Wedding Dress Memories.....

Look, I know all 5 of you who read the blog actually just saw most of these photos last month on our 13th year anniversary post, but bear with me. Sorry. Just skip over it and in a few days we'll be on to different topics soon..... like whether or not our marriage withstood the test of my scandalous debut of painting rooms in the house!!!

Kelly's Korner blog, a great read, is hosting a "show your wedding dress" post of sorts. And I thought it a perfect time to say thanks to all those fingers who worked TIRELESSLY on my bridal gown. And came out in the 100 degree heat to our OUTDOOR wedding, where I was BAREFOOT!! And I apologize for the quality of some of the photos. Being married over a decade ago means there was no digital photography!

We did travel to various cities, in two states, searching bridal shops for THE dress for me. It was lots of fun and we found many beautiful dresses, but in the end, we went back to the seamstress who had sewn for our family for years, and had her make my gown. I gave some design suggestions....I wanted a square back, lots of beadwork, a long train, etc.

After many months of working on the dress, the seamstress was also doing the entire side of my bridal party....all the bridesmaids dresses and flower girls. So,needless to say, there was a lot on her. Plus, beadwork takes an enormous amount of time. Anyway, as the month of the wedding arrived, and my dress was not "finished", we started having "beading parties".

Mom would go pick up the dress in the evenings and invite a host of friends over to our house. And you guessed it, we would each sit in the floor, on the couch, on the hearth, where-ever, and have a piece of the wedding train in our hand, with needle and beads, threading away!! It was a stressful time, I'm sure, for my mom, knowing the dress had to be finished in just a matter of days, but she never showed it. She's cool like that!

Now, there was beadwork all over the gown, but the bottom of the dress as well as the long train had these lovely cutwork designs encompassing the edges of the entire gown. For the most part, this is what we would work on at the "beading" party.

31 of them around the bottom edge of the dress.

52 of them around the edge of the train.

Each one had over 400 beads that were sewn in place.

Let's do a little math, shall we? Just on the edging of the dress and train alone.

• 31 + 52 = 83
• 83 X 400 = 33, 200.

Thirty three thousand two hundred beads that sweet, dear friends and family helped sew on my bridal gown. (Plus tens of thousands more in various other spots on the gown.)

Now that, my friends, is something you CANNOT put a price tag on. So, a great big THANKS.....and please know from the bottom of my heart, it means even more today than it did 13 years ago. Sweet memories.