• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe

The $8 bridesmaid dresses

February 9, 2020
By Rita Buettner
Filed Under: Blog, Open Window

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

I was sitting at the desk in my office on a cold January day. The phone rang, and I answered in my professional work voice.“Now, don’t be angry,” said a woman’s voice on the other end.

“Wait…what?” I said, confused.

“I was at Value City…” started the voice—and I realized it was my mother.

“Why would I be angry?” I said.

“Well, I was shopping, and I just happened to see this rack full of dresses. They were Chadwick’s of Boston, and they were $10 a piece.”

Suddenly, light dawned.

“Did you…did you just buy bridesmaid dresses?”

“I had a 20% off coupon,” she said, as if that cleared everything up.

“But we aren’t even engaged! Wait…you mean they were $8 each? What do they look like?”

At that price, I couldn’t really be angry—especially after I saw the dresses. The $8 dresses were a beautiful plum color with empire waists. The bridesmaids—who hadn’t even been selected—would likely have to pay to have them altered to fit the assortment of sizes my mother had picked, but you couldn’t beat that starting price.

Thankfully—and not just because we had a closet full of $8 dresses—John did ask me to marry him weeks later over a beautiful Valentine’s Day dinner at the Candlelight Inn, back when it was a restaurant in Catonsville. I was honored and overjoyed to say yes to a future with this amazing man that God had brought into my life.

For the record, I didn’t buy my wedding gown until later that spring when my mother and I spotted it on the clearance rack at Nico’s, a bridal shop at the time in Baltimore’s Fell’s Point neighborhood. It was—brace yourself—$275.

The price sounded terribly extravagant to a bride whose bridesmaids were wearing $8 dresses, but we had been looking for a while for a dress with short sleeves. And the dress was perfect.

My mother and I still laugh about how she bought the $8 bridesmaid dresses before we were even engaged—and without me or any of the hypothetical future bridesmaids there. Sometimes I think about how she simply took matters into her own hands and solved a problem I didn’t even know I had.

Sometimes God does that for us, too, sending us people and opportunities and resources we don’t realize we need to prepare us for something coming down the road. He puts us in places to learn new lessons and have experiences that help us grow so we are better able to navigate the future.

I’ll think to myself, “God, I don’t really know why you’re putting this friendship or this lesson or this opportunity in front of me right now,” and then later it all makes sense.

That’s how well our Father in heaven knows us and how deeply He loves us. He can see the whole picture outside of time, and He knows what we will need long before we do.

Just as He knew I would be needing those bridesmaid dresses and nudged my mother to decide to take a leap of faith and bring them home.

And He made sure she had a coupon, of course.

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Rita Buettner

View all posts from this author

| Recent Commentary |

Artificial Intelligence, wholeism and prayer

Question Corner: Does reception of the Eucharist replace confession?

A butterfly lands on a flowering bush with purple blossoms

A Miracle for a Baby in Rhode Island (and for all of us)

Kids need lots of people who love them

Painting of Martha and Mary during their visit with Jesus

A parenting lesson in the Mary and Martha story

| Recent Local News |

Archdiocese of Baltimore offers resources for parishes to assist migrants

Third annual gun buyback scheduled for Aug. 9

Driver arrested after crashing into entrance of Esperanza Center

Construction underway on new north addition to St. Joseph’s Nursing Home 

Prince of Peace merges with St. Francis de Sales in Harford County

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Parishes need to launch ‘revolution of care’ for the elderly, pope says
  • Broglio: Church teaching obligates the faithful to support pastoral care of migrants
  • Archdiocese of Baltimore offers resources for parishes to assist migrants
  • Third annual gun buyback scheduled for Aug. 9
  • Ireland’s abortion rates rise 62 percent over 5 years; Catholic advocates call it ‘a tragedy’
  • Miami archbishop presses for pastoral visitation at Alligator Alcatraz
  • Movie Review: ‘Smurfs’
  • Body of Blessed Frassati, relic of Blessed Acutis will be in Rome for Jubilee
  • Artificial Intelligence, wholeism and prayer

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en