Wedding Bell Blues: 100 Years of Our Great Romance with Marriage

Love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage, as the classic croon... But in twentieth-century America--hang on tight--the horses have run wild and it's one bumpy ride! Welcome to the world of Wedding Bell Blues, a romp through our endless fascination with that most august of domestic institutions: marriage. Celebrated (and bemoaned) in every medium imaginable, weddings and marriage are as much a part of life as birth, death, and taxes. Hundreds of nostalgic images, from advertisements to magazine covers to movie posters, display the full range of romance and allure of actual and fictional brides and grooms. Seasoned advice from the likes of Archie Bunker to turn-of-the-century marriage manuals lend a note of unsolicited, and often absurd, guidance to the uninitated. Whether you're already hitched, have been, or vow never to be, tying the knot will hardly look the same again.