Engagements and Wedding Dresses

 



Many of you know my son, Tony, because of his blog Tony's Nutrition Tips.  And if you've been reading my blog for awhile then you know about Tony's struggle with weight and how he lost 85 pounds, got healthy and fit, and started dating the girl he had wanted to date since he first met her in 5th grade.  If you've never read Tony's story, go check it out.

 

Anyway, I am so pleased and thrilled to announce that Tony and Alex recently got engaged.  We are so happy for them, and excited to welcome Alex into our family.  She's beautiful and sweet and she's good for Tony.  Having Alex in his life is the best thing that ever happened to him. 

 

 

 

They aren't planning on getting married for about 2 years yet.  Alex needs to finish nursing school next year and Tony has a little over a year and a half left before he finishes his degree in Dietetics. 

 

 

In the meantime, we have plenty of time to start planning a wedding, and almost immediately talk turned to wedding dresses.  I still have my wedding dress.  We got married in 1985 and after the wedding I had my dress cleaned and I placed it in a box and stuffed it in the crawlspace in the attic.  I also boxed up my wedding hat - who else got married in the 80's and wore a hat and not a veil?    The crawlspace is probably not the best place for such a treasure, but that's where it's sat for 28 years. 

 

Just for fun I went upstairs and pulled all the crap out of the crawlspace and dug out the boxes with my dress and hat.  Everything is in surprisingly good shape, very clean, just extremely wrinkled.  I brought it downstairs and told Alex to go try it on.  Aren't they cute?

 

 

 

So just for kicks I decided to try my dress on too - just to see if I could.....

 

And it still fits!  I can even button it.   It's a little snug but not bad for 28 years....

 

Ok, so here is what I'm thinking.  The thing I really loved about my dress was the peek-a-boo lace window panel on the train.  You can see it just to the left of my feet.  I thought maybe I'd somehow cut out the panel and frame it with one of our wedding photos.  Then I wanted to take the rest of the dress and make 2 wedding purses out of the satin and lace.  One purse for Alex and put another one away for Chablis for when her time comes.  Chablis also mentioned that she's like to take a small piece of my dress and save it to pin inside her wedding dress someday.  Or maybe I should make wedding pillows?   I was also toying with the idea of making Tony a handkerchief.  There's a lot of material there and a lot of possibilities and I have no problem with cutting up my dress to make keepsakes.  I don't know.  I'm looking for suggestions.  What do you think?