the Brides of yesterday and tomorrow

Many years ago I decided that I wanted to have a picture taken of all my daughters in their wedding dresses. I decided that this would happen when the last one married. Well, Nancy did that this past December so I felt this was the summer to do this. And everyone was to be here on the 4th of July so we celebrated the 3rd of July with Bridal pictures. And let me tell you, it was one of the funniest picture shoots you could possibly imagine! Spain has the running of the bulls and we had the running of the brides...all documented of course....as we came from the porch and down the hill to in front of the roses.

And, as might be expected, some of us did better getting into our dresses than others. Nancy is the most recent bride but she has lost weight with her training for yet another marathon so her dress was rather loose. Linda's dress was too big when she wore it and still is, but looked beautiful on her all the same. Michelle has a 5 month old baby which explains her challenge with zippers really well. Emily has 5 babies from 3 to 11 to justify her situation and I claim the 32 years between wearings to explain the fact I could not zip mine. The future brides didn't have those concerns!

Kristin wore the dress that matched Nancy's (She wore a bolero jacket at the wedding but it was hot so we omitted the jacket for the pictures). Claire wore the dress that matched Linda's wedding dress (worn by Kristin in the actual wedding pictures) and Amy had a beautiful white dress that Emily came by. They were as excited with this day of dress-up as we were!

Then we did individual shots with the husbands in shorts etc. and the wives in wedding dresses. An interesting combination that showed the true spirit of the day. We did a serious picture and then some really stupid ones....and stupid we do really well! The final Amen came from Nancy as she did a full lay-out back summersault on the trampoline while in her wedding dress. It was breath taking. When I think of all the money invested in those dresses it just makes me smile to know we can have fun with them.

I have decided our next visit with these dresses will be at the next wedding in the family. Several years away at this time, but we will need several years I think to better what we have already done! Sometimes you just have to take a step backwards and see the fun in it all...we did and it was a great day.