The Wedding Machine

In a perfect world, one would read The Wedding Machine on a flower-bedecked verandah with a crystal glass of iced tea and plate of lemon squares at your side. An heirloom china plate, of course. At least, if you asked Ray, that’s how she’d say you should read it.

Ray is the driving force of the Wedding Guild, the group that ensures the young ladies of Jasper, South Carolina tie the knot in style. Old Southern style, that is, the way their grandmamas taught their mamas before them.

Now if only Ray’s own daughter would dump her boyfriend (not-so-affectionately known by Ray as “Poop 2”), find a nice boy, and let Ray get on with the ultimate wedding she’s been planning for years . . . but that doesn’t seem likely to happen anytime soon.

The other members of the Guild have been Ray’s friends since they all went watermelon-stealing shortly after she moved to town as a teenager. As the younger generation gets married off (or not, despite their mama’s best efforts), Ray and company are forced to deal with the changes life brings. Throughout the book you’ll hear from each of Ray’s friends and learn the secrets they keep – even from each other.

The Wedding Machine is a celebration of life-long friendship – the kind that endures death and divorce, accidents and alligators, hot flashes and hurricanes. Even the drama of small-town Southern weddings done exactly right.