Wedding dress event to raise awareness
Don’t be surprised Wednesday if you see several dozen women (and maybe a few men) wearing wedding dresses around San Diego. It’s part of a just-launched awareness campaign on the global problem of child brides.
World Wedding Dress Day was created this fall by Alexia Bregman, a business owner in Del Mar. She said she was shocked by the statistics on girls forced into marriage at an early age and thought a bridal-themed campaign would be an eye-catching way to open the public’s eyes to the problem.
According to the global partnership Girls Not Brides, 15 million girls each year are married before the age of 18, many of them in the 9- to 15-year age range. Although most of the top 20 countries where child marriage is practiced are in Africa, the problem is also widespread in Asia and South America, and Bregman said nearly 3,000 cases are documented in the U.S. each year.
Related news: http://www.sheindressau.com/bridesmaid-dresses-perth
While admiring a friend’s wedding dress a few months ago, Bregman came up with a fun idea of putting the little-used garments to work for a good cause. She picked Dec. 2 as World Wedding Dress Day because it’s during a celebratory time of year. She hopes to take the idea global in 2016.
“We choose these beautiful dresses but never get to wear them again and thought it would be a fabulous way to highlight the cause of child marriage,” Bregman said. “We’re telling people to pick up your kids from school, go to a restaurant and if someone asks why you’re wearing a wedding dress you can say ‘because I’m an empowered woman with the freedom to choose and I represent the millions of girls who don’t get to choose when they enter marriage.’”
To kick off the campaign, a World Wedding Dress Day celebration is planned from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 2, at the Inn at Rancho Santa Fe, 5951 Linea del Cielo, Rancho Santa Fe. A minimum $10 donation is requested. All proceeds will benefit Girls Not Brides. Wedding and bridesmaid attire is optional, but encouraged and men can come in dresses, too. Bregman said she hopes to draw anywhere from 50 to 300 people for the inaugural event.
Bregman and her husband, Darian, were born and raised in South Africa. They couple and their three children moved to Del Mar from Colorado two years ago. They co-own Vuka Natural Energy Drinks, which are sold in health food, specialty and supermarkets nationwide. On Wednesday, they will donate 10 percent of all online Vuka sales to Girls Not Brides.
Read more: http://www.sheindressau.com/wedding-dresses