85 years old and still fit: 4 generations of women of the family get married in one dress

It all started with Maria Teresa Moreno — now the family calls her Grande — a young and talented dressmaker who moved to Los Angeles from Mexico. In America, she got engaged to Manuel Moreno, who worked at Universal Pictures as a cartoonist. The girl saw a dress in a wedding shop and decided to sew a similar one from silk herself.

The couple had four children — two sons and two daughters. When one of the daughters, Anita, got married in 1957, she refused her mother's dress, which had been carefully kept all this time. Maria sewed her another one.

The wedding of Maria Teresa and Manuel Moreno in 1932.

However, when Anita's daughter, Martha, was already going down the aisle in 1983 for Kevin O'Hare's school love, she wanted to wear her mother's dress, but it was poorly preserved. Then Anita remembered her grandmother's dress and took it out of the closet. "The dress was just lying in a box, there was no cover," recalls Marta, "but it was in excellent condition. Even before I saw him completely, his silhouette, I just touched the soft silk and said I would wear it."

The wedding of Martha and Kevin O'Hare in 1983.

In 1997, Martha's sister, Elena, got married in the same dress of her grandmother. After this wedding, the dress patiently waited in the wings for 20 years, until Martha's daughter, Pilar, got engaged to Nick Kassauf in April 2017.

The wedding of Elena and Rick Salinas in 1997.

Pilar, Martha's daughter, in a great-grandmother's dress in September 2017.

Marta with her grandmother Maria and Manuel.

Martha with her grandmother Maria.

Anita and Pablo on their wedding day in 1957 with their parents.

"I always knew about the legendary dress, but it was something unattainable until I got engaged," Pilar said. — After the engagement, I went to Grandma Anita's house to try it on. When I put it on and saw myself in the mirror, I realized that this was it. It fit the size, it was like a glove. Not for anything in my life would I go to a wedding salon to choose a dress that meant nothing to me, unlike this family dress."

Anita spent a month choosing a dry cleaner to whom she could entrust a precious thing. "Mom is very superstitious. She didn't want to spend a lot of money giving the dress to the dry cleaners until someone was really going to get married. She's protecting this dress."

Curiously, the dress was not hemmed or enlarged, because it fit all four women. The only thing that was changed, in addition to shortening the long train, was lace, beads and other small details were added and removed in accordance with the fashion of that time.

In the near future, there will be no more weddings in the friendly family, but Martha's 15-year-old nieces are already applying for a dress. In the meantime, the legendary outfit is neatly put away in the closet and waiting in the wings.

Marta, who lives in California, said in an interview that the fact that she and her daughter Pilar got married in the same dress makes her feel incredible. "This is a generational connection, a connection with our grandmother, with whom I was very close (Maria died in 2009). She lived not far from me, and we saw each other often. My grandmother lived to be 98 years old. And my children grew up and had the happiness to know her."

"Grandma would be happy to know that her great-granddaughters want to get married in her dress."