The Perfect Dress - Happy 13th Anniversary to Us!

Thirteen years ago today I married my sweetheart. I could gush quite a bit here about how much I adore that man, and actually I started to, but it got rather personal rather fast and so I'm giving that to him separately. Instead I'm going to share with you a little story. 

When I was about 17 years old, I was walking through the mall one day with my friends doing typical teenagers-at-the-mall type things, when we passed the poster store and I glanced in and saw this:

(photo cred here)

 I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, and I just knew that was going to be my wedding dress, even with all the gold. Those sleeves! I still love this picture. A few years later when I had a wonderful man who wanted to marry me, I started talking to people who could possibly make the dress, because I was pretty sure there was nothing like it in any dress shop. I heard of a woman who worked at a costume shop and also made custom wedding dresses, and I made an appointment to go see her. 

We met in the lobby of the costume shop, and I briefly explained what I wanted and pulled out a tiny poster I had brought that showed the picture. As soon as she saw it she started to smile. "Follow me," she said, and we went up the steps to her studio. On a dress stand there in the middle of her studio was my dress, every detail absolutely perfect. 

I was still staring in amazement when she said, "Would you like to try it on?"

"What size is it?" I said.  

She looked me up and down once and said, "Your size." And it was! I tried it on and it fit perfectly. The only alteration that needed to be made was that it needed to be taken up about an inch in the front. 

Me in my perfect dress, crappy picture scanned in from my scrapbook.

Later my family had that picture framed and it still hangs in my bedroom today. 

Ok, a little teeny bit of gushing. Marquis, I love you. There has been some really hard stuff this past 13 years, and there has also been some really awesome stuff. I have enjoyed every minute of being with you. You are my best friend and the love of my life. I can't wait for the rest of forever with you!