It is February ... the month of my two wedding anniversaries. It seemed coincidental that last week I received an email from Megan Osborne, Assistant Curator & Collections Manager of the Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising in Ft. Collins, Colorado telling me that my wedding dress is on display now that the museum is open to the public. Would I write a short piece about the dress to be included in the museum's February bulletin?
Just two years ago in February I donated my wedding dress to the museum and learned that it was one of the last accepted donations before the museum closed for Covid-19. It has only opened 2 years later and today my dress is in the entry to the museum in a glass case highlighted as a "new acquisition".
Writing a 600 word essay about my wedding dress reminded me of how many times I have told and written the story of my two wedding ceremonies and how I came to wear a custom made dress which ordered in Athens, Greece in January 1975.
For the Avenir Museum February Bulletin....
Ever since I married in 1975, I celebrate two anniversaries – February 16th and February 22nd. This is because my husband and I had two ceremonies. Unusual…but it happened.
Little did I know that when I took a job as the librarian at the American School of Asunción in Paraguay, I would meet and fall in love with the Social Studies teacher. Within a year and a half we were planning a wedding which turned into two. Our original idea was to be married by the ship’s captain on the Eugenio C, an Italian ocean liner we were booked on, bound for Naples from Buenos Aires. A trip around Europe and North Africa was to be our honeymoon. When we called our parents to tell them our plans they were not pleased. They wanted to be at our wedding. So, we compromised by taking our honeymoon first, and then coming home for two different weddings with each of our families.
We were married in Orange, Connecticut on Feb. 16, 1975 by a rabbi in my sister-in-law’s home. My mother-in-law found the only rabbi in Connecticut who would perform the ceremony because I was not Jewish. I wore my Grecian dress for the first time, and walked down the stairs on the arm of my brother-in-law. My wedding was the first Jewish wedding I had ever been to.
A week later, we traveled to my parents’ home in Mexico City where they lived at the time. My Mother hired a caterer to make an elegant authentic Mexican luncheon for 40 guests, most of whom were US Embassy friends and some relatives from California. For the second time I put on the Grecian dress, took my father’s arm, and walked down the long hallway of their modern house. The Unitarian minister in Mexico City presided over the ceremony held in front of the circular fireplace. The next day I packed the dress in my suitcase and we traveled to Santiago, Chile where we had jobs waiting for us at the International School. We were finished with weddings.
The handmade ivory wool dress I ordered in a dress shop in Athens while on our travels, turned out to be perfect for snowy Connecticut in February and cool Mexico City in winter. If we had been married on the ship as we had wanted, I never would have worn a Greek wedding dress with a story behind it. As it turned out, our travels through North Africa, Greece, and Europe gave us time to shop for a dress, wedding ring, and party favors. The international touches for our two celebrations reflected much about us as global citizens.
Excerpt from a letter written to my parents on January 11th, 1975 – Athens, Greece
…the wedding dress is being made for me here and is simply out of this world….It cost a fortune but for 2 weddings we rationalized it. It’s long ivory wool with heavy gold embroidery …and an embroidered short vest which fastens under the bust. It is typical Grecian design and truly a work of art. It is worthy of being put in a museum someday. I shall hand carry it all the way to New York and then to Mexico City…
My prophecy came true now that my Grecian dress resides at the Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising in Ft. Collins, Colorado. What a long way it has traveled from Athens in 47 years. It is fitting that it should be on display for others to enjoy in the years to come.
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It is now clear to me that I will be telling this story for the rest of my life. The thoughts about my dress now being on display for others to enjoy and my story being "public" has made me realize that the circle won't be complete until I actually see it on display at the museum where it will be from now on. Now we are making plans to visit the Avenir in June in Ft. Collins and once we have done that we will have come full circle. I am delighted and at peace with the feeling that I have left something special behind for others to talk about and enjoy.
https://chhs.source.colostate.edu/avenir-museum-collection-feature-my-wedding-dress/
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