As a Mother, I dreamed of a “…happily ever after” to my “Once upon a time…” Most Fathers dream of an entire baseball team of their miniature selves running bases and hitting balls out of the park. Rarely does the dream-team include offspring of the female gender. God blessed Tom and I with two athletic boys before He gave us a soft and sweet eight pound little girl. Now, with the addition of this pink bundle of joy, my Prince and I were on our way to writing our own fairy tale.
Growing up in my time meant hearing or reading colorful books of wonderful tales like “The Littlest Angel” and “Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates.” VCR’s or DVD’s of Walt Disney Classics had yet to be. It was up to the writer and the reader to provide children with the special effects, costume design, sound and musical score. But, we somehow managed to bring those classic stories to life. Often the stories would continue to unfold even after the book had been closed and the light turned off. Like the black and white pages of a color book, the Cinderella gown became pale blue and the Princes’s coat royal blue as the ocean as they danced across the ballroom floor with the clock ticking toward midnight. All left to the imagination of a child.
When I saw my little girl, now a grown woman, emerge from the dressing room in her very first selection of a wedding gown, it took my breath away. It really would not matter which of the gowns she chose. Each one more beautiful than the last. It was like going back to that story book. It was like the dream I had never been fortunate enough to live.
It took two shopping trips to find the dress. And when she decided, we, the Mother of the Groom, the Bridesmaids and I, agreed the dress was perfect. It was the gown that made her face light up. The dress that transformed her from that young woman to a Bride. She had found her beautiful gown. This dress would lift her Father to a level of pride he would find difficult to contain. The dress that would bring a tear to her Grooms eye when he finally saw it.The biggest piece to a picture she had held in her mind of the day she would marry the man who would give her her happy ending.
One thing I have learned … if you wait long enough….fairy tales do come true. Thank you my handsome Prince for being able to make dreams come true for both Lindsay and me.
P.S. After the wedding I will post the picture of Lindsay in her wedding gown at the Bridal Salon when she first decided it was the one.
