Since the Civil Partnership Act was passed in 2004, over 16,000 gay relationships have been registered in the UK. As queues of couples wanting to sign on the dotted line shows no sign of shortening, it was only a matter of time before somebody like Nicola Hill turned up with an indispensable gay wedding guide, and here it is: A Very Pink Wedding.

Hill provides a simple and straightforward step-by-step guide to "planning your perfect day." This amounts to information about the Civil Partnership, a timeline, choosing the right venue, budgeting advice, speeches, quirky ideas and contact details for a huge number of useful resources.

Hill is clearly the person to be writing a book like this because she is the owner of gay-friendly-wedding-venues.com and what she doesn't know about buttonholes and confetti is not worth knowing at all. As someone who has had a straight and a gay wedding herself it's reassuring to know that the author can walk the walk as well as talk the talk when it comes to planning someone's big day.

A number of things make A Very Pink Wedding such a useful book. The first is that it's British. This means that the language, the wedding conventions and especially the resources are tailored to UK readers, many of whom are probably tired of having to translate information from the plethora of gay wedding guides published in the US. At last we have a book for us!

In addition, Hill's no-nonsense tone is pitch perfect, her book is full of ideas but never overwhelms and the combined effect is akin to having an older sister hold your hand and guide you through the process. Hill's contextualising information about the Civil Partnership Act is a thoughtful inclusion, as is her use of first person accounts throughout.

Good as this book is, there is room for improvement. Some of the quirkier tips in A Very Pink Wedding strike this reviewer as a little bit naff, and could date the book quickly.

Secondly, what's lacking in A Very Pink Wedding is romance - although the more cynical reader might contend that romance is little more than very hard work, meticulous planning and outrageous expense! But there is not enough information here for couples who want to combine a Civil Partnership ceremony with some kind of spiritual or meaningful element.

The Civil Partnership Act is gloriously secular and a hatred of gay people means that most religious institutions will not tolerate a same-sex wedding, but there is clearly a need amongst some gay couples to present and celebrate a deeper meaning to their ceremony, to address the core messages of love, togetherness and community.

A Very Pink Wedding, by Nicola Hill
Published by: Collins
Released: 6 August 2007
ISBN: 9780007257423

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