"One dress. Four women. An amazing destiny. Charlotte Malone is getting married. Yet all is not settled in the heart of Birmingham's chic bridal boutique owner. Charlotte can dress any bride to perfection-except herself. When she discovers a vintage mint-condition wedding gown in a battered old trunk, Charlotte embarks on a passionate journey to discover the women who wore the gown before her. Emily in 1912. Mary in 1939. And Hillary in 1968. Each...

"Francesca Delaney's wedding gown shop has two necessary rules to guarantee success: 1. Never covet a dress 2. Never sell a dress that led to a doomed marriage. These two rules have helped Francesca build her reputation as a woman with a knack for matching a bride-to-be with the perfect gown. At Fran's shop every gown has its history, and the dresses seem to whisper their secrets to Fran, telling her the perfect match. But Francesca breaks both these...

The incredible untold story of how Ann Lowe, a Black woman and granddaughter of slaves, rose above personal struggles and racial prejudice to design and create one of America's most famous wedding dresses of all time for Jackie Kennedy. 1953, New York City. Less than a week before the society wedding of the year where Jacqueline Bouvier will marry John F. Kennedy, a pipe bursts at Ann Lowe's dress shop and ruins eleven dresses, including the expensive...

"London, 1947: Besieged by the harshest winter in living memory, burdened by onerous shortages and rationing, the people of postwar Britain are enduring lives of quiet desperation in spite of their nation's recent victory. Among them are Ann Hughes and Miriam Dassin, embroiderers in the famed Mayfair fashion house of Norman Hartnell. Together they forge an unlikely friendship, but their bond, along with their nascent hopes for a brighter future, are...

"Two years after Grace Kelly's royal wedding, her iconic dress is still all the rage in Paris-and one replica, and the secrets it carries, will inspire three generations of women to forge their own paths in life and in love. Paris, 1958: Rose, a seamstress at a fashionable atelier, has been entrusted with sewing a Grace Kelly-look-alike gown for a wealthy bride-to-be. But when, against better judgment, she finds herself falling in love with the bride's...

"Maya Jackson has worked for Laura Whitcomb, Inc, a renowned New York City bridal gown brand for years and dreams of becoming Head Designer. She has the talent, she just needs a chance to showcase her unique style. Due to an illness, she's always prioritized her career over her personal life until Maya's father fractures his hip and she returns to Charleston, SC. While home for only a few months, she's thrilled to find an opportunity at the local...

"Zoey's aunt lets Zoey in on a very big secret: She and her fiancé are throwing a surprise wedding! She asks Zoey to make the wedding dress and be a junior bridesmaid. Zoey is so excited about the wedding she could burst--but can't say a word to anyone except her dad and Marcus. At school, Zoey has some new sewing competition: A boy in her new Home Economics unit is sewing circles around her, and is a strong competitor for a class sewing contest....

Jane has the kind of selflessness that everyone looks for in a friend. Lately the perennial bridesmaid has begun to feel as if something is missing in her life. Kevin is a local newspaper reporter who spots Jane racing between two receptions - one in Manhattan and the other in Brooklyn. He quickly surmises that her quirky tale may be just the story to get him into the big leagues. Jane butts heads with Kevin just as her younger sister, Tess, shows...

Lifelong best friends Liv and Emma have shared a dream since childhood. Each yearns for the perfect June wedding at the famed Plaza Hotel in New York City. Both find themselves engaged at the same time and go to a wedding coordinator to set up the perfect wedding. A clerical error puts them both down for nuptials on the same day at the same time. One of them will have to switch the date. More than the bouquet goes flying when these desperate brides-to-be...

From the romance of its evolution to the splendor of its design, the wedding dress is unlike any other garment, a talisman from a fantasy world, the manifestation of dreams coming true. This book draws on wedding garments in the V&A's renowned collection along with photographs, letters, memoirs, and newspaper accounts to explore the history of the white wedding dress and the traditions that have developed around it from 1700 to today, when designers...