The Best Wedding Anniversary Tradition Ever
June is the month for weddings. As such, it is also the month for wedding anniversaries. Mine, for instance, is June 14th. My husband and I celebrated by going out to dinner. What do you do for your anniversary? Buy a gift? Take a trip?
Maybe, just maybe, you’ll pull out your 17-year-old wedding dress, put it on, and bop around town like it’s nobody’s business. Because c’mon, if the dress fits…
Meet Laurie. 
Laurie is a teacher, a mom, a wife of seventeen years (to Rob) and she just happens to fit in her wedding dress. She knows this because she puts it on every year as an anniversary tradition. And she doesn’t just put it on, she goes places. Yep. You heard me. She leaves the house. And looks fabulous doing it. I frankly wish I had thought of this because it sounds like so much fun, but the truth is my wedding dress from just four years ago is currently too snug for public viewing. Kudos to Laurie, who looks as good in the dress today as she did for its original wearing.
The original wearing was June 17, 2000. Laurie remembers finding her dress relatively quickly and knowing right away it was “the one”. She liked that it was simple and classic and insists she still loves the dress today. Loving the dress is part of the reason why she puts it on every year because when you love your dress, it’s a shame to only wear it once. She got the idea for the tradition from her mother, who put her own wedding dress on for every anniversary, “just to see if it fits.” The first year, Laurie didn’t venture far. She walked across the street to her neighbor’s house and insists her husband was terrified that someone would see her. She says he has since gotten used to her not only putting it on, but wearing it out of the house.
She’s done it every year since that first anniversary and is happy to report that it has fit every year, though some years the zipper has gone up easier than others. Where does she go in the dress you ask? Wherever she feels like. To the neighbor’s house. To the pool. To the grocery store. She wore it to a Mom’s group once. Goofed around and cleaned the house in it. Just last year, she wore it jumping rope in the neighbor’s yard. Laurie’s favorite place that she’s worn the dress? Her son’s baseball game. Because sometimes baseball happens on your anniversary.
And despite Rob’s initial reservations, the annual dress-wearing has become a family affair. Both of her kids enjoy seeing where she’ll wear it next and, yes, both of them have taken their turn trying it on.
Where did Laurie go in 2017?
Naturally, she went to Kroger, because even brides need groceries. And as all brides require, she had a bridesmaid along in case she needed any help with her dress.
I’d say Laurie wins it, hands down, for a fun wedding anniversary tradition that extends the joy and involves her friends and family. It beats the heck out of spending a mint on a preservation process just so you can guilt some future bride in the family to use it for her wedding. Well done, Laurie. We’ll be watching next year!
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