Seven

1. I am a mere twenty-two and my boyfriend of two years, he four years my senior, is holding a NASCAR canvas bad in front of me. "Open it." he says, "Your graduation gift is inside." I was expecting some sort of leather tote to take with me on my first job. Instead, I found a diamond set in platinum. Normally, I would make fun of girls like me.

2. The Pearl River Hilton. It is part castle and part what I imagine a chalet tucked on a mountain would look like. I knew at seventeen this would be the location of my wedding. A regal structure with a backyard landscaped out of a Monet painting - footbridge and all.

3. My mother, mother-in-law to be, and I have journeyed into Brooklyn. Kleinfeld's, the mecca of wedding dress houses was still located there. They have since moved up to the streets of Manhattan and gotten themselves their own reality show. There is a sea of satin, tulle, and organza. Ballroom, a line, sheath, strapless, sweetheart, halter, cap sleeves, white, pearl, natural, antique, Amsale, Ann Barge, Badgley Mischka, some serious haute couture that is awkward to look at. Below us seamstresses working like in the basement like wedding elves to make each dress perfect.

4. I have clippings and catalogs color coded. Pictures and collages I have been creating for months from the pages torn from InStyle and Martha Stewart. Ideas that "Frank the Florist" wishes were his, which he later tries to charge me $10,000 for. Hmmmm, these were my ideas, Frank. No thank you.

5. Three links to my childhood, four college roommates, my sisters- old and new dressed in wine.

6. "Are you ready?" my father asks. I 'm hyperventilating which makes it difficult to answer. I see the priest from the church of my childhood and my husband-to-be's rabbi. The rabbi asks me to repeat after him...in Hebrew. No one told me there would be Hebrew. It was beautiful, but all I can remember is being concerned my nose was running and I would have streaks of mascara running down my perfectly made up face.

7. "Here, to introduced to you, for the very first time, Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Rabinowitz!" cue applause, enter happy couple double doors left, cue band..."I got the world on a string...."