Grown-Up Brides
I coined the phrase “grown-up bride” over 25 years ago and then created a store for her! At the time, this new kind of bride—a cultural phenomenon—had no services that spoke a grown-up woman’s language or that catered to her unique outlook and needs for planning an elegant, distinctive wedding. My store in Atlanta became nationally known in the 1980s and 90s, not only for featuring fashionable, one-of-a-kind dresses, but also because we emphasized a woman’s rite-of-passage as ageless.

No matter a bride’s age, or if she has been previously married, rites-of-passage are designed to be a ‘coming out time’—stretching her into a wiser version of herself. Rituals of the wedding ceremony can be even more profound for “grown-up brides”—women discovering the depths of their own essence, exploring life experiences of heart connections and deepening relationships.

Here are stories of three gloriously grown-up and beautiful brides!