The Dress

She was on a hanger, draped in plastic, the first time I saw her. A gorgeous concoction of shimmery organza, lace, sequins and beads, I knew almost the moment that I saw her that she needed to be mine.

I'd been shopping for The Dress with my dear friend Nadine, and we'd been to several stores and I could not find anything I liked. I was getting discouraged. Nadine had a good idea of what I wanted, and when we got to the last store, we both started looking at different ends of the dress racks. Nadine came up to me and said, "I think I found it." I went over to look at it and at first was not sure, but she pointed out the lovely features of the dress, and I began to get excited. It had a high lace collar, with pearlized beadwork hanging down at the neckline. Glorious puffed sleeves, the kind that would have made Anne of Green Gables swoon with delight. There was enough beadwork and sequins to satisfy even my deep love of sparkly things. She had long sleeves, which came to a point at the wrist, with an ornate arrangement of even more sequins and beadwork. The full, gathered skirt, complete with a cathedral-length train, was flounced at the bottom with swirls of gathered flounces of organza. The skirt had applique's of beaded lace, sequined throughout. Overall the material was a shiny organza that shimmered in the light.

I had found her. Or maybe I should say Nadine found her. The only bad part was it had a huge bow on the back. Nadine solved that though - "We'll just take it off!" she suggested. Very Good Idea. It reminded me of one of those reflective signs that are required on the back of Amish buggies.

It was love at first sight, my dress. I decided I would buy it, and since I was a college student making just over minimum wage, I put the dress on lay-away. My parents were paying for part of it, but I wanted to pay for as much of it as I was able. I could not wait to walk down the aisle in the dress of my dreams, to meet and marry the man of my dreams at the end of that aisle.

Next I needed a veil. Yikes, but that was going to be almost as hard as buying the dress, and they were expensive! Some veils cost almost as much as I paid for the dress! But a few months before the wedding I went to a Bridal Fair with a good friend of mine, and I won a gift certificate to a local bridal shop. It just so happened that week their veils were 50% off - so I took my gift certificate and found two veils that I really liked. Since my dress was so ornate, I decided to keep the veil a little more simple. The one I chose had a simple crown-type headband, and there were lacy flowers along the top that matched the type of flowers in the lace on my dress, and it had crystals and pearls decorating the top. The veil material was tulle, and ended in finger-tip length, edged in white. Lovely. The best part was I got the veil free because of the gift certificate I had won, in combination with the sale - I only had to pay the tax!

My outfit, for the most part, was complete. To me, this was one of the most important parts of the wedding. I knew everything else was going to fall into place after this. The flowers, invitations, decorations, food - it was all secondary to me, although important. The excitement I felt during the planning and preparations to marry the one I loved so much was almost overwhelming.

It was a good thing that I had school, we both had jobs and different ministries in the church to keep us busy. Or I might have just donned that dress and eloped with Kyle!