When Mary Lowry Warren got married in 1895, she had a beautiful wedding dress designed for her. And, as she was the first bride who wore it, she made sure to pass it down to the generations that followed.
After Lowry, Jane wore it in 1946, Virginia in 1948, Sara in 1960, Laird in 1976, Leslie in 1977, Janet in 1982, Jane in 1986, Virginia in 1989, and Anne in 1991.
Now, it was time for someone to wear it in the 21st century, and this was Abigail Kingston of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
The 30-year-old woman knew that she wanted to wear the heirloom wedding gown, and her mother, Leslie, who had worn it herself almost four decades earlier, couldn’t wait to see her beloved daughter in the beautiful Victorian dress.
“Every mother wants their daughter to wear the wedding dress they wore. Because that was the supreme day of happiness,” mom Leslie Kingston told Inside Edition.
However, things were not as easy as one might have thought.
The dress was in Vermont with her great aunt Sara “Sally” Seiler. Both of her daughters, Virginia and Anne, wore the dress on their wedding days, and they had kept it until someone else from the family wished to wear it.
In April before the wedding, Abby received the dress, but it was not in good condition.
Although the young woman knew she wanted to wear it on her special day, she didn’t know if that would be possible.
You see, only one of the brides had ever taken it to be dry-cleaned, but dry cleaning was not what would save the Victorian dress from looking worn out.
After all, it had already been worn by 10 brides, which means it had been changed to fit each bride’s shape and size.
Leslie and Abby took the dress to Deborah LoPresti, a bridal designer known for restoring vintage dresses in order to save it.
LoPresti spent more than 200 hours on the dress, cleaning it by hand, and making all the necessary changes so that it would look just like the original. She also made sure to fit 5 feet 10 inch Abby, of course.
“I felt like Cinderella the first time I put everything on,” Abigail told TODAY. “I seriously felt like I got the dress in rags and turned it into riches.”
On October 17, 2015, Abby got married to Jason Curtis at the Lake House Inn in Perkasie, Pennsylvania.
The groom did like the dress, but he really didn’t have eyes for anything other than his beloved Abby.
“The bride is more beautiful than the dress, and more beautiful than I could imagine,” he said during their interview with Inside Edition.
At the same time, the bride was excited to be wearing the vintage dress and marrying the love of her life.
“I am so blessed to be wearing this wedding dress,” she said, “and be married to [Jason]. I couldn’t be happier.”
What a lovely story!
Check out the video below to get a closer look at this stunning wedding gown!
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