NJ Library Director Loans Wedding Dresses for Free

Even vintage wedding dresses often come with a hefty price tag, but if you’re a bride-to-be in New Jersey, you don’t have to spend an exorbitant amount of money on a gown that you love. Adele Puccio, the director of the Maurice M. Pine Free Public Library in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, is letting anyone getting married borrow a frock from her vintage collection. In an interview with NJ.com, a digital news outlet in New Jersey, which was published on February 11, 2024, Puccio shared that she owns 20 vintage dresses that are available for any bride to rent.

Puccio has collected these two dozen gowns from second-hand stores or Freecycle, a non-profit organization that recycles goods to new owners for free. If anyone in the local area is interested in wearing one of Puccio’s dresses, they don’t even need to have (or get) a library card, since the director personally owns these pieces. “It’s not like I’m slapping a barcode on it and checking it out,” Puccio noted to the outlet. “If somebody comes in and wants a wedding gown, they just have to tell me: yes, they want it, and what they want it for.” Puccio is also letting brides-to-be alter any of her vintage frocks to better suit their style and body type.

Puccio’s office at the library has a few mannequins modeling some of the wedding dresses from her personal collection, while the rest of the designs are at her home in Bayonne. Those who visit the library aren’t the only ones who know about this rental service. Puccio has been marketing her side gig through word of mouth and a Facebook group called “Shared Dream Dresses,” a private page that has more than 20,000 followers. According to Puccio, no one has to pay to join the group. The only expectation is that every borrower acknowledges the sentimental value of the chosen gown and returns it after wearing it.

Puccio has been running this personal project at the library since 2000. Since the director has always been interested in vintage dresses, at the time, he decided to host an event, “Salute to Brides,” where he arranged a display of bridal attire and wedding memorabilia throughout history, NJ.com reported. This function was such a success that it inspired other members of the library staff and patrons to donate wedding dresses that represented different decades of the 20th century: a flapper-style gown from the 1920s, a fur dress from 1968, and a piece by Arnold Scaasi from 1992. This collection was showcased at the library in a display called “Brides of the Century.”

Over the years, Puccio has been lending wedding dresses to friends, neighbors, and anyone else who’s interested in borrowing one of his vintage pieces. According to the publication, Puccio has loaned 30 wedding dresses to brides since 2000.