Canadutch
On May 12th my husband and I celebrated our 12 year wedding anniversary. It’s still hard to believe we’ve been together so long as I don’t think either of us feel old enough to have been married for 12 years. Wasn’t it just a few years ago that we WERE 12?
A few days before we were clearing out our storage room when we came across my wedding dress. Well, I use the term “wedding dress” very loosely. It wasn’t really what I imagine a wedding dress to be, but it was all I could find to fit me at the time. It was more of a “*Sigh* It will have to do” dress. It wasn’t my dream dress and I did not feel pretty. I hated the way it felt, I hated the way it looked and truth be told, I was quite unhappy in it. I was, however, extremely happy to be marrying Xander, so I chose to concentrate on that.
As you can see from my selective crop back in the day, I couldn’t even stand full length photos of me in the dress. We got married before the day of digital cameras so this was scanned from the original photo years ago.
You’ll have to take my word on it.
So, on our anniversary we decided that I should try the dress on and see just how much I have changed since that day 12 years ago. I wasn’t quite expecting the results I got…
Looking at it now, it looks like something you’d wear to bed. It still makes me sad that instead of a beautiful wedding dress like all the girls dream of, that I wore something like this… BECAUSE IT FIT.
I am so glad that my days of wearing things I don’t even particular like like, simply because I manage to find them in my size, are coming to an end. I hope I never have to live that way again and am going to do everything in my power to see that it never happens because it feels horrible.
It’s so weird though, I look at the dress in the photos and can clearly see that it’s huge on me, yet I feel MUCH bigger now than I did when I wore it 12 years ago. When people say that it takes your head a while to catch up with what goes on in your body, they aren’t kidding. It’s so bizarre, seriously!
I think I’ll save it and try it on again next year!
I think you look beautiful in that dress, then and now. It’s the faces that matter the most! Happy anniversary!
Aww thanks Monica! :)
Look at how happy you two were to be marrying each other! :) And look how far you have come since then! I was also going to suggest a vow renewal or anniversary party in which you can wear a “dream dress”. Congrats on your anniversary! :)
Yes we were very happy, still are thankfully! :)
12.5 years of marriage (of anything, really) is an important “jubileum” in Dutch society — lots of people thow parties, renew vows, take a second honeymoon… Why not buy the dress you really wanted, like Stephanie suggested, and throw a party? You two have certainly earned it this year!
(12 May is also our anniversary, also 12 years. We’re not sure what we’re going to do come 12 November but are definitely doing SOMETHING :-)
Yeah I’m not sure if we are going to do anything in November, maybe I’ll try to talk him into going somewhere for a night or something. We’ll be after going to the south of France in September and I’m off to Canada for the month of October so I’m not sure we’ll be wanting to do anything big in November :)
I just love this post…you look so happy!
Thanks Tera, I definitely am :)
Maybe in 1-2 years renew your vows and buy a dress you LOVE and feel great in!
and then you’ll have before and after pics and have “the dress”!!
Yeah we might do that, one year run away together with just the two of us, someplace beautiful with a nice dress and renew our vows :)
But I don’t even think the dress is that bad, the overlay is fine. It’s just plain and the material is too casual for a wedding. With a different dress underneath it would look entirely different but overall I’ve seen worse. Seriously!
I see a tonne of wedding dresses and really, it’s the bride who makes the dress. If the bride is happy then she could be wearing a brown paper bag and no one would comment on it. If she’s unhappy, then no dress in the world is going to help her fake that feeling.
Maybe if we ever renew our vows we’ll fly you in to take the photos, Gail :)
I think Gail would be the perfect person to take your new pictures! Fantastic idea! Do it Gail!
I’d totally be up for that!