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My Wedding Dress explores the wedding outfit as a touchstone garment in women’s lives. In the tradition of Dropped Threads, this collection offers twenty-six true stories from well-known writers and fresh new literary voices. These are intimate stories about relationships; not just those between men and women, but between women and their mothers, friends and children. And, of course, with their wedding attire – a relationship that is sometimes simple, sometimes complex, but always fascinating in what it tells us about individual lives and aspirations. Some of the tales are humorous – the bride whose skin is dyed fuchsia on her wedding night or the woman whose shopping-savvy aunt takes her to New York’s garment district. Some are romantic – the woman who puts on her dress eight years after her wedding only to be caught by her husband when he comes home early from work or the quickie immigration wedding that turned into the real thing. Some are devastating – the bride who loses her mother to illness only days before her wedding or the woman whose mother tells of being kidnapped by her future husband. And some are revealing – the woman who wears her first wedding dress for her initiation ceremony into a convent and her second to marry her beloved; the dress that waited patiently in a shop window and then hidden in a box on a closet shelf; the same-sex wedding at age eighty; the thrift shop wedding dress that gets used for everything but a wedding. All are honest, personal and profoundly moving. As Anne Laurel Carter explains in her introduction, the pieces “fell easily” into four categories, so that’s how the book is organized. “Something Old” looks at how traditions like honouring one’s ancestors affected wedding dress choices, from a grandmother’s gift to a father’s old leather jacket, but also at how such traditions can play a role in ways you least expect. The pieces in “Something New” focus on dreams for the future, whether that means breaking away from the expectations of one’s family or choosing/creating a wedding dress (and a future) on your own. In “Something Borrowed,” writers tell of all the reasons behind borrowing (or trying to borrow!) dresses, for whatever reason, and “Something Blue . . . Or Peach . . . Or Striped . . . Or Floral . . .” looks at exactly that–the non-traditional choices women have made, and why. These stories re-create the range of emotions that are invested in dresses and wedding days: confidence, optimism, hesitation, fear, fury and hope. When you work away at the seams, even the simplest of wedding outfits reveals all manner of memories and meanings. And whether you’ve been married or not, the stories in My Wedding Dress will have you looking back with new eyes on your own life, and exploring what the phrase “my wedding dress” means to you. Contributors to My Wedding Dress: Joanne Arnott Anita Rau Badami Adwoa Badoe Sandra Campbell Lorna Crozier Rebecca Cunningham Laurie Elmquist Alisa Gordaneer Jessica Ruth Harris Kathleen Boyle Hatcher Rosemary Hood Michele Landsberg Mary T. Malone Jenny Manzer Ami McKay Jane Munro Margaret Goudie Parsons Gianna Patriarca Elyse Pomeranz Edeet Ravel Kerri Sakamoto Ilana Stanger-Ross Darla Tenold Jamie Zeppa Foreword by Stevie Cameron Afterword by Amy Cameron Edited by and with contributions from Susan Whelehan and Anne Laurel Carter