To Have and To Hold: A wedding Day Fragrance

What seems like an eternity ago, on a blustery day in April, I married the man to whom I am

still married. Way back in the day, after having attended my fair share of over the top, lavish

weddings, I decided that a small family affair with a few friends was the way to go-for me. As

luck would have it, one of my very good friends was an event planner so I basically turned all

wedding decisions over to her. Brilliant- a turn key wedding. No big decisions for me to make.

After some prompting from my friend, and my mother (!), I went wedding dress shopping. As

previously stated elsewhere, I am no fashionista, so wedding dress shopping was not high on

my list of priorities. After getting approval from my then employer to leave work early without

stating why, I hopped a subway to Brooklyn to go to what was deemed to be the wedding dress

emporium of every bride’s dreams. By myself. Egad! As I entered, I felt like I had fallen down a

rabbit hole of racks upon racks of white fluff. Requiring the strength of the most skilled weight

lifters, poofier and poofier mounds and pounds of white fabric were lifted from racks and hoisted

upon me to try on. As desperation began to descend on my less than euphoric self, I spotted it.

A sleek, plain silk, drop wasted number by some big name designer who clearly understood

that less is more. Which of course translates to more price-wise. But hey. I was having a small

wedding. So what difference would it make if the dress cost as much as the wedding itself?                                                                                                  

Thrilled by the fact that in a short two hours I had put the dress question to bed, I turned my

attention to the really important question that had haunted me since I had gotten engaged. What

fragrance would I wear on the big day? This question may seem like an incidental detail to

some, but it’s not. How many times does a person wear their wedding dress? Ideally, once. But

in perpetuity, whenever you smell the fragrance you wear on your wedding day, or any special

day, you will forever be reminded of that occasion. In my case, that’s a good thing. But imagine

wearing a fragrance on your wedding day that you have loved forever…and then your prince

charming turns in to a toad. You now have an ex-favorite fragrance along with an ex-husband.

Losing the toad is one thing, but losing your favorite fragrance… Of course, that isn’t what I was

thinking about back then. Pre-nuptial euphoria precludes planning for such things.

So what exactly was I thinking ? Perfume blogs weren’t really a thing in the stone age so finding

the perfect fragrance for my perfect but small wedding required intense, in person investigation.

The ground floor of Saks, in its day, was a haven of heavenly scents foisted on any individual

running the gauntlet from the front door to the back elevators. Annoying to some, nirvana to me.

Drifting from one perfectly coiffed sales woman to the next, I listened intently as each, in what

can only be described as a loving and motherly way, gave their best pitch as to why their

fragrance should walk me down the aisle. It was a lesson in adjectives: sweet, heady,

contemporary, classic, sophisticated, unpretentious, billowy, not overpowering, seductive…yes,

yes, yes! But I couldn’t wear them all. Confused, dejected and over sprayed I decided to try

again another day.

 Walking slowly towards the side exit (nearest to St Patrick’s - a good omen) I spotted a very

large bottle of Shalimar-one of my mom’s favorites. Feeling magnanimous after presenting her

with my wedding dress bill, I decided to splurge and buy her one of the beautiful baccarat

bottles with its iconic blue stopper. As I slumped toward the counter, a chic but reserved sales

woman asked if I was looking for something special. Without hesitation, in a burst of the verbal

runs, I poured out the the tale of my search for the perfect fragrance for my wedding day and

how I would have to be satisfied with buying my mother a bottle of Shalimar. Quietly, she said

that what I needed was a romantic fragrance that was at once classic and serene, but also

joyful. She nailed it. But did this really exist? Reaching for my wrist, she gave a quick spurt from

an at this point unseen bottle. The scent was soft and delicate but not overtly feminine. It

smelled at once old fashioned yet strangely contemporary, elegant and understated, and

certainly sophisticated. It was the fragrance equivalent of the sleek Herrera wedding dress I had

found on my Brooklyn sojourn. Even the bottle was captivating, with a raised glass heart motif

on a sleek, no-nonsense linear bottle with a translucent blue cap. The fragrance, the sales

woman explained, had been created in 1912 by Jacques Guerlain. It represented his favorite

time of the day, between day and night—the “bluish hour.” I had found it. L’Heure Bleue.

I have managed to save and savor my wedding day perfume all these years and on the special

occasions when I pull it out to take a sniff, a flood of wonderful memories, of family and frivolity,

of promises made and still kept and so much more fill my senses along with the scent. So while

some may think that a wedding day fragrance is an incidental detail, it is so much more. It’s a

tangible tie to a day that hopefully represents a transition of time, a joining of families, and a

future of happiness.

     Notes in L’Heure Bleue:

Top Notes; Anise, Neroli, Coriander, Bergamot and Lemon; middle notes are Heliotrope,

Carnation, Violet, Cloves, Neroli, Ylang-Ylang, Bulgarian Rose, Jasmine, Orchid and Tuberose;

base notes are iris, Vanilla, Benzoin, Sandalwood, Tonka Bean,                                                


 

 

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