Mother of the Bride

--The high cost of wedding cakes: "I could have had a lifetime supply of Entenmann's chocolate doughnuts!"

--Bridesmaid dresses: "What do five girls-one short, one tall, one buxom, one flat, one who gave birth a month ago-have in common? A bridesmaid's dress they hate."

--Mother-of-the-bride dresses: "I tried on green velvet. A Rodney Dangerfield line came to me: 'If that dress had pockets, you'd look like a pool table.' The dress had pockets."

--And, finally, the sight of her daughter walking down the aisle: "My daughter was Cinderella, Snow White, Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, and Jacqueline Kennedy. But better."

Gingy looks at the bride-to-be and sees the teenager who wanted Bo Derek braids, the little girl she taught to dance to the tune of "Me and My Shadow," the beautiful baby, the miracle she gave birth to decades earlier. And now, en route to the aisle, their relationship is tested in ways Gingy never imagined.

Beckerman simply and brilliantly describes the highs and lows of life with an adult daughter. What emerges is a poignant and telling story.

about Ilene Beckerman Ilene Beckerman was nearly sixty when she began her writing career. Her articles have appeared in many places, including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Ladies’ Home Journal; she has judged a People magazine’s “Best and Worst Dressed” issue; and her books have been translated into German, Japanese, French, and Portuguese. She travels the country giving her funny and wise talks to large audiences. “Sometimes,” she says, “I feel like Grandma Moses—she didn’t start until late in life either—but I try not to look like her.” More about the author