title: Altared: Bridezillas, Bewilderment, Big Love, Breakups, and What Women Really Think About Contemporary Weddings
author: Colleen Curran
description: Curran solicits tart tales from 27 writers, normally willful and independent women, who, for the most part, have taken reluctant swan dives into the consumerist culture of the bridal industry. Contributors including Curtis Sittenfeld, Lisa Carver and Amy Sohn never thought they'd catch the bridal bug. Still, they each get lost in the fantasy but come out the other end with a meaningful realization. The essays delve into the fraught conversations, negotiations and neuroses around wedding vows, dress shopping, etiquette, registries and budgeting. Sticker shock is a common theme, among women who subvert the wedding industry with a DIY approach (Rory Evans topped cupcakes with handmade clothespin bride-and-groom figures), and others who pay a price despite saving money. Julie Powell's entertaining experience trying "to make a meal for hundreds into an expression of who you are" illuminated an incontrovertible equation: "hundreds of guests + unreasonable expectations + catering  billions of dollars = rubber chicken." Some of the more heartfelt pieces include Jennifer Armstrong's story of how she called off her wedding, and Lara Vapnyar's poignant recollection of a $16 gown and the leap of faith that marriage entails. Brides-to-be or women who've been there will easily see themselves in these true stories. <i>(May)</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text: _**“Maybe you didn’t think our marriage was real, but I did,” Jack said.**_
  
  Annie froze. “You just took off, leaving that stupid note. ‘When you come to
  your senses, you can join me.’ You’re supposed to be so good with women, Jack.
  Did you really think _that_ was going to make me fly off to the ends of the
  earth to be with you?”
  
  “You’re not like other women. You’re _Annie_.” Annie, his friend, who had
  stood beside him in a gaudy little wedding chapel and promised to be with him
  forever….
  
  “I wasn’t expecting to leave the country practically the minute I got married!
  I wasn’t expecting to get married at all! Then you got that call. Everything
  happened too fast.”
  
  “Look, Annie, we’ve got to get some things settled….”
  
  “You want a divorce….”
  
  “Divorce? I’m not here to ask you for a divorce. I’m here to claim the wedding
  night we never had.”
  
    
  
  Dear Reader,
  
  Happy New Year! Silhouette Intimate Moments is starting the year off with a
  bang—not to mention six great books. Why not begin wi