The Gown (rerun)

This post originally ran June 24th, 2008.

The reason I decided to rerun this piece is because when I was dusting this past week I picked up an item and memories came flooding back. I have a small glass jar on a shelf by the front door that holds a strand of pearl beads and a piece of the bodice fabric from my wedding dress. Every so often I notice that small jar and I smile. I'm so happy that I have just that small jar to hold my memories of my dress. I glued pearl beads (not real pearls) onto tennis shoes that I had also decorated with sequins and lace. So the jar holds my memories of the outfit.

Here's the original post.

This is my wedding dress.

It was such a beautiful gown, but I didn't take care of it. I never got it cleaned after the wedding and it pretty much just hung in the plastic garment bag and took up a lot of room in the closet.

When my husband was going through all of his testing at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, we were still living in Daytona Beach. My husband wanted to get a condo in Jacksonville so we'd be closer to the clinic, but in order to do that, we really needed to lighten our load of "stuff."

I joined Freecycle at that point and started reading all of the things that people were wanting or taking or giving away. It really amazed me. We had all of this stuff that people would come over and pick up! Whooo hoooo!

My dear husband, bless him, loves his stuff. He has such a hard time giving away something that may possibly have value, so the only stuff I could give away at that point was MY stuff.

I saw this message from a gal who wanted two wedding dresses. She was getting married in a couple of months and she wanted to make a dress for herself. Having two dresses to make one made sense to her, so she put out the plea. I read, replied and took photos.

On one of our next trips to Jacksonville I met this gal at a restaurant parking lot and gave her my wedding dress, my veil and headpiece.

I cried a little on the way there.

I cried a lot after.

A funny thing happened on the way to the Mayo Clinic. I got it. I understood that I didn't need the dress to know that I loved my husband. I didn't need to have the guilt of not getting it cleaned and stored properly. I needed to give it to someone who truly wanted the dress.

I found out a few months later that the gal didn't need a second dress. My dress (her dress) fit her nearly perfectly and she got it cleaned and it was restored. She told me how much it meant to her to get such a beautiful gown and how lovely she felt in it.

I was so happy I passed it on.

I will never regret it. It was a great decision.

Have a great day!
Kristin