Wedding Stories

by Diana Secker Tesdell (editor)

The stories collected here--including such gems as Stephen Crane's "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky," O. Henry's "The Marry Month of May," F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Bridal Party," Joy Williams's "The Wedding," and Lorrie Moore's "Thank You For Having Me", encompass comic wedding mishaps, engagements broken and mended, honeymoon adventures, and scenes both heartwarming and heartbreaking. There are glamorous weddings in Paris and New York, and more eccentric ones in the Wild West and on a remote island beach. There are nervous brides, forgetful grooms, meddling guests, interrupted nuptials, second thoughts, and second chances. Above all, there are all kinds of people - young and old, rich and poor, divorced and widowed, with or without children - joining together in the age-old quest for matrimonial happiness.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

408 pages, Hardcover

Published April 6, 2017

Reviews

[Klaudija Berzina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good to read if you're trying to understand marriage and the sentiment (sometimes idolised, sometimes true) behind it. A great way to go in depth on different motivations and outlooks on marriage, relationships between two people and this ceremony's relationship to society. The whole collection in general is extremely romanticised and seems to have the notion of "happily ever after", however, there are stories that are exceptions to this and there are stories that play out "happily ever after" in a way that seems real, raw and true because it's "happily ever after" in a way that is human nature - not everything is great but it is working out.

[Ana Rancel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a cute collection of scenes from different published books that fit the theme of weddings. I think it's a nice celebration of different authors and weddings, but it was really hard to get through it. It has old English so it was hard to understand fully. Also, because each chapter only has a single scene from other books, there's no plot and no connection to the characters. It was pretty pointless to read. Sorry to say I won't be reading it again.

[Debbie Slaughter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This little book is delightful. The stories are short and humorous; leaving you wanting more of each character, but excited to move on to the next story. This is a book to leave on the nightstand and read one every few days. I love this series and hope to collect more of them.

[Space Station Mir · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent compilation of wedding stories from classic and contemporary, mostly American authors including A.A. Milne, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Kelly Link--recommended to newlyweds, lovers of weddings, or lovers of American short stories. It's a good way to get a sense of the historic and modern culture of weddings in the U.S. and also a sense of particular authors.