That 2 Dress/ 2 Veil Bride

I didn't talk much about my dresses and my veils before the wedding because I didn't want to get my hopes up that it would happen and then not have things work out the way I wanted them to. Confused yet? What could hold me back from wearing the second dress? Prepare for a long post in all of the explaning, but as always, I will fill it with pictures to keep you reading. Let's start with what I did know first.

Evelyn and this veil were always going to happen. This veil just happens to be That Mother's veil, stashed away in Grandma's closet, with no hopes of ever being worn again. That is, until That Bride and her crafty sister put two and two together and realized the veil had been worn once within the last 10 years while a fun round of dress-up was played and photos were taken. A little bit of digging and... YES!

Then I was going to keep Evelyn and change into this veil. The sassy birdcage from Something Bold just didn't look right worn over my face, but looked perfect flip back with a flower from Easter Yu.

But there was also a second dress lurking in my closet, calling out to me to be worn. The same day I tried on my Grandmother's dress from the 1950's I also attempted to zip up my mom's wedding dress. If the last person to wear it had been my mother I think there would have been no problems, but after my parents were married my practical Aunt decided to wear the same dress (to marry her brother-in-laws brother!), adding on poofy 80's sleeves and taking it in around the ribcage and at the bust. So the first hurdle was zipping the gown up AND being able to breathe.

Luckily pre-wedding stress knocked an inch or two off of my frame and a few weeks before the wedding I was finally able to zip the dress up and move around a little bit. The dress was sent off to the dry cleaner in an attempt to make it look a little whiter so that hurdle number 2 could be tackled.

2nd hurdle = would the dress be white enough? You see, I was never going to wear Evelyn in the temple for the sealing ceremony. I chose an off-white gown knowing it complemented my skin tone best, but with the knowledge that white clothing (including dresses) are worn inside of the temple. Elder John A Widtsoe, a leader in the LDS church, explains it best:

“In the temples all are dressed alike in white. White is the symbol of purity. No unclean person has the right to enter God’s house. Besides, the uniform dress symbolizes that before God our Father in heaven, all men are equal. The beggar and the banker, the learned and the unlearned, the prince and the pauper sit side by side in the temple and are of equal importance if they live righteously before the Lord God, the Father of their spirits. It is spiritual fitness and understanding that one receives in the temple. All such have an equal place before the Lord” (John A. Widtsoe, “Looking toward the Temple,” Ensign, Jan. 1972, p. 58).

My mom had worn the dress in the Seattle temple to be sealed to my father 24 years previously, so it wasn't an issue of modesty or style, but the dress had been hanging in my grandma's closet unpreserved for all of that time and the fabric would never be the brilliant white it once was. I cleaned the gown and packed it up knowing that I might walk into the temple and be told by one of the kind ladies that it hadn't been taken care of well enough, and that I would have to wear something else. (If you are wondering, my something else would have been the very plain and simple temple dress I will always wear when I visit the temple form now on).

Luckily that didn't happen, and so I was able to be sealed in the same dress that my parents were sealed in, in the same building. My mom wasn't as excited about the idea as I was, but it meant a lot to me to have her say that morning, as she was helping me get dressed in the dressing room "I didn't realize how much it would mean to me to have you be sealed in my dress."

Photographs of any kind are not permitted in the temple after the building is dedicated, so I do not have any photos to show you from the actual wedding day. Again, I knew this before we were married, so I begged That Mother to do an After Wedding Shoot with us on the last day of our honeymoon, since we would only be relaximooning about 45 minutes from my house!

Before you look at these photos, I know That Mother would be whispering in my ear to type "Make sure they know those aren't the sleeves I chose!" I also realize that my poor little chest is smashed beyond recognition because the dress is such a tight fit. That Husband couldn't even look at this photo without laughing!

Here I am wearing my mother's veil, her dress, one of the fabulous cocktail rings I collected in Italy this past May (I also gave one to each of my bridesmaids!), the pearls That Husband gave me the morning of our wedding, and the earrings my parents gifted me for the wedding*.

I think the texture on the bottom of the dress is so beautiful. I don't think you see many soft and floaty dresses made like this for the price my mom paid. Her wedding was very simple and I think she said she paid around $200 for this dress!

The veil and the dress go together so perfectly. If you click on the photo to enlarge and zoom in you will see that the bottom of the veil is yellow with age! I liked it that way though, and insisted that we not get it cleaned as I thought it added a little vintage quality to the dress.

So now you are overwhelmed and you forgot what this post was about. Let's do a quick review of the different looks I wore on my wedding day.

I started out the morning with a first look moment wearing this:

A dress that used to look like this, BTW:

Then I went inside the temple and changed out of Evelyn and into my mom's dress and was sealed wearing this (minus the veil)*:

Then I went back to the dressing room and emerged from the temple wearing this:

Once we arrived at Hotel 1000 I did a quick veil switch and spent the rest of the night looks like this:

I loved fitting in so many different "looks" throughout the day. Bet you didn't realize I was such a quick change artist!

Do I need to brag once again? Kelli Nicole Photography. The other love of my life.

*All photos of me in my mom's dress by my amazing mother!