Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    All Dressed Up in Love: A March Wedding Story
    All Dressed Up in Love: A March Wedding Story
    All Dressed Up in Love: A March Wedding Story
    Ebook123 pages1 hour

    All Dressed Up in Love: A March Wedding Story

    By Ruth Logan Herne

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Tara walks into Elena’s Bridal and finds her dream job—and a handsome man to match.

    A third-year law student, Tara Simonetti just needs a job to pay the bills and put food on the table. After her father’s untimely death, she’s determined to give her small hometown what he didn’t have: a good, honest lawyer, but law school isn’t cheap. When she answers a want ad that leads her to Elena’s Bridal one blustery morning, she feels like she’s died and gone to heaven. All of the organza, gowns, and pearls she could ever imagine—her dream job, indeed.

    To complicate matters, hotshot lawyer Greg Elizondo is working at the shop, trying to keep it afloat after his mother’s passing. He’s kind and more handsome than Tara cares to admit, but his laser-focus on the corporate ladder makes him the wrong match for her.

    As they work to save the shop from its impending closing, their feelings begin to grow. But with Tara bound for the valleys of northern Pennsylvania and Greg set on New York City, all of the outside circumstances scream “NO.”

    In the midst of juggling Bridezillas, wedding dress orders, and an upcoming gala for the shop, their attraction deepens, along with the reality that their goals are pulling them in two separate directions. No matter how Tara does the math, it doesn’t add up. Can God orchestrate their desires and goals into one happy ending?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherZondervan
    Release dateFeb 24, 2015
    ISBN9780310396161
    Author

    Ruth Logan Herne

    Award-winning novelist Ruthy Logan Herne has written over 40 novels and novellas and pinches herself to see if this is real! She lives on a pumpkin farm in Western New York where the long, snowy winters allow Ruthy time to find a quiet spot and write her beautiful, critically acclaimed stories. With over twenty Love Inspired books to her credit, Ruthy loves to connect with her readers on facebook and through her newsletters. Visit ruthloganherne.com or contact at: loganherne@gmail.com

    Read more from Ruth Logan Herne

    Related to All Dressed Up in Love

    Titles in the series (100)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Christian Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      A Perfect Wedding

      Apr 6, 2020

      A Perfect Wedding
      5 min read

    • Article

      Mattie Jackson Selecman

      Nov 1, 2021

      Mattie Jackson Selecman
      4 min read

    • Article

      Inviting Us Into Her Stunning Villa In Marbella eva Longoria Baston On The Joys Of Motherhood, Why Husband Pepe Is An ‘Angel’ And Her Pride In The Global Gift Foundation

      Jan 1, 2024

      Inviting Us Into Her Stunning Villa In Marbella eva Longoria Baston On The Joys Of Motherhood, Why Husband Pepe Is An ‘Angel’ And Her Pride In The Global Gift Foundation
      5 min read

    • Article

      BalancingAct

      Jan 28, 2022

      BalancingAct
      5 min read

    • Article

      Feast of Verve

      May 11, 2021

      Feast of Verve
      1 min read

    • Article

      The Legacy of Flight 93

      Jul 30, 2021

      The Legacy of Flight 93
      4 min read

    • Article

      Without Tammy

      Jan 26, 2023

      Without Tammy
      6 min read

    • Article

      O Fortuna, Velut Luna

      Sep 15, 2018

      What is Miss Treece’s trouble, according to a popular notion? The man A has failed to show up. Arousing herself at the restaurant, she fixes her lipstick when her solo supper concludes and takes herself down the stairs situated behind the bar. There,

      3 min read

    • Article

      Affording to Live

      Dec 1, 2022

      Affording to Live
      6 min read

    • Article

      Better

      Aug 12, 2019

      Better
      18 min read

    • Article

      All My Tomorrows

      May 10, 2022

      It was Misha’s first day minding the shop, and already she’d broken the fifth rule. Always lock the door immediately. When you had the most valuable merchandise in the universe, you had to take the utmost precautions. She hadn’t meant to disobey. It

      13 min read

    • Article

      Cycles

      Nov 10, 2022

      His online profile was promising: good hair, straight teeth, college degree. And he was nice-looking too, in his photo anyway, standing on a clifftop with the sun rising over his welldefined, muscular shoulder. He was attractive enough, the kind of u

      18 min read

    • Article

      The Sunrise Manor Routine

      Jun 1, 2019

      The Sunrise Manor Routine
      10 min read

    • Article

      Say You Were With Me

      Sep 21, 2020

      Lisa lets herself out of her front door, painted a fashionable teal last year by Harry. She will go to Hampstead Heath. That’s where she has decided to do it. Every time she puts her key in the lock, she notices his messy brushstrokes. Fine, straggly

      5 min read

    • Article

      Dirty John: The Real Thing

      Oct 2, 2017

      LOS ANGELES - Their first date was at Houston's, a restaurant in Irvine where he opened the door for her and put her napkin on her lap. Candles flickered along the polished-mahogany bar; jazz drifted from speakers; conversation purred. Debra Newell h

      10 min read

    • Article

      The Joan of Arc Puppet Show

      Jun 1, 2019

      The Joan of Arc Puppet Show
      14 min read

    • Article

      Peter Mountford

      Dec 15, 2017

      Vivian spends most of the afternoon naked and strapped to the giant ottoman in the interior decorator’s office in Bethesda. When he finally unties her, the sun is low and she’s shaky and exhausted. He paddled her hard at some point, and that hot stin

      28 min read

    • Article

      Table Talk

      Jun 1, 2020

      Table Talk
      11 min read

    • Article

      Australia Reads At Home

      May 18, 2020

      Australia Reads At Home
      7 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Other Side Of THE FENCE

      Mar 1, 2023

      The Other Side Of THE FENCE
      6 min read

    • Article

      Cromer

      Mar 11, 2022

      Cromer
      21 min read

    • Article

      Table Talk

      Jun 1, 2019

      Table Talk
      9 min read

    • Article

      Girls Like You

      Sep 5, 2023

      Girls Like You
      17 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for All Dressed Up in Love

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      All Dressed Up in Love - Ruth Logan Herne

      Acknowledgments

      This fun novella wouldn’t exist without the grace of the Hall family, owners of a renowned independent bridal store in Rochester, New York. Bridal Hall was a long-standing and wonderful part of the Western New York bridal industry for decades. As employers, they were marvelous, kind, and caring. As friends, they’re more so! They offered jobs to two of my children in Tuxedo Hall as Beth and Luke worked their way through college, and on slow winter nights Ed Hall would say, Bring your books and study if it’s quiet. Make good use of your time! Also, big thanks to Matt and Zach Blodgett, my two boys who attended the University of Pennsylvania. Their years in Philly gave me a chance to know and love the city, from the streets of Old City to the hills of Valley Forge, a wonderful place to visit and live! And a huge shout-out to the missions and soup kitchens reaching out to the needy in our communities. Bless you for your living example of Christ’s words among us!

      Chapter One

      Greg Elizondo stared at the daily ledger on the front desk of his mother’s bridal salon. The white leather-bound appointment book taunted him. He swallowed hard and fought the rising surge of panic.

      Six appointments were due in throughout the day and no one to handle them. Six future brides, along with whatever form of friend, family, or foe they dragged through the front door with them, coming to find the dress of their dreams for that oh-so-special day. And no one but him in the store.

      Panic escalated to full-bore heart attack mode.

      Call some of your mother’s former employees. Someone must be able to help.

      They would, too, if only they were available. They had gathered around him at the midsummer funeral, professing their love for his mother and pledging their help. And his mother’s regular employees—her bridal team, as she’d called them—had done a great job keeping things afloat all fall.

      Then Donna delivered twins at Thanksgiving, and Jean needed time off unexpectedly to care for her sick father. Kathy was down with the current stomach bug, and the newest bridal consultant had called in yesterday, the last day of her vacation, to give notice, saying she was staying in Louisiana to save some fish from extinction.

      Who did that kind of thing, anyway?

      Maybe there was somebody else. Anybody.

      His mother’s 1980s Rolodex lay in the top drawer. He leafed through it, searching for familiar names. Two of them had gone south for retirement, one had passed away the previous year, and the only other name he recognized had just been put into a skilled nursing facility near Valley Forge.

      Doomed by your own ineptitude. You should have taken care of this yesterday. There is no way Kathy could or should have handled this on her own, so blaming the norovirus doesn’t get you out of the hot seat. At this point, you deserve what you get.

      His fingers went numb. His head ached. He could handle boardrooms filled with Armani-clad executives. Toss him into dinner gigs staffed by tuxedo-wearing waiters who faded into the background while taking particular care to be attentive, and he’d be totally on his game.

      But this?

      Mermaid gowns with laser-cut lace? Dresses suited for a medieval drawing room with acres of organza? He wasn’t even sure what organza was, but he was pretty sure he hated it by default.

      Satin-filled walls pressed in on him as the clock ticked on.

      Why did Donna Martin have to go and have twins, anyway? Wasn’t the world populated enough?

      With less angst than he was feeling right now, he had faced down oppositional executives and told them that his law firm was about to take over their company, slice it up, and sell it off piecemeal, like leftovers from yesterday’s garage sale. Nothing fazed him. Nothing but . . . well, but this.

      The bridal team hadn’t listed phone numbers next to the names in the appointment ledger. If they had, he’d call these women, apologize profusely, and lock the doors on Elena’s Bridal forever. Except that doing so would break his heart.

      If he had a heart . . .

      He must have one somewhere, because it ached when he thought of his mother, the time he missed, the long weeks he barely saw her, even though they lived in the same quadrant of the city. His corporate ladder-climbing kept him forward focused, but now she was gone, unexpectedly, and there was no more time.

      There were no more chances. He was surrounded by the business she spent thirty years developing after his father took off with a long-legged blonde. From three days shy of his fourth birthday, it had been him and his mother, taking on life side by side.

      And now it was just him. What could be more distressing than shutting down? How could he even consider ruining thirty years of all her hard work in six short months? He hauled in a deep breath and checked the book again.

      Yup. Still six brides scheduled for their initial appointments, a day his mother referred to as feast or famine. Shopping for a gown either brought folks together or ripped them apart.

      Great.

      He stood and squared his shoulders. He could do this. He needed to do this.

      He didn’t have to dress the women. Their friends or sisters or mothers could do that. Worst-case scenario, they could dress themselves, right? The sight of an alterations room at the end of the right-hand hallway gave him an idea. He’d call the seamstresses and see if any of them were available to help.

      No one answered. He left messages for all three, hoping someone would hear his plea and take pity on him. Having one of those talented alterations women on hand would be a huge help, but if none of them came through, he needed a Plan B.

      What would his mother do?

      He didn’t have to think twice. If Maria Elena Elizondo were here, she would do it herself. Her example had trained him to handle whatever came his way. Today was no different, but it was a whole lot lonelier.

      So that was it. He would show the brides and their entourages through the store, let them pick out what they wanted to try on, then guide them through the sales process.

      Could it be that simple?

      Common sense said no. If selling a wedding gown were that cut and dried, why did his mother list follow-up phone calls as part of her training manual? With hundreds of gorgeous designer gowns to pick from, didn’t women usually just find one that looked great, plunk down their debit card, and leave?

      Fittings and alterations. Hems. Veils. Tiaras. Jewelry. Shoes. Hosiery, hoops, petticoats . . .

      His mother’s checklist went on to undergarments he didn’t know existed.

      The panic re-spiraled. In twenty minutes the store would open, the first January appointment would walk through the door, and he’d be toast. And once word got around that Elena’s Bridal had no help, online reviews would tank and he’d be putting a For Sale sign in the front window.

      So much for all his mother’s hard work. Everything he needed in life—everything he was—had come from this shop. Parochial school. Holy Ghost Prep. The University of Pennsylvania. Harvard Law.

      His mother had gone the distance for him, working night and day, never a word of complaint. Losing her suddenly was bad enough, but ruining her hard-won business because he was clueless?

      That would cost a bunch of jobs. No one wanted to be jobless in Philadelphia right now. Not in today’s tough economy.

      So the economy is your fault? Don’t you have enough to do with the Weatherly merger? If you want a job alongside the heavy hitters in Manhattan, focus on what you do best: dissecting inept companies and selling them for parts.

      A sharp rap on the front glass snagged his attention.

      A young woman stood there, tapping her keys against the glass. A customer? He glanced back at the book and caught a glimpse of a name: Jasmine. It had to be, right?

      He stared, spellbound, wondering

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1