Woodward, Okla. — A wedding dress is often the most important dress a woman will ever have.

That's because it's so much more than just a dress.  Each bride's wedding gown tells its own story.

There are many cherished memories told by the wedding dresses and other wedding items including albums, Bibles and cake toppers now on display at the Woodward Public Library.

The items were put up to go along with the library's adult summer reading program, Summer Romance: Between the Covers. The program involves reading books about the history of weddings and different cultural customs of weddings.

Here are just a few of the stories behind the 10 dresses on display at the library through July 28.



TORNADO TORN

If you see a wedding dress on display that looks a little banged up, a little dirty and can't be zipped all the way, you've spotted the one that went through the April 15 tornado. The dress belongs to Anita Starling.

"I'm surprised they even found it," she said. "I looked at my dress, went to zip it up and the seam was totally pulled off."

Found in the field across from Lakeside Theater by a volunteer crew, the dress was one of few items that the Starlings recovered, as well as their wedding album and boy and girl cake topper.

Anita was glad her dress had been found because she wasn't sure how many of her cherished belongings could be recovered after the tornado completely destroyed her home.  

The Starlings have what seems to be an All-American love story.  Bob and Anita knew each other since they were teenagers, growing up in rival towns in Lincoln County.  They were married June 19, 1982 by Bob's father who was a preacher at the time, Anita said.

"We've been married almost 30 years," she said.

The family moved to Woodward in 2000 and were living on Meadowlake Dr. when the tornado hit.

"We skirted around tornados all our lives when we lived in Lincoln County," she said. "This is the first one we were actually associated with though."

Anita said after the disaster many people tried to feed them, house them and help in any way they could and it has been a "humbling" and "honoring" experience.

The Starlings are now renting a house that they are planning to buy.



A FAMILY BIBLE

You will also find a handmade dress made by Doris Lee Howard for her youngest daughter, Cindy. Doris said she made all 3 of her daughters' wedding gowns but this one in particular was different.

"She didn't want the kind of wedding her 2 sisters had with white satin," she said. "She had a country wedding."

Cindy's gown was made of some of the lace from Doris' own dress.  At the time, her daughter was unable to find more material to match the material most of her wedding dress was made of. So, Doris pulled out her old wedding dress, sewed on her sleeves to her daughters dress and added to the bodice.

"They matched hers perfectly," she said.

Cindy was married Nov. 30, 1967.

Cindy's 2 older sisters, Wallicia and Kandy, wore calico cotton dresses as bridesmaids dresses during the wedding.

One thing all of the women had in common was that they all carried a little white Bible down the aisle with them that was Doris' father's Bible.  Doris was the first to carry it with her in 1946 and then all 3 of her daughters and even her youngest granddaughter, Ashley Sneary, carried it on their wedding days.

The Bible is also on display in a glass case underneath the dress at the library.



ONE DRESS FOR 3 SISTERS

One of the other dresses on display involves 3 different weddings for 3 different brides. The same dress was worn by each daughter of Glen and Eula Johnson.

"My 2 sisters and myself wore the dress," said Carol Bradley. "It was my oldest sister's wedding dress."

Glenda, the oldest sister, was the first to walk down the aisle in the dress.  She married Stan Stokes in it on Dec. 30, 1958.  She was followed by Linda, who married Dean Farris June 12, 1960 and Carol married Max Bradley in it on April 17, 1965.

The women had more similarities in their weddings than just their dress though. They borrowed the same veil from their cousin, were all wed in the First United Methodist Church in Mooreland and they all had the same photographer, Omer Schnoebelen Jr. who is the owner of The Mooreland Leader.

They also had their wedding bouquets arranged on a Bible given to them by a great aunt, carried a handkerchief owned by another great aunt and they all had the same seamstress.

"And we're all still married and still alive," Bradley said.