When I posted about my Kleinfeld Bridal experience, I promised to find you a photograph of my mother’s dress–an Italian made, Princess Diana inspired silk-chiffon combo with “sparkles” (mother’s words) and eight layers of crinoline. A Kleinfeld one and only! When I asked my mom if she has anything else to say about it, she said, “Nothing, other than that, when I saw it, I knew it was mine.”
I haven’t dared to take the dress out of its box, as it’s spent the last 25 years preserved, acid free and air tight, though I am curious to see what it looks like in the flesh, and dare I say, how it looks on me. Wearing my mother’s dress didn’t occur to me, though I know a lot of brides support the tradition. To be honest, I’m pretty sure my mother had an unbelievably small waist, so I won’t even entertain that thought. Tailoring it would not be an option. I will have to settle on swooning over it from a distance. Check out that belt, the beaded, petaled neckline, and the three-quarter ballooned sleeves. A-mazing!
The photos here are actually not from my mother’s wedding album but ones her cousin Norm took. He has always considered himself a hobby photographer, and some of my favorite snapshots from childhood were taken by him, when would visit us in New York from Canada. All of these shots are priceless to me. To look at them with a 2011 perspective only brings a smile to my face. My parents were and still are gorgeous. And I know that Bruno and I have so much to learn from them–about both the good times and, well, the not so ideal times, too.
Whenever I freak out about the littlest things in the midst of all this planning, I need to just think of my mom and how, according to her, “There were so few choices in 1986!” May choice not get the better of us today!
P.S. Don’t forget to check out the classic Ukrainian babushki in the background of the third photo peeking through my parents–relics of times past.
