom for grooms-to-be out there?

Don’t think that you have to get involved in the stereotypically “girly” elements of wedding planning. You can avoid flowers and table linens if you want, but jump in with the menu, making a budget, or building a wedding website. Tasting cake samples is a job I was happy to take on. Also, don’t underestimate the fun of the electronic scanning gun when you go to register. James Bond would be lucky to have a gadget like that.

Mostly my advice is to relax and have fun! There are worse things in the world than having to plan a giant party.

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Thanks Doug! His new book The Engaged Groom can be purchased at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.