The Wedding instantly became a bestseller upon its release in 2003. Fans of The Notebook flocked to bookstores for Sparks's long awaited sequel to the love story of Noah and Allie Calhoun. Readers who love his novels have expressed satisfaction with this installment of Sparks's view of love and life. However, those who find his novels too sugary-sweet and his characters unconvincing have expressed similar criticism about The Wedding. Nonetheless, even those who are nonplussed by Sparks's works in general do agree that The Wedding fulfills readers' expectations.

For the most part, critics who do not like the themes of Sparks's other novels, likewise do not like The Wedding. Critics such as Carmela Ciuraru of The Washington Post and Yvonne Crittenden from the Ontario Windsor Star, brand The Wedding as a sappy, unrealistic love story. Crittenden refers to the novel as a "saccharin novel about marriage [that...