N.J. librarian started lending wedding gowns for free. Then, brides from around the world began arriving.

Rachel Fetter was on the hunt for her wedding dress.

Instead of searching in a shop or online, the bride-to-be made a 3 p.m. appointment at the Maurice M. Pine Free Public Library in Fair Lawn. She had a few requirements — the dress had to be modest, and it couldn’t be strapless.

Fetter tried on a few different gowns near library director Adele Puccio’s office and modeled them amid the aisles of books for a small, but enthusiastic, crowd of librarians and her maid of honor.

By the end of the hour, Fetter had walked out of the library, her dream dress in hand, just in time for the 32-year-old’s November wedding in northern California.

The cost for the pale pink wedding dress: $0.

Puccio, the library director, never imagined her wedding dress collecting hobby would turn into what it is today — a full-blown project that has attracted national attention.

She had always loved wedding dresses and grew up sneaking into Kleinfield, the legendary bridal shop in New York City where her great aunt worked.

Over the years, Puccio casually collected and donated free vintage wedding gowns to brides, typically through word-of-mouth or via a Facebook group for sharing wedding dresses. She had given away roughly 30 dresses throughout the years.

But in February, NJ Advance Media profiled Puccio and her project at the Fair Lawn library.

“After the story hit NJ.com, my office exploded,” Puccio said, laughing.

The story about a local library with free wedding dresses made the rounds from local New Jersey newspapers to national magazines and morning television. Puccio appeared in Brides, the 90-year-old wedding publication. NBC’s “Today Show” did a segment on her collection. People magazine, and even The New Yorker, published her story.

And the work itself quickly expanded, taking on a frenetic energy.

Wedding dresses poured into the library via the mail. Some were in worse condition — sporting stains, discoloration and odors — than others. Interested brides also flooded the library, forcing Puccio to start requiring appointments to view the dresses.

Donated dresses have been sent from California, Tennessee and Florida, while brides from as far away as Puerto Rico and Austria have made appointments to find the perfect vintage dress.

The woman from Austria is probably the bride who traveled the farthest, Puccio said. The woman was visiting her family in the area, and ended up finding a dress and vintage wedding hat she loved, taking both more than 4,000 miles back home.

“And the funny thing was she was speaking to her family, and one of my librarians speaks German and understood her, and started answering her in German,” recalled Puccio. “And so she thought this library — between the wedding dresses and the German — was magical.”

Puccio estimates she’s given away at least 150 dresses at this point, and she has roughly 200 more dresses in her current collection.

The dresses are free to borrow, but Puccio said she doesn’t expect them all to be returned to her or the library. A library card is not required either.

“Although I ‘lend’ I don’t always expect them back,” she previously said. “People become attached to their gowns.”

People are permitted to alter the dresses. Those that return the dresses to the library typically have them cleaned first.

Puccio is still gratified by the work, but admitted it has become a little overwhelming at times.

She’s spent hours organizing dresses and transporting them. She has soaked dresses in Retro Clean solution in her bathtub at home, washed them by hand and laid them flat to fully dry.

“It’s like having a second full-time job,” said Puccio. In addition to her job as library director, she also serves on the board of a library system spanning several counties.

A few generous volunteers have pitched in to help with the wedding dresses, including someone with sewing skills.

Puccio still loves the dresses and seeing the vintage gowns find a new life. She also loves hearing people’s stories.

“I’ve always loved bridal fashion. And I love to see people happy,” she said. “Most people who go into librarianship do so because they want to be of service. You know, we’re there for everybody. This is just something else we do.”

Borrowing a wedding dress may not work for every bride, but it can significantly cut the cost of a wedding. The average wedding gown sells for about $1,900, but many can go for thousands more, according to The Knot Real Weddings Study, a 2022 survey of nearly 12,000 couples by the popular wedding website. About 93% of brides said they purchased a new dress.

Puccio said she is no longer accepting wedding dress donations, but she will continue to give the gowns she has away.

For all the talk of weddings and dresses in her life, Puccio has her own upcoming nuptials to anticipate. Her son is getting married in January in Las Vegas.

His fiancé looked in Puccio‘s collection, but didn’t find exactly what she wanted, Puccio said. But that might be because of the couple’s theme — an Elvis impersonator is set to wed the couple.