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The true story behind the wedding dress tradition.
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If you were tweeting live with the POstables the night Signed, Sealed, Delivered: To The Altar aired, you'll know we had a special guest, series creator, Martha Williamson, tweeting with us. Adding to our enthusiastic commentary, she pinned a particular concept for further explanation:
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And, of course, I couldn't possibly forget something so important and intriguing. Fortunately, Martha and I were able to connect after To The Altar aired, and she shared with me what essentially amounts to an incredible story within a story, and it goes a little something like this:
When Martha was little, her mother gave her a copy of Reader's Digest Treasury For Young Readers (1963). It's an anthology of over 200 pages of true and fictional stories, games, puzzles, riddles and more. Martha loved the book, read it cover-to-cover multiple times, and practically memorized everything in it. She even had the book in hand as she spoke with me over the phone!
But there was one story that really stayed with Martha. It was about a beautiful young woman in Italy who fell in love with a successful salesman from the United States. The local Tailor offered to make her wedding dress, and told the woman he was sad she was leaving. Nevertheless, the young woman moved to New York and married the salesman. The husband eventually died and she became a widow. The loss of her husband put the woman and her daughters in poverty.
One day, one of the daughters needed a dress for communion, but the woman didn't have the money. She decided to alter the wedding dress for her daughter, and discovered a love letter from the Tailor. So the woman wrote the Tailor back to let him know she had finally found the letter. The Tailor got on a plane, came to New York, married the woman, and saved them from poverty.
When Martha was little, her mother gave her a copy of Reader's Digest Treasury For Young Readers (1963). It's an anthology of over 200 pages of true and fictional stories, games, puzzles, riddles and more. Martha loved the book, read it cover-to-cover multiple times, and practically memorized everything in it. She even had the book in hand as she spoke with me over the phone!
But there was one story that really stayed with Martha. It was about a beautiful young woman in Italy who fell in love with a successful salesman from the United States. The local Tailor offered to make her wedding dress, and told the woman he was sad she was leaving. Nevertheless, the young woman moved to New York and married the salesman. The husband eventually died and she became a widow. The loss of her husband put the woman and her daughters in poverty.
One day, one of the daughters needed a dress for communion, but the woman didn't have the money. She decided to alter the wedding dress for her daughter, and discovered a love letter from the Tailor. So the woman wrote the Tailor back to let him know she had finally found the letter. The Tailor got on a plane, came to New York, married the woman, and saved them from poverty.
A beloved story re-imagined.
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Martha never forgot the story, particularly the idea of a note lost in a dress, that would have never been found if the dress hadn't been altered. She loved the idea of it being discovered at the time the woman needed it the most.
To The Altar was the perfect opportunity for Martha to draw on this beloved story from her childhood. Thus was born Evelyn Rose and her motto, "Every bride is unique and every dress has a secret." Very much an act of love, the prayers sewn for each bride, in the hems of each dress Evelyn Rose made, harken back to the Tailor in the story Martha never forgot. |
And since I couldn't possibly relay this story without trying to track down the original source from which it was drawn, I hacked my way "into the deepest galaxies of cyberspace" to unearth the true story entitled, appropriately, The Wedding Dress from Reader's Digest Treasury For Young Readers (1963) in its entirety.
If you can't see it above, you can read it here. Because it was photocopied for the online archive, it might be a bit blurry. Tried my best to modify it, but I'm sure you'll be eager enough to find a way to read it, even if you need a magnifying glass! (haha)
What an amazing memory Martha has, and what a gift it was to be able to receive, and share the story with all of you. So thank you, Martha, for sharing it.
Inspired,
~C
What an amazing memory Martha has, and what a gift it was to be able to receive, and share the story with all of you. So thank you, Martha, for sharing it.
Inspired,
~C
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