One Perfect Day (2007)

VERY ENGAGING Mead lifts the veil off the big business of weddings in her funny, insightful One Perfect Day

As any bride can tell you, it's hard not to get wrapped up in the romance — or commercial insanity — of planning a wedding. One Perfect Day, Rebecca Mead's informative, hilarious book about the $161 billion biz explains why: ''The foremost product peddled by the wedding industry is the notion that a wedding, if done right, will provide fulfillment of a hitherto unimagined degree, and will herald a similarly flawless marriage and a subsequent life of domestic contentment.'' One warning: Mead's globe-trotting research (she visits a Chinese gown-making factory and a Disney pavilion where couples use Cinderella's coach to tie the knot) can be so appalling, some readers might opt to elope. A-