Free: A wedding dress never worn — but for the happiest of reasons
Linda Kelly's Ted Baker dress which has never been worn.
**update: the dress has a new owner — link to the article at the end of this one **
An unworn wedding dress might sound like a sad story — but this stunning number never made it 'up the aisle' for one of the happiest reasons possible.
Cork woman, Linda Kelly, bought this gorgeous Ted Baker dress in 2017 for her planned 2018 August bank holiday weekend wedding to Joe Butler.
But then she discovered that she was pregnant and very unlikely to fit into the dress by the time her wedding date came around.
"I had PCOS [Polycystic ovary syndrome, which can cause fertility issues] so thought it was very unlikely I was going to conceive naturally," Linda said.
"I was at the doctor about a skin issue and he was like 'you know, I really think it could be hormonal'. And I was like 'there's no way I'm pregnant', but I did a test and sure enough I was pregnant."
Linda, from Glanmire, was only five weeks pregnant at this stage but realised she was due two months before her wedding. So the couple brought their wedding forward by five months to February.
And Linda reckons it all worked out fantastically well.
"And then we went to Garryvoe Hotel, and we had a dinner with all of our families and everybody who was involved in the wedding."
As she was five months pregnant at that stage, Linda wore a different dress instead of the jaunty white frock originally planned.
'Baby' Annabelle is now nearly three years old and has a younger sister, Amy-Kate who is nine months old — and Linda has been so busy she forgot all about her wedding dress that never got a day out.
"It's been in my parents' house and I had totally forgotten about it."
She wants to offer it to some bride-to-be who might be facing a different type of wedding occasion because of Covid regulations.
"It's a size 3/12 and has never been worn."
And, in what can be a real clincher in terms of finding the perfect dress ... it has pockets.
Linda has no regrets about not having the wedding she had first planned.
"The band, the photographer, the cake-maker, they all changed dates with us."
As well as this Ted Baker dress, Linda had also bought a more formal dress for her planned wedding.
"Rice 'n Roses in Douglas were fantastic. They took this very figure-hugging dress back and sold it for me and then I got another dress from there instead.
"I had bought the Ted Baker dress in a sale in Brown Thomas so wasn't able to return it. I would love to see some other bride get to wear it now. The dress deserves its day."
Linda does reckon that she is still 'owed' a honeymoon when travel restrictions ease: "I think we still have to have a honeymoon."
If you are a bride-to-be and would like to Linda to gift you this beautiful dress, she can be contacted on Twitter, @lindabtweeting.
"We can post it to someone if they are in a different part of the country, of course."
