“When the opportunity for celebrating knocks, answer the door and offer it some champagne!” says Karen Bussen. Author of the bestselling “Simple Stunning” wedding series, Bussen now directs her expert’s eye to a more intimate kind of festivity: the at-home party. Her simple stunning credo, though, remains the same: Create menus featuring wonderful ingredients in no-fuss, crowd-pleasing preparations; combine homemade and store-bought items in fresh, elegant presentations; tailor colors, tableware, and lighting for visual impact; and limit effort, expense, and waste.
The book details 12 complete plans for four different kinds of parties—cocktail gatherings, casual suppers, formal dinners, and daytime get-togethers. Each plan includes food and drink menus (with recipes) as well as decor and music suggestions. Following Bussen’s advice, you’ll delight your guests while showcasing your personal style—which is what great parties are all about.
Karen Bussen is a well-known New York–based wedding planner and the author of five books in STC’s “Simple Stunning” wedding series. She has been featured on Inside Edition and other TV programs, and she was the cooking and entertaining expert on the DIY Network’s Home Made Easy.
The three biggest trends in weddings are simplicity, personalization, and colour! Wedding designer and expert Karen Bussen focuses on these elements as she shows couples how to design their own weddings without going crazy or broke. Simple Stunning Weddings is the first wedding design book to focus on the WHERE of the event. Location is the first and most important decision; everything else flows from it. Bussen then shows how to create unifying themes with colour, flowers, and personal touches; how to talk to vendors; how to decide where to spend the wedding budget; how to adapt the design for every budget – for example, by changing tablecloths from silk to cotton; striking flower arrangements that use only one or two flower types, which can be a significant cost saving; and advising the reader when it is actually faster, safer, and less expensive to hire someone else to do a job than to tackle it oneself.
“Flowers are love’s truest language”: so wrote journalist Park Benjamin in the 19th century. The sentiment remains just as compelling today. As every bride-to-be knows, the right flowers are a fundamental expression of the perfect wedding. 
Of the many celebrations surrounding a contemporary wedding, the wedding shower is especially personal—and especially meaningful. As its name implies, it’s the occasion when friends and family gather to “shower” the bride—or couple—with love, laughter, tokens of affection, and heartfelt wishes for the future. It intensifies the excitement about the big day to come. And because it’s more intimate and less formal than other wedding-related events, the shower uniquely carries the signature of the friend who hosts it. Bringing together all the elements that make for a successful wedding shower—one that’s memorable for everyone involved—is no small task, however. Selecting the right theme (elegant tea, homey brunch, swanky cocktail fête?) and then deciding on the guest list, designing the invitations, creating the menu, and picking out the decorations all require imagination and careful planning. 
Revised and updated, Karen Bussen’s bestselling Simple Stunning Wedding Organizer is filled with invaluable insight, planning tools, and tips. This organizer leads couples through the whole process, helping them create a tension-free wedding for any taste, location, or budget. Six tabbed sections, six large pockets, and two sheets of business card holders give brides a place to neatly stash every kind of information, sample, or swatch. With an elegant new design, this binder will undoubtedly remain a keepsake long after the last thank-you note has been checked off the list.
Here comes the bride! In this latest volume in Karen Bussen’s “Simple Stunning” series, the most important woman at a wedding takes her rightful place—center stage.
What’s the preferred way of wording your invitation? How should guests at the wedding dinner be seated? What do you say to people who ask to bring their (uninvited) children to the reception—or, scarier still, to your prospective mother-in-law when she picks out the World’s Ugliest Dress to wear on your big day?