THE Dress

Most girls dream about their wedding long before they even get married. They have the magazine clippings taped to paper in a binder of all their favorite dresses, flowers, and bridesmaid dresses. And don’t get me started on the locations.. dreams filled with swans, gazebos, and ponds.

But have you noticed that as you get older a lot of what you originally liked changes?

Also when you remarry there’s a whole bunch of other thoughts in the back of your mind when shopping for your new wedding: how much you don’t want to wear a similar wedding dress you previously wore, you don’t want to use the same flowers, or location, or use the same color. Or better yet you don’t want to wear what your fiancé’s ex wore to their wedding, or what they used, or thought of. For me though those thoughts never crossed my mind when I was shopping for my wedding as I was adamant that no one will influence me of what I wanted for my wedding.

And what I wanted was: a beautiful mermaid wedding dress, with cali-lilies for a bouquet, a sunset reception, the location was to be near beautiful meadows with a red barn that filled all our family and friends, the officiator was going to be the pastor from our church, and all our kiddos were going to be a part of the wedding as they were hoping to be.

After trying on what felt like a million dresses I found THE dress. My mermaid wedding dress. Plain but oh ever so gorgeous. It was found in a very convenient place; David’s Bridal. I was also able to find our wedding reception location, exactly how I pictured it. Everything felt perfect.

So thank goodness that we get everything we ever expect in this perfect life of ours right?

With our wedding date nearing along with a complicated custody case we decided our kids took priority over our big wedding plans. Instead of having a wedding we saved our money, I wore one of my fancier white dresses, headed to a beautiful park area, and had a quiet ceremony instead.

While I didn’t get to wear the wedding dress I bought and spent money tailoring, nor did I get the reception area I dreamed about, or carrying the bouquet, or having our pastor as the officiator but what we did get is all of our kids were very much involved in our small ceremony as they wanted, I did get to wear a beautiful white dress, but the best part of it all was I got to marry the man of my dreams. And that’s all that mattered.

So what happened to my wedding dress? Did I ever wear it again? Did I sell it? Give it away? Forget about it since I’m already married and no reason to wear it again?

Well… nearing our 5 year anniversary date in July, with my beautiful wedding dress neatly packed underneath my bed, I had an idea… more like a want really. I wanted to wear my wedding dress for our anniversary pictures before I gave it away or got rid of it for good.

But life got in the way, ended up having to cancel a photo shoot after getting sick, and continued working long hours. So my dream got cast aside… or so it seemed. My hub’s surprised me one day with a scheduled photo shoot shortly a few days after our actual 5 year anniversary date.

And so we had our photo shoot with my wedding dress. ♥️

Some things did change with my body over the years such as my boobs got smaller (not sure how or why) and my hips got bigger. Those changes did make it harder to wear my mermaid dress. But I still enjoyed getting all the compliments from the passerbyers when we were shooting. 🥰 Now I’m just debating whether I want to keep my dress, wear it again for my 10 year anniversary or finally let it go… I guess we shall wait and see.