Monday, May 30, 2011

Dreams & Wedding Plans


Once upon a time, there was a young lady who took me under her wing for an afternoon and let me see her room. In it was old books, old quilts, old sewing kits... I looked around in awe. Then, I saw it. Hanging there, against the wall was an old wedding dress. The ancient satin caught the light and glowed. As a typical girl, I almost stopped breathing in the presence of it's beauty. :-) It really was a priceless treasure; it had belonged to the girl's great-grandmother.

For years, I had dreams of what I wanted to be like when I was older. When I was young, my dreams consisted of having the same room the girl had but with one exception: I had not just one wedding dress but millions. Plus I would have a room full of candy and books and movies. And china dolls. (Let us not forget about the china dolls.) But gradually over time, I began to realize what was important and what wasn't. Strangely, as I grew (not much) taller, the earth rose up to meet me in my old age and I became practical. I packed my china doll away. I moved from home. I got a job. There is denim in my closet. I'm trying to stay away from candy.

But I do have an old wedding dress hanging in my closet to remind myself about the sugar and spice side of me. It hangs in my closet, light melting into the satin and looking beautiful. :sigh: I have no idea if I will every be able to make use of it but that is okay. Everyone needs something impractical in their lives. :-)

Part of the plans for my wedding consist of old bottles for putting flowers into. I have been planning on looking for them at yard sales for several weekends now but hadn't gotten the chance. Finally on Saturday, Jesse and I needed to go to Redvers anyways. They were having their town wide garage sale day and I was really looking forward to it. Due to rehearsal for the recital, we ended up not getting into Redvers until 3 or so. Which is apparently when most of the sales happened to shut down. We hit two in town that were just packing up and were able to snag some things that we needed (salt and pepper shaker set that we both liked, etc) but I wasn't finding any old bottles.

We were leaving Redvers when suddenly, about 2 miles out, there was a sign for a yard sale. It said "moving sale". As we were walking towards the garage, suddenly all I was seeing were old bottles and jars. Lots of them. Jesse looked at me and said, "We came to the right place." Lol. These people were antique collectors and had so much old glass, it was unbelievable. I told the lady what we were looking for and she was completely thrilled. We picked out several different bottles and dishes and she gave us a deal. We bought some stuff for $85. It wasn't the 5 cents a bottle kind of sale I'd been looking for but, hey... paying more  now means I can sell later. These bottles aren't cleaned yet. :-)

Anyways. As we were leaving, her husband came running over to the car and asked if we were the ones who had bought his milk bottles. He then asked if we would come to the shed and take a look at what else he had to sell because he thought we might be interested. We decided we could and he set an entire crate of these milk bottles in front of us. "Make me an offer," he said. Jesse and I looked at each other. Judging by what the man's wife had charged us for the few we'd gotten before, we thought around $200 for this crate and I simply didn't want to pay that kind of money! "Go ahead! Make me an offer. Don't be afraid to insult me," he said again. Jesse and I kind of stuttered a little bit. Hehe. :-D "Ok! Do you have a $10 bill in your pocket? Just give me $10 for the whole thing." I think our jaws just about hit the ground. Lol. We definitely had $10 and we now have enough bottles for the entire wedding. Wow.

It was an interesting inner struggle to watch, actually. The man was a salesman, wanting to get the biggest dollar for his product but he was also a kind hearted man. He asked what we wanted the bottles for and when we told him we wanted them for our wedding, he was so pleased. He gave us a butter churn, a couple of plastic crates, a wooden crate and a piece of petrified wood. *G*

When we went back to the car, the lady met us there and asked how much he'd charged us for everything. When we told her how much (a little gingerly, I assure you!) she gasped and looked... surprised and... delighted? I'm not sure. She wasn't displeased, for sure.... just very happy about her husband's generosity. She then insisted on giving us another tea cup for free. He kept urging her on by saying, "Ruth, they're getting married." "They are looking for antiques for their wedding." "They're getting married, Ruth!"

As we were getting ready to leave, she came running back to the car and handed us back the $10. "We decided we couldn't take it," she said. Jesse and I were rather overcome by their generosity. We were not anticipating it. What an answer to prayer. Each step we have taken in preparing for our wedding and new life together has been so amazing. So many things have been due to people's generosity.

Thank you. You know who you are.

But I am working today and I really need to get prepared for leaving. :-) My hair still isn't done and I need to get laundry in the wash. Plus, I need to put socks on. :-) :-) Ya'll have a great day wherever you happen to be. 

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, God brought you to the right place!! And how generous they were! What kind-hearted people!
*hugs* SO HAPPY for you two!

muzic4him said...

Neat story! I too am on the hunt for antique bottles, vases, and glassware for my wedding! Good thing we aren't in the same area! One neat answer to prayer for me was some dear friends lending me boxes and boxes of blue mason canning jars - something I was looking for specifically, but unwilling to pay the usual $3-$5 apiece price tag. God is good to grant even those little desires of our heart!

Pamela M M Berkeley said...

Wow! That's an awesome story!! :)

And when I was a kid I wanted to live in a mansion with 200 cats and drive a limousine (because I knew rich people had limos, and I didn't realize that they normally had someone driving it for them! I just thought it was another car). We all have our crazy kid ideas of luxury!

Bekah said...

The only thing that comes to mind while reading this is, "Isn't God good?!?!?!?!"

Anonymous said...

Oh, what a heart warming beautiful story! Thanks for sharing that lovely tidbit!

Naomi T. said...

They were indeed very sweet folks. :) I wouldn't mind getting to know them better.

Andrea, I love those blue mason canning jars. :) I am really hoping to be able to get some. I really like the colored glass! That's so great that you were able to find some. What kind friends. :) :)

Singing Pilgrim, are you a lover of cats?

kennady said...
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