The Wedding Dress Fund

Back in 2012 after I got engaged and started the process of planning my wedding my mom “gave” me the most thoughtful gift. She explained that around the time I was in middle school she started putting money aside each month so that one day, whenever the time came, she could buy me my wedding dress. At the time of my engagement she had saved thousands of dollars. Not because she was worried that she was not going to be able to afford the dress when the time actually came, but because she wanted the process of buying my dress to have a deeper meaning. She didn’t want to just pay for it as if it was another normal shopping trip to the mall. She wanted it to be something special and meaningful; something that she personally gave me.

I was stunned, in a good way, and truly taken aback. Knowing that my mom had been saving up for years solely to be able to give me this one gift was truly special and something that words cannot really explain. Even more so, the fact that she had faith that a wonderful man would one day come along and want to marry me – even with all the very questionable guys I dated before my husband – was also very reassuring and heartwarming. Shout-out to you, DR! #norefundpolicy

Her dream of buying me my dress then doing so all those years later sparked an idea in my mind: if I ever have a daughter I want to do the same. I want her to know that I was hopeful and excited about her future before I even held her. A ‘family tradition’ of sorts.

And now, that time has come. Pregnant with my own daughter who is due in twelve (short!) weeks, the wedding dress fund has officially started!

I started the wedding dress fund a couple of months back. It has been quite fun, really! Something like a friendly competition I play with myself to see how much I can save each month. Each time I get a paycheck for teaching I keep half for myself and put the other half into the wedding dress fund.

Now, if you read my blog about teaching group fitness you will know that I am not talking big money. It comes out to about twenty dollars per paycheck or forty dollars per month. Nothing huge. Nothing extravagant. A little bit here, a little bit there. The amount also depends on how many classes I teach each month and which gym I teach at since I make a different amount at each gym. But, I figure if I put aside $40/mth starting now and continue to teach group fitness for many years to come (fingers crossed!), I should have a decent amount to give her when that exciting time in her life comes… and I can’t wait!

I look forward to the day that I can tell my daughter that I will be buying her wedding dress with cash that I personally saved by teaching fitness classes, or whatever hobby I take-up down the road, and how I started while she was still in utero. I look forward to telling her how her grandmother also had a wedding dress fund for me and how it made the occasion so much more special. Then hopefully, someday down the road, she will continue with the tradition and do the same for her daughter.