Before “bridezilla” became part of the English lexicon, there existed Becker’s Bridal — a magic store that united a generation of brides. Jeffrey Zaslow writes in The Wall Street Journal:

Since 1934, more than 100,000 girlies and sweethearts have come to Becker’s to find their wedding gowns, and in their journeys there, they formed a kind of sisterhood. All of them are linked not just to the eras in which they got married, but also to each other and to the wedding culture today.

Brides and bridal gowns have always offered a measure of our longings and aspirations. Just 51% of American adults are now married—a record low—according to a report issued last month by the Pew Research Center. Pew also reports that 39% of Americans believe marriage is “becoming obsolete.” And yet, in the story of this old bridal shop in a rural, one-stoplight town, it’s easy to see why, despite everything, wedding gowns remain a symbol of hope.

For 78 years, Becker’s Bridal on Fowler’s tired Main Street has been run by an unbroken family chain—a great-grandmother, grandmother, mother and daughter. Thanks to the Beckers, Fowler claims to have more wedding dresses per capita than any U.S. municipality; there are 1,100 residents and 2,500 bridal gowns stocked at the store.

And some fascinating statistics about the bridal dress business:

Department stores had 85% of the wedding-gown business nationwide in the 1950s, but Becker’s stayed afloat through word-of-mouth in small Michigan towns. In the 1960s, thousands of mom-and-pop bridal shops opened up in suburban strip malls. Because Becker’s had established itself so long ago, its customers remained loyal. The next big challenge came in the 1990s, when the David’s Bridal chain began growing, selling gowns starting at $99. As a result of this and other pressures, the number of U.S. bridal shops fell from a peak of about 8,000 in 1990 to less than 5,000, according to the Bridal Association of America. Becker’s held on. Last year, Becker’s sold 1,650 dresses. The store has $1.8 million in annual sales, with 85% of that revenue needed to cover merchandise and salaries.

The saddest part in the piece was the part about the “Dress Cemetery.”