A wedding is a beginning. Amid solemnity and pomp, family and friends, a couple sets forth (with some luck and patience) on a lifelong journey.
For the bride, though, the wedding also culminates a trek of planning and preparation in which the groom is happily (and often purposely) uninvolved. Decisions about food, flowers and attire must be made —and even in these times of gender parity, it is the bride and (and her supporting cast) who typically takes command of them.
The most important choice is The Dress. While men are generally content to enter wedlock in the same formal garb they wore to their senior prom, women quest for a dress that embodies their unique vision of the wedding day.
Finding The Dress can be a trying, yet rewarding journey of its own, so once found the gown must be celebrated and commemorated. This is why a visitor to the Marin side of the Golden Gate Bridge has a good chance of seeing a beautiful bride baring her shoulders in the afternoon breeze. The bouquet, the tiara, the cast-off shoes, even the stalwart towers of the bridge, all are accessories. Center stage is The Dress, holding in its satiny whiteness the promise of much love to be taken.
