X Marks The Dress: A Registry

Carol Guess

"In Kristina Marie Darling and Carol Guess's collaborative book, X MARKS THE DRESS: A REGISTRY, the reader receives a delicious catalog of wants. The cohabitation of idealized domestic bliss and the wild and unwilling spirit of individuality split the difference. The newlyweds divide the baby in half. The unspoken gets footnoted. The remnants get erased and placed in the appendices. In glorious sequences of riffs, flirtations, recombinations, and dances, Darling and Guess's collaboration intoxicates. Though the wedding china may get smashed against the trees, and though the stiletto heels may get broken, the moments in these lyrical vignettes will be long enshrined "on a red satin pillow."—Oliver de la Paz