This photo was taken of my 13 year old cousin wearing an old wedding dress I found at Goodwill last fall. We were playing dress up on a rainy day and decided to take some pictures. I love the way they turned out. :-)
She stood waiting for their arrival. She had dressed in the gown her grandmother had provided. It had been her mother's before, but it fit as if her own body had stood still for the seamstress to measure. By the end of the day she would know her fate for sure. She would know if she could love the one to whom she had been pledged. In these moments, in these last girlhood moments, she simply stood seeking solace in the shadows near the clearing she had played in as a child and allowed herself to wonder what the days ahead would bring. Mysteriously she found that even though her mind could not settle on a single possibility, her heart had ventured further and she felt herself begin to blossom forth like a rosebud opening at dawn and she considered the possibility that their love might actually be able to grow.