My husband and I were married on April 9, 2005. Since Craig and I planned our wedding basically by ourselves, I relied on a lot of advice from bridal magazines. I first purchased Contemporary Bride, and I just wasn’t impressed. There were too many ads and not enough articles.
Then, I took Craig for a “Test Drive Your Honeymoon” at Sandals Royal Caribbean in Jamaica, sponsored by Bride magazine. I guess Bride and Modern Bride are under the same umbrella, as all of the brides-to-be were given current issues of each magazine. After flipping through the pages of the December 2004 issue of Modern Bride, I was hooked. I couldn’t wait until the next issue. Modern Bride became the guide for our wedding.
SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
Modern Bride Magazine comes out once every two months, and is full of ideas for your wedding. Subscribing is $11.97 for the year. That is just about $2 for every issue. Considering the newsstand price is $5.95, you’re saving a LOT of money by subscribing. This magazine is worth the subscription. We wouldn’t have been able to plan our wedding the way that we did without it.
CONTENT
There is much more to Modern Bride magazine than pretty, glossy advertisements. The articles aren’t just happy stories about experiences, nor are they unrealistic wedding ideas. They are actually helpful. For example, I cut out the article about the responsibilities for each of the mothers involved. It settled many arguments before they began.
You can also find tools for wedding planning. There was a checklist of things that needed to be done by the bride, groom and couple in one issue. I cut this out and used it until we left for our honeymoon. There was also a budget planner in one issue and a “to do list” for the honor attendants in another.
Perhaps you are like me and enjoy entering contests. Modern Bride magazine has contests to enter with a lot of winners. I won an H2O set from entering one of their contests. You don’t have to be a bride to enter the contests, and no purchase is necessary.
Modern Bride is localized to where it is distributed. A woman in New York wouldn’t get the same information advertisements as a woman in Chicago. It’s awesome.
WEBSITE
The Modern Bride website is located at www.modernbride.com, and it is also full of useful information, including links to other wedding-related websites. There are loads of pictures, a message board, contests, articles and much more. You don’t have to have a subscription to access the website.
ADVERTISEMENTS
Like other bridal magazines, Modern Bride has a lot of advertisements. However, as I mentioned earlier, these ads are region-specific. For example, the edition that I received was the Long Island edition. A friend of mine in Colorado got the Denver edition. The articles, contests and tools were the same, but the advertisements were very different.
The advertisements aren’t just pretty photos of the catering hall or dresses or flowers. They are actually informative. They fill you in on bridal shows that are going on in your area. Craig and I had our wedding reception at Sunset Harbour. I had attended a wedding there a few years back, but had forgotten about it. Not only was there a full-page ad in Modern Bride, but there was all sorts of info– Including a bridal show being held there. We went and booked the place that night.
I don’t know if Modern Bride has a higher standard for advertisements, but I found them a lot more helpful than other bridal magazines. Everything was organized so nicely, and, again, so informative. Any bride would find it a fantastic magazine.
IN CONCLUSION
If you are getting married or are involved in any way in an upcoming wedding, Modern Bride is a necessity. You can use it as much or as little as you want, but you will definitely use it. It is a must-have for todays Modern Bride.
