On Saturday, December 20, 2025, I spotted a wedding dress at Savers, hanging alone on a stand near the checkout area. Did the thrift store sell wedding dresses? Maybe it did, but I had never seen any before—not at that location anyway. I walked by it, then retraced my steps. I reached for the fabric of the gown and touched elegance.
My girl, Ricka, not yet engaged to be married but on the verge, filled my mind.
I abandoned the dress and browsed the home decor, the art, and the furniture. I bought some funny coffee mugs for our Lille Julaften event and exited the store.
Later in the day, the bridal gown swept through my thoughts. I told Ricka about it, describing the dress in vague details because I hadn’t looked that closely. My talk sparked more interest in her than I expected, though, so Husband, Ricka, and I made a stop at Savers on our way to an evening Christmas market.
As Husband put the car into park, I assured him the stop to peek at the dress would be quick; it might already be gone. He said he’d wait in the car, and Ricka and I scurried into the store. The bridal gown hung in its same spot.
“This is pretty,” she said, surprising me. “Maybe I should try it on.”
I found an employee and asked him if she could try it on in the bathroom since the store didn’t have fitting rooms. He summoned a manager to speak with us.
“No,” she said. “We can’t let you do that. You’ll have to try it on over your clothes in one of the aisles.”
We strolled with the floaty piece to the home goods section, and as I removed the dress from the hanger and prepared to lift it over my girl’s head, I noticed the label and the size. My eyes widened.
“It’s a Vera Wang,” I said, realizing the designer creation was originally around $3,000. “And in your size.”
I zipped Ricka into the dress—over her jeans and long-sleeved shirt—in the glassware aisle of the store. The skirt was full, so her jeans underneath didn’t matter. Her shirt was thin, so I could tell how the gown would fit her without it.
“I love it,” she said, taking a spin in front of a mirror. The style was gorgeous, the size perfect.
A couple of female shoppers sprinkled her with compliments as they passed by us.
My vision blurred for a second. I blinked away the emotion to inspect the dress, bracing for a small tear or two or a soiled hem, but no. It was pristine. The price was right, the timing beautiful. The dress was sewn for Ricka.
My girl messaged her sisters, sad they weren’t present to share the moment, and I texted Husband to join us in the store to witness the miracle.
The wedding dress first went into someone else’s hands for their wedding day, then passed through them to land in the middle of Ricka’s love story. God hung the dress at Savers and made sure I was shopping that day to see it. Our girl purchased the gown on the sixth-month anniversary of her first date with Snapp. At the time, the ring was yet to come, but God’s ways are not our ways; otherworldly gifts arrive at unusual times.
Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready.
Note: Snapp proposed to Ricka on January 17, 2026. He has now heard about the dress. I’ll post pictures of it after their June 6 wedding; we can’t risk him seeing it just yet.
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*Names in this blog have been changed to protect my family, neighbors, and friends in the neighborhood, and in a nod of appreciation to the beloved Swedish author Maj Lindman, I’ve renamed my three blondies Flicka, Ricka, and Dicka and their husbands (present and future), Snipp, Snapp, and Snurr.