Wedding Gown Gets a Second Chance

[January 02, 2008]  NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- A wedding gown, bought in joy and then abandoned in despair after a breakup nearly 15 years ago, finally got its walk down the aisle. And it was worn by the woman who had chosen it in 1993. The improbable became reality when Gina Mignone married her love of seven years, Art Smith, on Saturday in Garfield.

Wearing the dress was possible because the gown was saved by dress shop owner Maria DiCarlo.

"I knew you'd be back for it," DiCarlo told Mignone, according to Monday's editions of The Star-Ledger of Newark.

DiCarlo, whose Hollywood Bridal Fashions is in Union, remembered Mignone calling her in tears when her fiance broke their engagement three months before the wedding.

Mignone had paid for the $1,900 Cinderella gown, but never came in for the final fitting.

Over the years, DiCarlo told the newspaper, she had given away hundreds of dresses, including gowns for weddings that were scrapped. But not Mignone's.

DiCarlo had stuffed the bow and the sleeves with paper so they would hold their shape, and wrapped the gown in plastic. She left it hanging in a corner of her basement storeroom.

When Mignone, a vice principal at the Burnet Street School in Newark, finally returned to the shop, she still liked the dress. And the dress was still too tight.

Mignone had ordered it two sizes small, figuring she would drop some weight before her wedding.

DiCarlo said she could add a panel in the back so the zipper would close.

Instead, Mignone fasted and lost 15 pounds in two weeks and slipped into the dress, just as intended nearly 15 years ago.

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Information from: The Star-Ledger, http://www.nj.com/starledger/

[Associated Press]

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