Publication Date: May 20, 2025
Everyone loves—and hates—a big fancy wedding! From the author of Lost and Found in Paris and The Marriage Sabbatical comes a champagne-sparkling summer read about two very different women planning their children’s wedding in glamorous Montecito, California.
You’re invited…to a delightful modern comedy of manners about two moms, the best-laid plans, and one very memorable wedding.
Penelope and Chase make a lovely couple. She’s a bubbly Southern California girl with killer work ethic. Chase is smart and charming and has political aspirations. They’re planning a spectacular California wedding, wrapped in peonies and thousands of little white lights, soaked in custom cocktails and romantic hashtags. Everyone’s excited about Penny and Chase’s wedding—except their mothers.
The Mother of the Bride, suave Greek-born Alexa Diamandis, doesn’t understand why any woman would get married. Ever! Raised in Athens and now perfectly situated in sun-splashed Montecito, California, she raised Penny as single mother by choice, supported by Lord Simon Fox, her old college friend who just happens to be an English aristocrat, and a wealthy circle of lady friends who call themselves the Merry Widows.
The Mother of the Groom, Abigail Blakeman, is a garden club stalwart firmly planted in coastal Connecticut. She thinks the whole enterprise would be so much easier if the wedding was at their golf club. Especially because the Blakeman’s fortunes have taken a turn for the worse—not that you would ever know it by looking at Abigail. Keeping up appearances is exhausting, but it is everything.
But when a sudden twist of fate calls them into action, these two very different women are forced to take over the wedding planning. Despite their differences, Alexa and Abigail charge in to save the day. How far will two moms go to make their children’s dream wedding a reality?
For the perfect laugh-out-loud beach read, how about a story about wedding planning? To sweeten the pot, let’s add two women who are forced to take over the wedding plans. And by the way, these mothers have two completely different styles.
Author Lian Dolan delivers a pre-summer treat with Abigail and Alexa Save the Wedding. The story unfolds in chapters dedicated to the Mother of the Bride (Alexa) and the Mother of the Groom (Abigail). With Chase and Penny announcing their engagement, what ensues should be a time of joy and excitement. However, each mother has a different perspective.
Single mother Alexa envisions a beautiful Montecito wedding, perhaps followed by a honeymoon in her native Greece. Her world is one of luxury and features a close friendship with a group of wealthy women known as the Merry Widows. In contrast, Abigail clings tightly to her DAR roots and just knows a Connecticut wedding would be perfect. Her old money facade is crumbling, but appearances are everything. She has found refuge with a local senior’s group.
Under normal circumstances, the differences between the two women wouldn’t be a factor. However, when it appears that the wedding plans are crumbling, the two women step in to ensure their children get the wedding they deserve. By the way, there are delightful advice cameos by Aunt B, the wedding column guru who dispenses advice and wisdom about all things wedding-related.
Abigail and Alexa Save the Wedding offers a light-hearted commentary about how two women with vastly different tastes manage to find common ground and deliver the best wedding ever.
Lian Dolan is a writer and talker. She is the author of Lost and Found in Paris, The Sweeney Sisters, Helen of Pasadena, and Elizabeth the First Wife, and is a regular columnist for Pasadena Magazine. She’s written regular columns for O, The Oprah Magazine, Working Mother Magazine and Pasadena Magazine. She is also the co-creator of Satellite Sisters, an online community for women, and for many years was a host of their award-winning and top-rated talk show/podcast of the same name, which she produced with her four sisters. She graduated from Pomona College in Claremont, California with a degree in Classics and now lives in Pasadena with her husband and grown sons.
