SUSAN HARRIS/TH E NEW YORK TIMES

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The Bride Scribe

Lois Smith Brady and bride, New Canaon, Connecticut, November 23, 1993

BY ANNE BENNETT SWINGLE

doesn't care
how rich or important the bride's great-
dfather happened to be, or where
the groom earned his degree in finance. What
she's looking for to brighten the otherwise
dour and formal bridal columns of The Sun-
day New York Times, is "couples with great
love stories."
Brady writes a column called "Vows,"
which tells the story of one newlywed couple
each week like the Jewish wedding-cake de-
signer who, in a mini-blackout, summoned
an electrician. He was Italian, from Brooklyn;
she married him, and for the reception made
14 cakes, one for every table. Or torch singer
Andrea Marcovicci who, although she had
built a career singing about her broken heart,
wound up happily married at the St Regis Ho-
tel in Manhattan, dressed in a gown "covered
with tiny beads, rhinestones, crystals and
pearls, which clinked lightly as she walked,
like ice in a glass." Or the tale of two strug-

OIS SMITH BRADY

Lois Smith Brady's
weekly "Vows" column
brings unconventional
love stories and a
breath of bridal fresh air
to The New Yon( Times

gling actors whose tumultuous courtship pro-
pelled them into intensive therapy. Their wed-
ding, held on the roof of a brownstone,
included their psychiatrists in the ceremony.
"Vows" succeeds because it is off-beat,
amusing, and richly anecdotal. With about
600 words and two out-of-kilter bridal photos,
the column is less about marriage and more
about aspects of courtship and love, especially

how couples find each other. "That's what
readers tell me they really like— how people
meet," says Brady, 35. 'The column is a win-
dow on couples in New York. It's like walk-
ing around the city at night and peeking into
apartments."
"Vows" evolved from a column Brady wrote
for 7 Days, a now defunct New York weekly.
In its present incarnation in "Styles of the
Times," a section of the Sunday paper, it has
developed a devoted following. At first it was
difficult to find the right couples; often, as late
as Wednesday afternoon, Brady was franti-
cally phoning area churches in search of wed-
dings. But now that tout New York is reading
"Vows," caterers, florists, photographers, and
even brides and grooms are calling her.
Brady attends every wedding she writes up.
What's the attraction of this continual round
of canapes, cakes, and champagne? "I'm per-
petually curious about weddings," she replies,
"because my own was such a disaster."

IF -YEE • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1904 •

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