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The Wedding People by Alison Espach

Contemporary fiction

The Wedding People

by Alison Espach

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Quick take

If you have ever found yourself crying on the dance floor at someone else’s wedding, this one is for you. Cheers!

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Emotional

    Emotional

  • Illustrated icon, Nonlinear_Timeline

    Nonlinear timeline

  • Illustrated icon, Marriage_Issues

    Marriage issues

  • Illustrated icon, Wedding

    Wedding

Synopsis

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She’s immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe’s plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

Content warning

This book contains scenes that depict miscarriage and attempted suicide and includes mentions of infertility.

Free sample

Get an early look from the first pages of The Wedding People.

The Wedding People

TUESDAY

The Opening Reception

The hotel looks exactly as Phoebe hoped. It sits on the edge of the cliff like an old and stately dog, patiently waiting for her arrival. She can’t see the ocean behind it, but she knows it’s there, the same way she could pull into her driveway and feel her husband in his office typing his manuscript.

Love was an invisible wire, connecting them always.

Phoebe steps out of the cab. A man in burgundy approaches with such seriousness, the moment feels as if it has been choreographed long ago. It makes her certain that what she is doing is right.

“Good evening,” the man says. “Welcome to the Cornwall Inn. May I take your luggage?”

“I don’t have any luggage,” Phoebe says.

When she left St. Louis, it felt important to leave everything behind—the husband, the house, the luggage. It was time to move on, which she knew because that was what they had all agreed to last year at the end of the divorce hearing. Phoebe was so stunned by the finality of their conversation, by the way her husband said, “Okay, take care now,” like he was the mailman wishing her well. She could not bring herself to do a single thing after except climb in bed and drink gin and tonics and listen to the sound of the refrigerator making ice. Not that there was anywhere to go. This was mid-lockdown, when she only left the house for gin and toilet paper and taught her virtual classes in the same black blouse every day because what else were people supposed to wear? By the time lockdown was over, she couldn’t remember.

But now Phoebe stands before a nineteenth-century Newport hotel in an emerald silk dress, the only item in her closet she can honestly say she still loves, probably because it was the one thing she had never worn. She and her husband never did anything fancy enough for it. They were professors. They were easygoing. Relaxed. So comfortable by the fire with the little cat on their laps. They liked regular things, whatever was on tap, whatever was on TV, whatever was in the fridge, whatever shirt looked the most normal, because wasn’t that the point of clothing? To prove that you were normal? To prove that every day, no matter what, you were a person who could put on a shirt?

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Why I love it

Stories that find hope in life’s cracks and imperfect places are some of my favorites, and Alison Espach’s The Wedding People demonstrates every reason why.

After years of wanting to go to the grand Cornwall Inn, Phoebe finally decides to book a stay for herself. She arrives at the expensive seaside hotel on a beautiful day, luggage-less. Divorced, depressed, and grieving her cat’s death, Phoebe has booked the hotel room to end her life, but her plan is derailed by a bubbly (and delusionally out-of-touch) bride-to-be, Lila, who talks her out of suicide and into being her maid of honor.

As Phoebe becomes increasingly involved with Lila’s friends, family, and groom-to-be, she reflects on the trajectory her own life has taken. This unlikely and wonderfully ridiculous weekend might just remind her of all the good, amidst the disappointing and the painful, life has to offer.

Alison Espach has written a deeply relatable, painfully honest, and ultimately hopeful story of self-realization and personhood—and I cannot recommend it enough. The Wedding People and its cast of flawed and lovable characters took me on an emotional journey I did not anticipate, but am happy I experienced. Earnest, moving, and hilarious, this book and its surprising bits of wisdom will stick with me for a long time.

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View all
The Heart’s Invisible Furies
Just for the Summer
The Great Alone
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
The Lion Women of Tehran
The Wedding People
Yours Truly
Phantasma
The Love Hypothesis
The Women
Part of Your World
The Paradise Problem
The God of the Woods
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Beach Read
Daisy Jones & The Six
The Girl with the Louding Voice
The Four Winds
Take My Hand
The Many Lives of Mama Love
Dark Matter
This Tender Land
Red, White & Royal Blue
Heartless Hunter
As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow