Love for Grown-Ups: The Garter Brides’ Guide to Marrying for Life When You’ve Already Got a Life

GB Author PhotoAnn Blumenthal Jacobs, Patricia Ryan Lampl and Tish Rabe are “The Garter Brides.”

Why do they call themselves The Garter Brides?

Because they all got married after the age of thirty-five, and each bride wore the same lucky garter at her wedding. The Garter Brides are quickly becoming an international sisterhood as these original Garter Brides have loaned their lucky wedding garter to a network of women all over the world who have also found love later in life.

To write their new book, LOVE FOR GROWN-UPS: The Garter Brides’ Guide to Marrying for Life When You’ve Already Got a Life (Harlequin; $16.95), the authors interviewed dozens of women who shared their stories and tips on handling everything from meeting Mr. Right to knowing if it’s “for real,” meeting friends, families and kids, dealing with exes and moving in together. As Ann says, “It’s about everything from furniture to finances.” Filled with wit, humor, and sound advice, LOVE FOR GROWN-UPS serves as both a guide and inspiration for women who know it’s never too late to fall in love.

Is getting married in your 30’s, 40’s or 50’s the same as getting married in your twenties? The Garter Brides will tell you the answer to that is “No!” As Tish says, “When you move in together at twenty-one, your stuff fits in a Volkswagen Bug. At forty-one, it’s a seven-passenger van.” As a mature couple you have careers, mortgages, maybe kids, friends, and an established way of life. Are you divorced or widowed and looking for a second chance at love? Does your partner have children from a previous relationship? This is all part of grown-up love. The Garter Brides are not therapists; they are real women who have been in the same exact situation as you.

LOVE FOR GROWN-UPS is their map to help you navigate the route to a successful relationship. The Garter Brides offer invaluable advice on all aspects of a relationship, from dating to marriage, with chapters like:

  • My biological clock is ticking! When and how do we have the “Do you want to have kids” conversation?
  • My boyfriend and I both have (and therefore are) exes. It’s been rocky for all of us. Can there be peaceful coexistence?
  • We live in different cities. Can this work?
  • What’s the best way to meet the kids and start to establish a relationship with them?
  • We’re thrilled to be moving in together, but there’s so much to think about: where to live, how to combine our households, our financial styles, and there are kids to consider. What should we be aware of before we become a couple?

The Garter Brides offer expert advice on how to combine two lives into one, including tips on connecting with your stepchildren, adoption, finances, where to relocate, creating holiday traditions, and planning your wedding. Ann, Pat, and Tish found love later in life, as did all of The Garter Brides—some for the first time and some again.  Pat says, “We passed along a lucky garter; now, with our new book, LOVE FOR GROWN-UPS, we’re passing along a blueprint to fulfilling and enduring happiness. We found it, and you can, too.”

For more information, visit http://www.facebook.com/TheGarterBrides.

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