New Jersey Librarian Loans Wedding Dresses to Brides in Need

Choosing a wedding dress can be one of the most emotional and expensive parts of planning a wedding. And too often, that dress ends up in storage, never to be worn again.

Librarian Adele Puccio wants to give once-loved dresses a second chance.

In addition to her day job as director of the Maurice M. Pine Free Public Library in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, Puccio collects previously worn wedding dresses as a hobby.

But she is not just a curator; Puccio freely offers her dresses to any bride who asks, even her own wedding dress from 1985.

With a current inventory of over 100 wedding dresses, Puccio has seen a near-constant flow of brides-to-be visiting the library in hopes of saying yes to a gown among the stacks.

The number of dresses that have come out of here this year is incredible, she says.

Puccio's word-of-mouth collection became a neighborhood phenomenon after a local newspaper, TheStar-Ledger, published an article about Puccio's dress collection in February 2024.

After that, things exploded, Puccio says of the dress donations that started pouring in.

Like a miniature Kleinfeld Bridal, Puccio’s crowded office is lined with racks of tulle and lace. Before this spring, Puccio says she rarely had more than five to 10 dresses available at a time. Today, she receives daily donations from former brides across the country, as well as bridal boutiques hoping to contribute to the cause.

I've always loved vintage fashion, she says.

As a child, Puccio lived just a few blocks from Kleinfeld Bridal's original Brooklyn location, the iconic New York wedding dress destination of TLC fame, and seized any opportunity to visit the store.

While other girls her age were reading teen magazines, Puccio was flipping through the pages of BRIDES, not because she was dreaming of her wedding day, she said, but because she loved the dress designs that 'it contained.

When she started her collection 20 years ago, Puccio sourced her products from thrift stores and vintage boutiques. Sometimes she used the dresses as Halloween costumes, and she frequently gave them to local brides or loaned them through Shared Dream Dressesa Facebook group where brides can borrow wedding dresses for a fee.

Word of Puccio's collection began to spread after she helped Estefani Hernadez Soler, a local librarian, find her dream dress for her wedding in May 2023.

Someone told him, 'Hey, go see Adèle, she has dresses,'” Puccio recalled of being introduced to Soler.

Soler chose a 70s sleeved dress trimmed with lace for her wedding, which took place in New Milford Public Library.

“She was lovely,” Puccio said. “I mean, it was a '70s dress. It was beautiful.

Since then, dress donors and newlyweds have shared personal photos and stories of their weddings with Puccio.

One of these dresses, the very pretty Maggie Sottero, belonged to a woman who died a few years after her marriage. The woman's mother donated her daughter's wedding dress to Puccio after hearing about his collection on the radio.

She heard that and she said, 'That's what I want to do with my daughter's dress,'” Puccio recalls.

Puccio, who married her late husband in 1985, even donated her own wedding dress to the collection. The dress was later chosen by a bride while Puccio was out of the office, but she doesn't mind.

“He should live again,” she said. It's better than sitting in a closet for all these years.

Puccio's ever-growing collection is a welcome lifeline for brides who struggle to find a dress within their budget. Although she never asks for anything in return, she has received some memorable recognition.

A Polish grandmother from a nearby town picked out a white satin dress from the 1990s to mail to her granddaughter in Poland, she said. She was so happy she came back to the library with a tray of pierogies.

Library staff and patrons have become accustomed to seeing brides parade their clothing options through the library hallways.

Once someone wears a dress, the ladies in traffic come to comment on it, and sometimes customers come too, Puccio says.

As Puccio's collection continues to garner buzz, dress donations threaten to overwhelm her office, forcing her to install additional racks. Due to the high demand, Puccio now asks brides and dress donors to make an appointment before stopping by.

Puccio is not overly concerned with alterations, or even with the recovery of the dresses. The dresses are simply put back on the rack almost as soon as they leave.

“There are probably 10 more dresses that people have dropped off at my house that I haven’t brought in yet because there’s no room,” she said. “It’s just great.”