By Arielle Weingast
Photos: Paul Stoloff
It all started on October 26, 1999. He was 19, and she was 18; both Jessica and her boyfriend were just out of high school. They were together for more than ten years making plans and building their futures, when late in the fall of 2011, he proposed!
In April of 2013, they finally set a wedding date of September 28 of that same year, and Jessica launched into full wedding planning mode. Jessica was speaking to her friend about the wedding and her friend mentioned The Brides Project. The more her friend told Jessica about the Project, the more she felt touched by the cause. Jessica lost her grandmother, aunt and her best friend’s mother all to cancer, and has two close friends who are breast cancer survivors. Jessica has seen “all this disease can do” and decided that she would only buy her dress from The Brides Project.
As soon as she made an appointment, Jessica felt the excitement and magic of The Brides Project. Jessica says, “When I showed up I was nervous, overwhelmed, excited, happy and anxious.” Brides Project Consultant Jill helped Jessica search for the perfect dress. She tried on a ton of dresses and narrowed the selection to two. Being very overwhelmed, Jessica decided to take a break and come back another day with her mother.
On her second visit, she found the perfect dress and immediately knew her search was over. She was even more excited that she could buy her veil and slip at The Brides Project as well. Jessica used the preferred alterations specialist, who took her vision and made it better than she ever could have expected. The dress was originally a few sizes too big, but the alterations made it look like it was custom-ordered just for Jessica.
From the moment she made the phone call to make her appointment, all the way to the end of that adventure, Jessica was truly cared for through the whole process. Jessica says, “When you lose a family member to cancer, or you know a cancer survivor, you really, truly understand what a horrible disease it is.” Jessica believes it was hard going through this process knowing those loved ones would not be with her on her wedding day. However, it did put a smile on her face knowing she was helping the organization that will support people facing cancer every day, and that this work could help someone else experience joy (and maybe even a wedding!) in their own family.
