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.
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  ary
  
  
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  agdalene
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Beloved of the Bridegroom
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Jewel Adams
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright
  
  
  ©
  
  
  2021 Jewel Adams
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  All Rights Reserved.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Cover design by Germancreative
  
  
  
  
  
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  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever,
  whether by graphic, visual, electronic, film, microfilm, tape recording, or
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  The thoughts and opinions shared in this work are strictly my own,
  unaffiliated with any other group or persons. Though this story is fiction,
  the people, as well as many of the events are real.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I leave it to you, the reader, to discover the sacred truths for yourself.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  evertheless, neither is the