Brides-to-be turn out for a good cause

A fund-raiser for Cancer Patient Care transformed a Spokane dance studio on Sunday as dozens of brides-to-be scurried to find just the right dress for that big day.

Just before the doors opened at noon, about 200 women waited outside the Dance Street Ballroom, 433 W. Dean, drawn to the promise of $200 bridal dresses, $75 mother’s gowns, $50 bridesmaid dresses and $20 shoes.

For many, such a markdown was only slightly harder to refuse than the proposal that brought them to this point.

By 12:05, the studio was a blizzard of taffeta and lace as young women raced to find the gown of their dreams and dressing rooms to don them in.

The dresses, sizes 4 to 24, were donated at cost by four area bridal shops, Marcella’s Bridal, Bridal Collections, Affordable Elegance and Mossuto’s.

Profits went to Cancer Patient Care, the only Inland Northwest organization giving direct services to cancer patients, according to Marian Taylor, director of development.

The idea for the fund-raiser came from Marcella Davis, owner of the bridal shop that bears her name and whose father-in-law is a cancer patient. She hopes to make the fund-raiser an annual event. Sunday she said she had no idea how much money would be raised.

“I wanted to figure out a way that we as an industry would make a difference,” Davis said. By 12:30, every room in the building had been transformed into a changing room, some packed with six or seven young women trying on gowns as sisters, aunts and mothers scampered in and out with more dresses to try.

Lindsay Pittman’s fiancé saw a television news story before the fund-raiser and videotaped it for her. Wasn’t that sweet?

So Pittman, her sister, mother and grandmother drove from Manson, Wash., to find a dress. Not just any dress, but a strapless A-line gown in size 6 for the most important event of her life. Unfortunately, another bride-to-be was wearing it across the room.

Maybe she would put it back on the rack, Pittman hoped.

Pittman’s sister, Shannon, found a ballroom-style gown that was very lovely in off-white.

Close, but no. Pittman wanted something a little more tailored. She abandoned the changing room she had waited for to look again. Her sister, cradling the ballroom gown, followed.

“It’s a big day,” said her grandmother, Patty Porter. “Once you find the dress, everything else just sort of falls into place.”

In the end, Pittman left empty-handed and a little distraught. She has until August to find what she is looking for.

But for a great number of women leaving the Dance Street Ballroom on Sunday with smiles on their faces and newfound treasures in their arms, the event was a success.

If only the wedding goes as well.