When we started planning Emma’s wedding she didn’t have a vision of how she wanted it to look. She did however have some specific ideas; 1. she didn’t want a cake, she doesn’t like cake, she likes pie, 2. she didn’t want flowers, she wanted buttons, refer to the article titled the button party, 3. she wanted to sit on her great grandmothers swing, refer to the article Emma’s swing, and 4. she wanted to wear her grandmothers wedding dress.

These are the orders we started with in planning her wedding reception! So here we will talk about the dress. It started as a fluke, Emma’s cousin was just a few days from her wedding and the gown that she had ordered online was not going to come in time. So she asked grandma if she could borrow her wedding gown. A few women from the family had gathered to help in this crises and so they all ended up at grandmas to dig out the gown and see if it would fit. Sadly for the bride to be, the dress could not be zipped, and so was not an option for her, however they all wanted to see if it would fit Emma. This dress has an incredibly tiny waist and if anyone could fit into it, it would be Emma. She didn’t really want to try on the dress but did just to please the crowd. Once she had it on she was breathless! She knew immediately that this was the dress she wanted to wear. It would need 2 tiny stitches to adapt it to her frame, and gaining 2 pounds would not allow her to zip it closed, but she was so beautiful in it and so very excited.                                          

The history of the dress is this, it was worn by my mother in law 54 years ago this month, it was sewn for her by her mother in law in preparation for her wedding. So Emma had the bonus of a loving history from 2 other generations before her. The grandmother and great grandmother thing is what clinched it for her, she loved the family history of it. The dress was white satin and had a white lace jacket over top. After 54 years in storage the dress had yellowed quite a bit and the jacket wasn’t wearable, however the yellow just made it look vintage and one of Emma’s colors was orange so she asked grandma to make her an orange satin jacket to go over top.

We took the dress to a cleaners, that was not as easy as you would think. If you call around for a good cleaners and tell them it’s a satin 54 year wedding gown most will tell you…..no thanks!! We did have to sign a we won’t blame you form, but the cleaners did a magnificent job! It came back so beautifully pressed and a lot of the yellow came out, even though we weren’t really concerned about that. The color was now just a beautiful ivory and topped with the orange jacket it was unique and just beautiful. It has just an ever so slight train in the back with lots of little pin tucks, but other than that it just lets the bride shine through. Emma could not have been happier in her grandmothers dress, wearing the jacket grandma made and knowing that it was first made by her great grandmother for a new daughter in law. It added so much to her day to have that tie to family.

This is a picture of Emma with the grandma who first wore the dress and the young man who won her heart.

Now, we wanted grandma and Emma to have a special memory of the day, so I found at kohls.com 2 frames with 3 8x10 openings, boy howdy was that a hard find! My vision was to have a picture of the grandparents on their wedding day in one spot, a picture of Emma and Kevin on the other end and then I wanted my daughter Jessica to write a poem about the history of the dress and the love involved in it for the middle spot. The first hurdle was the grandparents picture, only 1 exists and it was the wrong shape and size, Kimberly to the rescue! She sized and printed and it turned out great. Jess finished the poem which brings tears to the eye, and right after the wedding Kim printed out a perfect picture of Emma and Kevin for the final spot. One of these triple frames will hang in their new home and one of them Emma presented to grandma at the reception and grandpa decided it will hang above the fireplace in their home. I think they liked it!  It turned out quite beautiful and we were all pleased. Now I know you cant read the poem in this picture so I’m going to reprint it here, just because I want to share Jessica’s talents and let you know how perfect this poem was. So here goes;

The Wedding Dress, for my sister Emma

Every stitch placed with care,

A sense of gladness in the air.

A mother’s token, love untold

Life’s new journey now unfolds.

By mother’s hand, the dress is made

Her time and love she freely gave.

A gift for her son’s bride to be

Brilliant white, a sight to see.

Time has passed through endless days

The dress is yellowed now with age.

Two generations almost gone,

The dresses time, again has come.

Dusted, altered, cleaned and pressed,

Another dons the wedding dress.

Worn by one when it was new,

Her grandchild now will wear it too.

The scene is different, fresh and bright

Reflecting the brides vibrant light

And yet the story’s still the same

Eternity, again is gained.

Another journey starts today,

Again, the dress is put away.

The story now forever sung,

Of the wedding dress, by begun.

Now how is that for a great gift? We were all so impressed and pleased with the poem and it brought tears to the eyes of the grandparents so we count that as a success! If you are interested in reading more of Jessica’s writings you should go to www.myfavoritequotes.net, she puts her things there and she has written some beautiful things. Several of her writings would make beautiful music should someone out there be interested and talented enough to do it. Contact her at the site!

Now this article has been sentimental and perhaps just a little sappy, but it’s all about a wedding so that’s to be expected. However, here are some facts; 1 - 54 year old wedding dress, cost; $32 for cleaning, 1 satin orange jacket including pattern, cost; $35. So not only sentimental but very within the budget, I love that part!

Now just in case you think the whole thing was just sappy you should know a little something about Emma; she’s very fun, not at all concerned about being “normal” or just like everyone else. She lets her personality shine through and it makes her sparkle and bubble. She couldn’t find any shoes to go with the dress that she liked, she figured she would be on her feet for several hours and wanted to be comfortable, and she LOVES crazy socks. So in the end she wore socks! The weren’t seen by everyone, but she knew they were there and it made her smile.