Seven women from the same family have created a beautiful legacy by wearing the same wedding dress for their nuptials: a gown that was originally bought at an Ohio department store in 1940 for $19.
After her engagement, Ohio native, Joyce Janczak—who is the youngest of 11 siblings—was deciding what to wear for her church wedding in 1981, when she asked her mother about her wedding dress. Surprisingly, her mother still had the dress in a closet on a high shelf, folded in tissue in an old box.
“It was so much fun getting it out and trying it on,” Joyce told The Epoch Times. “Unfortunately, it was too small and needed to be let out to fit me, but we knew a lady who could do this.”
Joyce’s mother mentioned that several of her sisters had borrowed the dress that was purchased—at Lazarus Department store in 1940 for $19—for their own weddings during the era of the Great Depression and the Second World War.
“I am a very sentimental person,” she said.
Joyce was so thrilled by her chance to wear the satin gown with puffed sleeves, satin buttons at the back, and a sweetheart neckline.
Over 41 years, the fabric of the dress had “aged to what they call candlelight satin,” Joyce said. Two columns of lace running from the shoulder through the train had also deteriorated, so Joyce had the lace replaced and panels of fabric added to the sides and the bottom to make the dress her size.
Recalling the special day, Joyce said: “Walking down the aisle with my dad, I felt loved and cherished. I was very close to my mom and admired her greatly, and since she and my dad had such a great marriage, I knew that wearing my mom’s dress was a blessing on my marriage.”
All of the women who had worn the dress previously were in attendance at Joyce’s wedding, except her Aunt Fran, who passed away before Joyce was born.
Joyce, who worked for the government and later became a stay-at-home mom, went on to have four kids. As her children grew and attended school, Joyce returned to work in the religious education department at their church.
However, after the pandemic began, Joyce retired from her job.
In 2022, Joyce’s daughter Carissa Janczak got engaged to her now-husband, Chase Harter. The couple planned to tie the knot at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Grove City, but Carissa wanted to keep her choice of dress a secret.
“I knew I wanted to wear my mother’s wedding dress and make it a surprise for her,” Carissa said. “I didn’t know how I was going to make it work, nor where the dress was located at that time, but I knew I wanted that piece of her and that piece of my grandmother with me. It was all about the sentimental value.”
Carissa, 31, an assistant clinical professor at Ohio State University’s College of Optometry, found out that her sister-in-law Lydia had the dress. Together, the two came up with a plan to modernize the gown in secret with the help of Joyce’s best friend, expert seamstress Jill Standeford. Carissa even turned off her location services during her clandestine dress fittings so that her mom wouldn’t know where she was.
“We decided to make the dress sleeveless,” Carissa said. “The only problem was that I had reservations about whether [Jill] could keep the secret! A part of me was afraid she would spill the beans, because she knew exactly how excited and moved my mom would feel about the whole thing.”
Working on the dress helped distract Carissa from the stress of a new house, her job, and wedding planning, and brought her back to the family and what was important.
“I felt like I had a good luck charm for my marriage, as the wonderful women who wore it before me set the expectations pretty high,” she said. “I felt like my mom and grandma were surrounding me with love and hugs, hugs that I wouldn’t be able to physically have from my grandmother because she passed in 2016.”
When Joyce first saw Carissa walking down the aisle, arm in arm with her father she was surprised since her daughter wasn’t wearing the simple white dress that she left her with in the bridal room.
“I was transported in time and moved to tears,” Joyce said. “I still tear up when I think about that moment. I recognized the dress immediately, because it was so different from what she had planned to wear.”
“Later, Carissa told me when her father came to get her to escort her down the aisle, she asked him, ‘Dad, do you recognize this dress?’ He answered, ‘The only person who looked more beautiful in that dress was your mother.’”
After her daughter’s wedding, Joyce began researching the rich 88-year history of the satin wedding dress.
She said: “The first five brides wore the same veil. By the time 30 years had passed, the veil had deteriorated badly and I was not able to wear it. I wore a veil made by my seamstress, and Carissa wore a veil made by Jill.”
According to Joyce, Jill was fascinated by all the stitching she found in the seams as they were in various shades of white. She said this chronicled the different places that some of the other women had needed to take in the dress to fit them.
“What a legacy!” she said.
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