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REHOBOTH -- The gowns have been gathered from the backs of closets, from bags and boxes, in attics and basements, and along with their unwrapping comes the tales of the day they were donned by the brides who wore them.

In honor of Valentine's Day, Rehoboth's Blanding Public Library director Laura Bennett and librarian Sue Robert have amassed about a dozen wedding gowns spanning years and styles for a wedding exhibit in the adjoining Goff Memorial Hall.

The exhibit starts Feb. 12 and runs through Feb. 17. It's open free-of-charge Monday through Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Formal table settings and wedding accessories are also part of the display.

Bennett said the idea for the exhibit sprang from Robert's trip to a museum that had a display of wedding gowns. "We took off from that and it's been so much fun contacting people, hearing the excitement in their voices," Bennett said.

The two did a lot of research and initially planned to include wedding culture. But they figured "the heck with it. It was more fun hearing the stories," Robert said. The Sun Chronicle interviewed some of the brides who contributed to the exhibit, and they told these wedding gown tales:

Made with a parachute

Mildred Hanley said it caught her off guard when her betrothed, Joseph, called her from San Diego where he was stationed as a naval pilot in 1946, and asked her whether she would prefer a parachute of nylon or silk.

Hanley herself had recently arrived home after leaving the service as a naval nurse at the base where she and Joseph met.

Pilots planning to leave the service were allowed to take a parachute home with them, she explained. But she didn't have a clue at the time as to why he was asking her about it.

Anyway, "nylon was a new material at that time, so I chose that."

It was only about a year later, as they made their wedding plans, that her husband-to-be revealed his intentions for the parachute - to use it as a wedding gown.

"I think I could have said no, but it pleased him so much and it was fine," said Hanley, who now lives in Pawtucket. She said her mother, who was not a professional seamstress, told her "she would see what she could do with it."

Mildred walked down the aisle June 21, 1947 in her gown, the train made of the parachute. "I never measured it, but it was quite long," she said. "It was a simple dress, with lace on the top; the train a parachute."

Hanley said it even had the dark blue stamp of "USN" on it. "If you looked for it, you could see it." Her husband died in 1979. Her daughter, Susan McDonald of Rehoboth, offered the gown for the exhibit, though it is in an altered state.

McDonald, who was married about two years ago, said she initially wanted to wear the gown to take her own vows. However, a dress maker took it upon herself to make changes to the gown, ones that were not suitable to her, McDonald said. "She removed lace from the top and put two panels on the side."

She ended up choosing a white dress to wear for her wedding.

"It was in her cedar chest for years, now it will go back in mine" following the exhibit, McDonald said of her mother's gown.

Just had to have it

When Ruthanna Davis of Rehoboth saw the picture of a wedding gown in Seventeen magazine, "I told my father I had to have it."

And she did. She found the the lace-tiered, floor-length gown in a Providence department store and walked down the aisle in it when she married Clinton Davis at the Congregational Church on Aug. 4, 1956. Ironically, their reception was at Goff Hall, the same place where her wedding gown will be displayed this week.

The gown was described in the newspaper announcement of their wedding as white and made of imported embroidered nylon tulle with an empire bodice and a lace-tiered skirt. Its short sleeves were lace as well. Her four attendants were dressed in shades of blue.

"I'm sure it was under $300," she said of the gown.

"The church was beautiful," she recalled of her wedding day, but "it was hot."

The gown was used again by her daughter when she married in 1979.

Davis and her husband first met at the old Dighton High School. He was always considered to have "movie star looks" and the couple would have celebrated 50 years of marriage this past year. He died in 1999.

As for the future of the gown following the exhibit, Palmer said, "We had six children, so it might be used again."

One gown, two tales

When Pat Cleaveland of Rehoboth was married in June 1952, her gown consisted of three tiers of Chantilly lace, replete with lace sleeves. Thirty-seven years later and the dress was transformed into a white, floor-length gown with a lace train for her daughter, Ruth, who was married in August 1989.

"We washed the dress in the bathtub and took off the lace," said Cleaveland, adding that the dressmaker who reconstructed the dress for her daughter "was wonderful."

Her daughter actually settled on her mother's dress after trying on Cleaveland's mother-in-law's gown, which dated to the early 1920s. Ruth Fearney Cleaveland wore a simply-cut gown of gold-colored satin-looking material with a similarly simple, straight-cut train. "But it wasn't appropriate for my daughter," Pat Cleaveland said. Both dresses will be on display.

Cleaveland said she hadn't planned to pass on to her gown to the next generation. "I just hung onto it because I never did anything else with it."

And after the exhibit, she doesn't know if the reconstructed gown or her mother-in-law's dress will be worn by yet another generation. "I didn't impose my thinking on my children and I don't think they do it to their children."

But at the very least, one dress has led to two good wedding memories and more than 50 years of marriage to her husband Normand.

Last worn in '64

It has been more than four decades now since Desire Palmer of Rehoboth was married in an ivory gown studded with sea pearls with buttons down the back and a long train.

Palmer bought it along with a pearl-beaded crown with a veil for about $600, and has hung on to it since "because I don't know what else to do with it."

The buttons, unlike those on more modern gowns which have a zipper behind them, were hard to undo, she noted.

Her friend wore the dress to get married in about a year after her own wedding to husband Geoffrey on June 8, 1963, and that was the last time it was worn, Palmer said.

Even though it's decorated with sea pearls, the cut and lines are classic.

Her son, when young, once spotted the dress in the back of her closet as she sifted through her wardrobe to find a fancy dress for an occasion. "Why don't you wear that anymore?" he asked.

Not having seen the gown for years, upon unboxing it for the exhibit, Palmer admired the dress anew. "When I got it out, I said hey, that's very pretty."

Palmer said she doesn't have any daughters but now has four granddaughters. Perhaps it will be used again? "Who knows?" she said.

A grand affair

Robyn Balents of Rehoboth said her mother's gown, which is pictured on the library exhibit brochure, is reminiscent of the grandiose affair that was her wedding day on July 17, 1960.

No expense was spared for the occasion, including the hand-beaded, ivory, floor-length gown from the famed House of Bianchi.

The gown itself cost $900, which at that time "was a lot of money," Balents said. The wedding as a whole cost $30,000. Her mother, Emilia (Matarazoo) Balents, was from a well-off Italian family who lived in the North End of Boston at the time. "She was the youngest of 10 children," Robyn Balents said.

When it came to buying the gown, Emilia's father opened a drawer where he stashed money and told his daughter "take what you need," said Balents whose mother now lives in Florida.

Five-hundred guests attended the wedding at St. Mary's Church in the North End, with a wedding party that consisted of 12 ushers and just one maid of honor. Emilia Balents told her daughter years later that the reason she didn't want the bridesmaids was because she didn't want to deal with the hassle of 11 other women haggling over dresses. Also, because the bridesmaid's gown was so very elaborate, she didn't want to have to deal with additional costs.

The cake was a replica of St. Mary's in the North End, which has since been demolished, and included miniatures of the wedding party, including all 12 ushers, standing on the church steps. The reception was the first at the Dorothy Quincy Suite in the original Hancock building, Balents said. Pictures were taken at the Arnold Arboretum.

Despite the price tag, the gown is of "simple elegance," Balents said. She had, in fact, considered wearing it for her own wedding, but unfortunately it was not preserved and had "rosened." And it would not have fit anyway. Her mother was a size 3 when she wore the gown and had to have it taken in.

Although discolored, Balents will continue to keep the dress for sentimental reasons. "I never throw anything away that my mother gave me," she said.

Everything that could have gone wrong...

It wasn't her gown of choice, she didn't get married in the location of her choice and the tape player which was to play "What a Wonderful World" while she was walked down the aisle, broke.

"Everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong," said Donna Holmes of Rehoboth in recounting her wedding day in 1992.

She said her dream plans to get married in Florida were dashed, and so then was her vision of a strapless wedding gown, since the wedding was held in October in New England.

The Victorian-style, ecru-colored gown - which Holmes described as made of "lots of lace" and having a "long, long train," was too "fancy" for her taste." But the decision to go with it was not hers alone to make, Holmes said.

It only got better - or worse - when in addition to everything else, her wedding bouquet of white roses arrived dead. "They were tea-colored."

The photographer tried to comfort her by saying they actually complemented the Victorian-style gown because they looked more like the period.

Oh, it was a memorable day, she said. There are no plans to pass along the gown to her daughters; in fact, Holmes plans on selling it now that she's clearing things out as she prepares to move.

"I want them to start their own traditions," she said.

An anniversary

Agnes and George Fountas of Attleboro will celebrate 57 years of marriage on Feb. 19.

Her gown was featured in a bridal magazine in 1950 and is a deep ivory-colored satin with beads down the front and tiny pearls around the neckline. She walked down the aisle with a train of crenoline and a braided crown with a veil.

"It was the most expensive one at the time at Jordan Marsh," she says of the gown. As was the tradition for a Greek Orthodox wedding, George bought the gown and her mother-in-law went with her to select it.

Also part of the elaborate tradition in those ceremonies are the crowns worn by both the bride and the groom. They are attached by a ribbon, switched three times between the bride and groom, and symbolize that the marriage is noble and that the couple will begin a new dynasty together. For the service, the couple is viewed as a king and queen and from that point neither can speak.

"It was very quiet," Fountas said.

The couple also exchanged wedding bands three times at the conclusion of the ceremony to signify an everlasting relationship.

Fountas said she had no problem dancing in the dress because it had hand loops to hold up the gown and train.

Although she has a daughter and granddaughter, Fountas said no one besides her has worn the gown because it does not quite fit their features.

She said now that she's had a chance to pull out the gown again, it brings tears to her eyes remembering more details of that special day and the many years since that she and her husband have shared.

High school sweethearts

Sue and Bradley Keith of Rehoboth were married June 8, 1974, a year after she graduated from Bishop Feehan High School. Her gown, she said, reflects the Vietnam War era and is sort of "hippie-ish." It features soft-pink and yellow-flowered appliques on the bodice, sleeves and veil.

"It was the first gown I tried on in Priscilla's of Boston and it was $1,000," Keith said.

Her mother warned her not to tell her father how much the dress cost, she recalled. Keith paid for half. She said her father has since learned the financing details of the dress.

"It was more expensive than the living room furniture we bought at Mason's," Keith joked.

"If I were to get married today, this would be the last gown I would choose," she said, noting she was 19 when she got married.

Keith said she had tried on her mother Loretta Lapierre's gown, also to be on exhibit, those 33 years ago. But it was heavy satin, too warm to wear in June.

Keith has hung on to her own gown for sentimental reasons. At first, she kept it in case she had a daughter, but ended up with three sons. Her sister Carol, however, wore it several years after Keith's wedding and Keith now has two granddaughters, so "I will not throw it away."

Celebrating 56 years

Loretta and Armand Lapierre were married March 31, 1951 and her Skinner satin dress has remained intact with Alencon lace on the bodice and in a front panel of the floor-length skirt, as well as in the train.

There was a big hoop to give breadth to the skirt, which Lapierre said she had to hold unceremoniously while going up the steps to the church because it was raining and she didn't want to get the bottom wet. Of course someone had to take pictures of that, she added.

She no longer has the veil, having cut it down for her eldest daughter's confirmation.

"With nine children, 24 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, needless to say the marriage worked," said Lapierre.

SUSAN LaHOUD can be reached at 508-236-0398 or at slahoud@thesunchronicle.com.