princess

What did you do with your wedding dress after the Big Day? If you're like me, you had it cleaned and hermetically sealed in nested boxes by a fancy dry cleaner for a small fortune.

One day a few years ago I took it out. I have a thing about sealed boxes. I need to get into them.

I now take it out of its box periodically and try it on. It still fits! Actually, I'm about ten pounds lighter than I was eight years and two babies ago, so it's a little big in the tummy.

I loved my wedding dress. I always wanted to feel like a princess on my wedding day and my dress reflects that. It's one of those princess shaped numbers that weighs about five hundred pounds and you would take out three men and a boy if you turned the wrong way too quickly. I also could not go potty or sit in a chair without assistance. What the hell was I thinking?

Now, I am 5'10" and not in any way a petite lass. The bridal magazines did not suggest this dress for someone with my, er, body type. I was also thirty one when I got married; probably past the age when one should be attempting to rock the princess look. Nevertheless...

Our wedding remains in my memory a magical day and though there are a few small things I would change if we had it to do over again, it was very "us at the time" and very special.

As soon as I saw the wedding pictures though, I hated my dress. My arms looked like sausages, the shape was not flattering to my body and I was just totally unhappy with what I had done and how I had looked through the lens all that day.

One of the things I've come to realize though is that it was more important how that dress made me feel than how I looked in it. It made me feel like a princess. Like a dainty, still in the blossom of her youth princess who had finally found her prince.

I don't have daughters. I sincerely doubt that anyone will ever wear my wedding dress again. Therefore, I see no harm in pulling it out every now and again and feeling like a princess for ten minutes on a gray day in the suburbs when I should be doing dishes and vacuuming.