The Becker's Bridal Story

There's a very old saying: "Every time a marriage takes place, a new world is created."In 2012, does this sound impossibly quaint? Does it sound na?vely romantic?We all know about the odds of divorce today. We've seen how little the marriage vows can mean in the Kardashian age. Indeed, a recent Pew Research poll shows that 39 percent of Americans now believe marriage is becoming "obsolete." That's up from 28 percent who felt that way in 1979.And yet, at a small-town bridal shop in the American Midwest, I found reasons for hope -- and I found a measure of magic.
As a journalist and the father of three girls, I set out last year to write a nonfiction book reflecting on the love we all wish for our daughters. I recognized that I needed a place to set the book, a place with great emotion. I considered many possibilities. Maybe I'd visit maternity wards, dance studios, daddy-daughter date nights, or spas where mothers and daughters go to bond. But then my wife suggested I find a bridal shop. Maybe that would be a place to set my story. "There's something about a wedding dress..." she said.I was willing to go anywhere in the country to find the right store and the right stories. My search ended in the tiny, one-stoplight town of Fowler, Mich., a place with just 1,100 residents -- and 2,500 wedding dresses. The town believes it has more bridal gowns per capita than anywhere in the United States.
Fowler is home to Becker's Bridal, a 77-year-old institution on Main Street. It's been run for all those years by the same family -- a great-grandmother, grandmother, mother and daughter.The store is housed in a stone structure that was once a bank, and since 1934, more than 100,000 brides have made a pilgrimage there. After they select the dress they think might be "the one," they're invited to step inside what used to be the old bank vault. A ten-foot-by-eight-foot space on the second floor, with mirrors designed to carry a bride's image into infinity, it's called "The Magic Room," and with good reason.
Brides and their mothers routinely melt into tears in the Magic Room, as they reflect on all the moments that led them to that dress, that room, that moment. Fathers are sometimes overcome with emotions, too. They excuse themselves and head out for a walk on Main Street, where they can be seeing wiping their eyes and blowing their noses.