If you’ve ever been engaged and married, and have been through the wonderful (and slightly tormenting) experience of finding your wedding gown to wear on the big day, you know that it’s a big moment when you finally say yes.
I know, personally, I sort of raised an eyebrow at how emotional everyone always got on Say Yes to the Dress, but then when I found my flowy mermaid-style frock, I wept like a child getting told no in the candy aisle. (Perhaps even more dramatically.)
Point is, after you get to say your vows and dance all night in your gown, the big day is over. And you can’t even wear that dress again!
What you can do? Do what wife and mom Christine Burke did and invent a way for her and her friends to be able to don their wedding dresses yet again.
Christine would stare at her wedding gown in the box stored away in the closet and sigh. I also have an emotional response to seeing it all cooped up in that box, so Christine and I are pretty much kindred spirits.
One day it clicked, and Christine decided to totally channel Rachel, Phoebe, and Monica in that Friends episode where they decide to put on their wedding dresses and veils while just casually hanging out one day in their apartment. Except brilliant Christine was like, oh, wait, let’s actually make this an occasion and possible annual celebration. And so was born The Great Wedding Dress Party of 2017.
Two things: 1. This is the most brilliant thing to ever happen in the entire wedding industry and 2. Where was my invite? Because I would’ve accepted wholeheartedly.
Christine got five of her friends to agree to surprise their husbands by showing up to a New Year’s party in their wedding dresses that the guys married them in oh so many years ago.
One small problem: As it was so many years ago, and with most of the women having birthed a few children, Christine and her ladies had some trouble fitting back into the gown they wore back in the day. Nonetheless, they did prevail, with a few pins and some duct tape— or a whole roll of duct tape, apparently.
Because it was a surprise, the ladies decided to make a grand entrance to the party together. And the guys totally were like, “Aw babe, you’re just as beautiful in that gown as you were the day I married you!”
Just kidding, those pore dopes didn’t know what hit ‘em, as they stared at their wives totally confused. But then they eventually laughed (probably because they knew if they didn’t, they wouldn’t get a New Year’s kiss that night). Christine’s husband even slid back on (and off) the same-day garter she wore for her wedding!
Because Christine and her friends had met after their weddings had passed, she said it was such a fun day reminiscing about each other’s weddings—so much so that it felt like they had actually attended each other’s big days. They’re even trying to come up with more ways to wear their dresses more often. We can get on that train.
What do you think of a wedding dress party? Would you ever do this with your friends?