Wedding of the Century

(c) 2000

Dear Reader,

I adore weddings, and I always, always cry, even if I don't know the happy couple myself. The first wedding I can remember was that of my cousin Delores when I was about six. She was beautiful, I was madly envious of the flower girl, and at the reception, little white boxes of cake were given out as souvenirs. I loved the little boxes and looked for them at receptions for years to come, but, alas, without success.

Weddings are almost always great fun, but so are birthday parties, and I never cry at those. (Well, almost never.) The difference is that marriage is the cornerstone of ail human societies, so a wedding is one of life's great rites of passage, along with birth and death. The emotions invoked are profound: the hope that springs from new beginnings, tempered by the knowledge that the couple's future will hold trials as well as laughter, loss as well as joy.

No matter how "suitable" a match is in worldly terms, ultimately a marriage boils down to one man and one woman who must come to terms with each other, preferably in an emotionally satisfying way. Great wealth and power can make the challenges of marriage even more difficult.

I got the idea for "The Wedding of the Century" years ago when I first read about the real-life marriage of Consuelo Vanderbilt and the ninth Duke of Marlborough at the height of the Gilded Age. Their wedding was one of the great media events of the late nineteenth century, but the marriage ended in divorce after producing two sons.

My own story is about two very human, vulnerable people who are almost overwhelmed by the trappings of wealth and the expectations of others. I hope you enjoy reading about how Justin and Sunny find each other.