Bride wears four generations of wedding dresses for special photo shoot

Thursday, July 20, 2017
Minnesota bride Colleen Dejno honored the women of her family with a special photo shoot wearing the dresses of her great-grandmother, grandmother and mother before her wedding.

When she discovered her mom had her great-grandmother's dress from 1910, she was inspired to do the shoot.
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"I had no idea that we had it and my mom just had it in a bag in the closet for years," Dejno told ABC News. "I thought, 'Oh my gosh, we have a dress that's over 100 years old I have to see it.'"

She continued, "Then I thought, 'We can't just put it back in the closet. We have to do something with it. This is so cool.'"

Her mom, Patricia Cotter, still had her wedding dress from 1973, and her aunt had her grandmother's dress from 1947.
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Dejno posed in Minneapolis' Semple Mansion, the same place where she would have her wedding reception a few weeks later.

She studied family records and photographs to match the look of the different eras. Dejno, a hobbyist performer and costumer, did her own makeup and hair, including wigs, to complete the looks.



The photo shoot helped her feel a special connection to her great-grandmother, Mary, whom she never met. She hopes to create a book as a family keepsake and plans on keeping the dresses as family heirlooms.
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