My Wedding Dress: True-life Tales of Lace, Laughter, Tears and Tulle is a collection of over two dozen short stories that focus (for the most part) on how the authors came to find their wedding dresses.
Stories vary from tales about hand-me-down dresses to custom creations to even a piece about the dress worn by a “bride of Christ”. Written mainly by Canadian novelists, journalists and poets, the stories are well-written, honest and provide plenty of perspective on weddings, marriage and of course the pressures of finding the perfect dress.
However, some of the stories are a bit condescending. Several of the authors make it very clear that they’re intelligent, independent women who never thought they’d get married and who look down on big weddings and their big dresses. In fact, it almost seems like some of the authors are trying to out “indie” each other, explaining in detail how they exist outside of the mainstream and how this was reflected in their garment choice; in this book, it’s the girl who wants to go to Kleinsberg and pick out a gown who’s the freak.
Thankfully, since this is a collection of short stories, you can easily skip through it or put it down for a few days and then return to it. Just gloss over the more irritating ones and spend your time on the truly good pieces, like the one by Margeret Goudie Parsons about her “sophisticated suit”. Set in Labrador in the ‘50s, it’s a sad though fascinating read.
And yes, the book does contain pictures of all of the dresses described though more often then not, the written description is more attractive and interesting then what you see in the accompanying photos.
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