The Wedding Dress

The Wedding Dress was a delightful read! Sometimes when you talk about a christian writer, it is prickly to incorporate God into the story, but in this book, adding God felt totally right and was smoothly done. Maybe I have changed, but it felt right and good to me. Our heroine, Charlotte Malone, owns a bridal dress shop, is engaged to Tim Rose and is not the typical bride to be. She drives up to Red Mountain to pray about the things bothering her and her upcoming marriage. But when she arrives, it is anything but peace and quiet. There is an auction going on. So when she takes a look around, a little man, wearing a purple shirt, is the auctioneer and he picks Charlotte out of the crowd....is the trunk that is welded shut calling out to her? Well it sure must have been...she ran the bid up to one thousand dollars and took the ugly trunk home with her. Shortly thereafter, she and Tim break up. He's just not sure he's ready to marry. There's no postponing til later, Charlotte feels it is over. When the man in the purple shirt shows up at her store asking if she has opened the trunk, she is not only leary of him, but indeed curious as to what lies in wait inside the trunk. Her friend Tim, agrees to help her open the trunk. Inside is the beautiful wedding gown with a mystery history. And the search begins for the history of the gorgeous gown, sewn with golden threads, never altered....always in style...and fits to the bride it is meant for. I loved this story. Ms Hauck did a phenomenal job of building her characters, three past brides and their men, their families and the history of the beautiful dress! Her story came full circle and Charlotte and Tim did too. This book would be a good book for a book club to read and discuss. I felt as if God had spoken to me through the characters and I enjoyed the read very much. Thank you for sharing Rachel Hauck! I was not disappointed with your book one bit!!!

This book pushes a lot of my romance-reader buttons. It has conflict, secrets, lead characters with integrity and faith, and a few characters and events that make things a bit more interesting on the way to happily ever after. Now, I'm not a huge fan of dual-timeline stories, and that might have tripped me up if the author hadn't so seamlessly woven THE dress throughout each of four brides stories. And along with the (sisterhood of the traveling) wedding dress that miraculously fits each bride without alteration, a certain odd gentleman in purple who seems to be in the right places at all the right times to give little nudges to those brides. While some of the characters (ok, mostly Tim) took me a bit to warm to, I instantly fell for Grace and her beau. There is something about encountering lively older characters in novels that just tickles me pink, and I have a definite fondness for 1930's stories. Ultimately, this is an unabashedly romantic novel. Romance that spreads across the decades and links four women in more ways than one. It is also very much a feel-good novel that also touches on prejudice, pride, grief, and faith. Having read the entire Royal Wedding series in quick succession last December, I once again enjoyed the author's writing voice in The Wedding Dress. Hauck's writing is consistent, pleasant, and inviting. I love how the faith of the characters is just out there, being lived and discussed, and I always enjoy seeing how she weaves in the supernatural element. Her characters are also consistent, unfortunately, in that they sometimes almost feel like watching the same set of actors trying to take on slightly different roles in a series of movies. An enjoyable, quick, and decidedly Southern read. 3/5 stars for sheer romance and enjoyable storylines. This review refers to a finished copy received from Thomas Nelson and Zondervan's Fiction Guild. No compensation was received. All opinions expressed are my own.

I loved this book so much that I have recommended it many times to others. I have always gotten positive feedback from those people who read it. The Wedding Dress was the story of how a dress was worn by four different women in different time periods and no one had to have it altered. This is a romantic and truly magical story. Charlotte Malone is the owner of Malone & Co., a popular bridal shop in Birmingham, Alabama. She wants to make each bride's wedding day very special starting with the right wedding gown. When it comes to her own wedding, she has some doubts. As she tries to pray and meditate about her situation on Red Mountain, her solitude is interrupted by activity of an estate sale at the Ludlow Estate where there is an auction going on to raise money for the poor. Charlotte finds herself pulled to the sale and eventually into bidding on a dull looking old trunk with the lock welded shut. The trunk is one hundred years old and she can't believe that she bought it. But what a treasure the trunk holds! When she gets the trunk open, she finds a beautiful wedding dress of a different time period but in pristine condition. This is a wonderful story of the lives of four different women from different times and life situations. Each person's life story is told and we see them individually but a thread runs through to link them all. We see much more than the story of a dress but we see God's love woven through the lives of the women and how He has a plan for us all. I highly recommend this special book.

I would say 2.5 to be completely honest, but I rounded up. The Wedding Dress can be summarized in two word. Fun. Forgettable. I finished the book because it did hold my interest as to what was going to happen, so at least there's that. But it was just not very well written. I felt the characters to be flat and one echoed the other-that is to say, no one had any specific personality, for the main character's personality, quirks, and ways of thinking also seemed to fit every other character in the book, with maybe some slight but insignificant variations. The characters are as generic as the title. Which I am SO disappointed in...The Wedding Dress? Really? You couldn't come up with something more clever? Entertaining and a very light read it's..."fun"... if you like books that are easy and whose conclusions are all wrapped up with a pretty little ribbon. Forgettable- Definitely won't find itself a permanent home on my bookshelf. I don't think I could enjoy it twice. I'm planning on donating it, and to be honest, after writing this review, I probably won't ever think of this book again.

The Wedding Dress by Rachel Hauck is a wonderful tale about 4 brides who all wore the same dress the day they were married. The story starts in 1912 and ends in the present. The dress was beautifully made and never wore out over the years. Mysteriously it fit each bride perfectly. Never went out of style. Emily Canton wore it in 1912 when she married Daniel Ludlow. Again in 1935 Mary Grace wore the dress when she married her sweetheart Thomas Talbot. Hillary Saltonstall was next in line to wear the dress on September the 8th , 1968 when she married Joel Miller before he left for Vietnam. Then we are taken to Charlotte Malone who is last to wear the wedding dress when she marries Tim Rose. Of coarse there's a story that goes with this dress that will capture your attention as you read though each page. You'll get to spend time with all 4 brides and get to know all of them. Each one has a special part in this story . Grab yourself a nice hot cup of tea, sit back and prepare yourself to be drawn into 4 different eras in time. If you like romance and stories about brides you will love The Wedding Dress. I enjoyed reading into the lives of each young lady and loved how Rachel blended the story and bought the 4 brides together before the end. I won a giveaway on Facebook by the Author and I chose The Wedding Dress by Rachel Hauck as my gift. I was not asked to do a review but because I enjoyed the book I wanted to do one. If you haven't already read this book I recommend it to you

I read "The Wedding Dress" first and then purchased the "The Wedding Shop" and enjoyed both books for what they are, a fictional love story with religious overtones. This was not, to me, a preachy religious book. Yes, as I said there were references of God and religious beliefs thrown in here and there, but it was not saturated through out the book. I usually read haunted house mysteries and they are less believable than the religious notations that others complained about in this book. I am not a religious person, but I believe in God. This book was a very good read and change of pace for me....I had no problem reading through the religious sentences any more than I had no problem reading about spirits and ghosts in my haunted house books. If you did not finish this book because of the brief religious parts than you missed out on a good story. I also thought it was well written and moved along at a good pace. The ending was well thought out and completed all the story lines in the book. I will continue to purchase other books by this author.

Rachel Hauck has been on of my favorite authors for a while now. Four women, four love stories, and one dress. This is a book takes the reader through four different strong women who all wear the same wedding dress for their weddings 100 years apart. You will enjoy this story of love and hope.

I previously read this title back when it was released in 2012 but had very little, if any memory of it since then. Reading it again was like for the first time - both riveting, mysterious and awesome all rolled into one. As the title suggests - The Wedding Dress is about yep a wedding dress but about four very different woman who the dress finds it’s possession in. Our present day Charlotte is almost propelled into purchasing an old battered trunk from a overly persuasive (if slightly hypnotic) auctioneer. Spending way more than she should have - she brings home a welding shut trunk weighing almost less nothing apart from the weight of itself. Once opened - the aforementioned wedding dress is revealed and so starts a dawning realisation that this tale is definitely a saga and will each previous owner of the dress will form an intricate portrait once revealed. The Wedding Dress could well fall into the typical chick lit genre and starts off very much that way but soon morphs into something far deeper and more satisfying. Each previous owner of the dress has a story unique to her history and encourage the reader to find out just how they all magically link together. And despite the different era’s and customs of each, the self same love story is told. I encourage anyone who loves a sweet yet satisfyingly deep narrative to give this one a go. You won’t be sorry you did.