The wedding photographer made the mistake quietly at first. A few extra frames, a second angle, one too many shots of the mother in a fitted gown before someone explained who the bride actually was.

The daughter took it with more humor than most people would. The mother took it like a woman who had known the dress was powerful before she left the hotel. That is the closing truth in all these stories: some women do not age out of attention. They learn exactly how to stand inside it.