Wedding Dress Wednesday

On Wednesday 21st September, I, along with hundreds of women(and some brave men) Dared to Care in aid of the Irish Cancer Society, and wore our wedding dresses all day long.

Cancer has hit my family hard in recent years so its a cause close to my heart. And while there are numerous events in aid of the Irish Cancer Society, this was the first one where I thought I could definitely get involved in….a great excuse to get the wedding dress out and wear it again 🙂

As well as wearing my wedding dress all day to raise funds, I decided to donate money taken in from waxing on that day to help reach my target of €500 (every Wednesday is Waxing Wednesday where there’s a 25% discount on waxing treatments, therefore that was the majority of the treatments done on that day)

My day began with driving my son to Montessori. Driving was difficult! The skirt of the dress covered the gearstick and puffed up to the steering wheel… Maybe I   should have got a chauffeur for the day (next time :-D). When I got to Jack and Jills, the kids were so excited to see a real life princess. All the kids were smiley and excited, except for my boo:-(… I don’t think he believed that I was going to work. But I had my work shoes on and I had gotten him to help me turn everything on in the salon earlier that morning so I reminded him of that, gave him a kiss and left to go to Tesco before starting work.

I had to go to Tesco for milk but also to get a selfie with the Manager (my husband dared me to get a selfie with the manager and then he’d donate €50) so in I went and I thought I’d get the selfie over and done with first. Thank God the manager knew about Wedding Dress Wednesday and so was very warm towards me and happily stood in with me for a photo. He wished me well and I walked up and down the aisles to get my few groceries.

I rushed home to start my working day. My first 3 clients came together. I looked after them one at a time but while they waited, there were tea biscuits and homemade cake to nibble on as well as magazines to flick through. There was a lovely atmosphere in the salon all day and clients shared their wedding stories with me.

After 4 clients it was time to pick up my boo from montessori. As I walked in the kids were excited about “the princesses” return and so was my boy. He jumped up(looking proud as punch) and announced “that’s my mummy”. As I turned to leave, Chelley handed me an envelope with some sponsorship money that some of the other parents had left for me after hearing what I was doing. I couldn’t believe it. So nice!

I dropped Benjamin over to my sisters house and returned home to have lunch and a chat  with Dermot and Dave on TODAY FM. Today FM wanted to show that wedding dress Wednesday was happening all over the country so I was who they spoke to from Waterford. I was so nervous but the guys were so nice and it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. Have a listen

That interview along with regular posts through out the day on social media, helped the donations to come in. I could not believe the generosity of people and by the end of the day I had surpassed my target of €500 and raised  €697.99

So I would like to thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart. Those who donated online, in Tesco, in Jack a Jills and especially  those who got waxed by a crazy girl in a wedding dress for the cause.  The support that day was amazing and its a day I wont ever forget.

Orla  🙂