Three Weddings One Dress

Many things are passed down from generations: stories, sayings, and wisdom. Sometimes, a memento can be preserved through the years: granddaddy’s pocket knife or grandma’s glass set. But rarely is a satin dress able to soak in the collective joy, love and anxiousness of three generations of weddings – except in the case of at least one Dickson County family.
On June 16, 1947, Edward Edenfield married Dolores Ruth Hickle, who was dressed in a white candlelight satin dress, with Italian lace and an antique netting veil. Afterward, the new Mrs. Edenfield wrapped the dress in a black shower curtain and packed it away in a trunk. It stayed there for 33 years. When Jane Anne Edenfield decided to marry Wayne Bass, her mother brought out the dress. “(Wearing the dress) had been discussed. We always knew it was there,” Jane Anne said. “It was a beautiful gown… you can’t buy a dress like that any more.” Jane Anne had the dress taken in slightly, but otherwise, it fit perfectly.
The vows were exchanged, “I do” was said, and the dress went back into the trunk. In 1994, Dolores Edenfield passed away. Jane Anne’s sister had two little boys and Jane Anne had two young girls – so the dress fell to her. “It came to me so my girls could hopefully wear it,” Jane Anne said. Jane Anne’s daughter, Rachel, met and fell in love with Dewayne Tidwell about a decade later. They set their wedding for Oct. 1, 2005. It didn’t take long to decide on a dress. “It was just kind of a given,” Rachel said. “I thought it would be cool for a third generation to wear it.” However, Rachel “couldn’t handle the long sleeves” and had the dress slightly altered. She had the sleeves cut off and had the necking altered, as well.
Earlier this year, it was Rachel’s sister, Sarah’s turn to wear the dress when she married Bill Story. The only change she made was removing the bustle. “Just for it to still be intact and for all of us to wear it and it’s still just so pretty,” Sarah said. “It’s got the old romantic charm to it. It’s ageless – that’s what makes it perfect,” Rachel said. Both Sarah and Rachel said they didn’t mind missing out on the process of trying to find the perfect dress. “Once you put that dress on, you’re just like ‘wow,’” Sarah said. “Just the feeling you get when you put that dress on, sets it like ‘that’s the dress I’m going to wear.’”

The next in line for the dress is Rachel’s one-year-old daughter, Kinsley – if that’s the dress she chooses.
“If she says no, that’s her decision, and that’s alright,” Rachel said.
The dress still sits in the attic at Jane Anne’s home in the same black trunk for whoever wants to carry on the tradition.