Adele Puccio, director of Maurice M. Pine Free Public Library in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, comes by her wedding dress obsession honestly.
“When I was a kid, my great-aunt was the buyer at [famous New York bridal boutique] Kleinfeld’s, so I used to go over and look at all the dresses,” she says. “Other people were buying Seventeen; I was buying Brides.”
Decades later, Puccio’s passion now manifests itself in a rotating collection of vintage and modern bridal gowns, which she stores in her library office and loans to any bride who asks. Community members have donated most of the 100-plus dresses on offer, though Puccio sometimes nabs gowns from Freecycle or Goodwill if she spots a good one. Nor is her own wedding dress spared from the collection. Married for 34 years, the widowed Puccio has gladly loaned out the gown she wore at her 1985 nuptials.
While the program uses no library funds, Puccio does get help with the collection from staff members, especially when brides are trying on dresses in her office. “They walk out, and whatever staff member who’s available to comment usually does,” she says. “Even Art [in circulation], who’s in his 70s. He’ll come over and go, ‘I love that. You look so sweet.’”
Most of the brides who borrow dresses from the collection don’t return them. Puccio isn’t bothered. “I do tell them, if they don’t want to bring it back, pass it along,” she says. “Just keep it going.”
