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Pickle Me This

January 17, 2007

My Wedding Dress

My wedding dress came off the rack. It wasn’t even a wedding dress. I’d set out that day with the sole specification that my dress be the prettiest one I find, and it was only by chance that the one I found was white.

My friend Bronwyn and I went shopping for dresses on Oxford Street in London a month before my wedding. Bronwyn had seen one already that she thought might be right, and I liked it too. A strapless dress from Coast, with red flowers beaded and embroidered around one side. I appreciated that it was white enough to be bridey, and the red was perfect. Red is my favourite colour. But of course, I still wanted to look around a bit. I tried on bridal dresses in a few other high street shops, and other distinctly non-bridal dresses. I don’t remember any of them. I do remember that by lunch time we knew the Coast dress was right, and when we found it in Debenhams with 20% off, we knew the universe was in agreement. We found a matching wrap in the accessories section, a pair of sandals, and got the underthings from M&S. Everything except the hair accessory, which I ended up making myself out of beads and a headband. And so basically, I was outfitted in a day, at a discounted rate no less. This is no romantic tale, but the dress was perfect. Bronwyn has good taste. I had the most beautiful bouquet in the world to match, and the red and white became our wedding theme. It was such a lovely day.

And so of course, I’ve got to weave a metaphor out of all of this. Which would be that I bought my wedding dress off the rack, on sale. The dress was gorgeous no doubt, but absolutely ordinary. The odds are that I will wear it again. And that ordinariness is my point. Our love for each other is so ordinary and absolutely unremarkable (and I mean this in the most romantic way one can), and I would not have to put on a costume to proclaim that. On my wedding day, I was dressed as myself, which was all that I had to be for us to work. It wasn’t a fairy tale, but it was our real life, and one which is wonderful every day.

5 thoughts on “My Wedding Dress”

  1. Anonymous says:

    You looked beautiful that day, and there was nothing ordinary about the happiness and love you shared that day, and still do.
    love Sue x

  2. Kerry says:

    Thank you! And what a handsome man, eh?

  3. Crissy Calhoun says:

    that is just the most perfect love paragraph. ever.

  4. Drea says:

    That was possibly the sweetest thing I’ve ever read! You two are great- and I love your dress! Hope to get together again soon!
    -Cheers, Andrea

  5. Kerry says:

    Thank you to Crissy for the advertising, and Drea too (Soon indeed. We like you). And to everyone whose response to that post was nice instead of vomitous.

    True love won’t wait.

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