Perfect Brides and Grooms

They really do exist!

2003 Archive

I'd like to nominate this bride as a 'perfect' bride!

My best friend "Jane" from college was getting married, and I was excited to be her maid of honor. Her mother was wonderful and extremely well organized, and assisted with one of the loveliest and most memorable wedding showers I have ever helped give. Jane was truly her mother's daughter, and organized the entire wedding almost a year in advance. We picked out a very nice bridesmaids dress for me, it fit great and was relatively inexpensive.

Little did my good friend, the organized bride, know what a total hassle having me as a maid of honor was to become!

Fast forward to the day before the wedding...

I traveled to Jane’s home to help her get ready for the wedding. We were trying our dresses on for a last minute spot check, when to my horror, I realized I couldn't zip my dress. There was nothing wrong with the dress -- it was *me* -- somehow my midsection had a funny bulge. I had porked out over the summer without really noticing and now I couldn't even zip the maid of honor's dress! I panicked, laid down on the bed, sucked it all in and tried zipping again. No luck! Time to freak!

This calm bride breezily waved her hand and said "No problem, we'll just go get another dress."

Fortunately I was the only member of the wedding party, so my choices of dress were fairly wide open -- black, cranberry, forest green or silver would match the flower arrangements and flower girl's dress.

The bride and I went to store after store trying to find something suitable that didn't need much in the way of alterations. Finally, we ended up at an outlet store and found a perfect dress for $35. It was black, but luckily, black and white weddings were 'in' that year.

Most brides would have become total bridezillas and freaked at having to do last minute bridesmaids’ dress shopping just 16 hours before their wedding, but Jane was cool, calm and gracious. There were a few other minor hitches in other areas of the wedding plans, but through it all Jane remained happy and fun. It was the most enjoyable wedding I have been in or to, before or since.

(The ‘bulge’ turned out to be a tumor, we later found out, ick! Jane is still happily married, now with a family.

PerfectBrides1020-04

I was in a wedding a few years ago of a very close friend of mine. Well, it so happened that my significant other passed away the week of her wedding. The funeral was the Friday before. Not only did the bride hold my hand and let me cry on her shoulder, she also went to the funeral with me a few hours before her own Rehearsal! Is that love or what? To this day, I still can't believe her generosity of spirit and support during that time. I managed to stand up in her wedding and also read for her. Even though her own twin sister, who was supposed to be the MOH, decided the day before the wedding she wasn't coming!! True story. The truth is ALWAYS stranger than fiction........at least in my life, without fail!

PerfectBrides0811-04

When we were in our twenties, my boyfriend and I became engaged and planned our wedding. A few weeks before the wedding I got cold feet and canceled everything.

Somehow, ex boyfriend and I remained cordial and struggled at keeping a friendship.

Fast forward a few years, he moved to another town and once again got engaged. I was invited to the wedding.

Looking back, I can't believe the bride tolerated my presence, let alone being so friendly as to show me around town in the days following her wedding, and making sure I had everything I needed during my stay.

This was all quite a few years ago now, but I still keep in touch with my ex and his wife. I don't know that I could ever be so gracious as she was.

PerfectBrides1014-04

Well, this is rather short.  I help with wedding rehearsals at our church and have found the most complicated quagmires are usually intra-familial (step-, ex-, etc.).  One bride's step was loud and belligerent about how things were "usually" done in our denomination.  I suppose she was feeling left out.  My jaw dropped though that she complained that her husband (the bride's father) would not be walking down the aisle with her, but with her daughter.  She was very angry at this and insisted that he escort her down the aisle, as she was her husband and that was his place.  The bride sweetly said, of course, and that he could simply walk back to escort her (the bride) back down for her entrance. 

Just for the record, our tradition is that the mothers are escorted by groomsmen, and followed by their husbands.  This is altered by individuals, but  in this case, the actual MOB had an groomsman escort, not her new husband at her side.

PerfectBrides1216-04

Do you know a wonderful bride and groom who should be immortalized for their graciousness?  Send us the story and be sure to put "Perfect Bride" in the email subject line 

Page Last Updated May 18, 2007