The bride

"I don't see why you bother with a dress, dear," Candace's fiance David told her, "you look better with the outfit you usually wear."

"Shut up!" Candace snapped back at him, "I've been planning this since I was a little girl, and you're not supposed to be naked at a wedding!"

"Well, you're not supposed to be naked in public in general," David demurred, "but you've flouted that rule for a long time. Besides, I think it really suits you and is becoming on you."

"David," Candace balled her hands into fists, restraining herself from slapping him in the face, "it sounds a bit like you're saying you're only dating me because I get naked a lot..." Candace refused to use the word 'nudist' to describe herself, and was all too aware of how David met her, and had rarely seen her clothed.

But David had a point. Candace's "nudism" had become almost the stuff of legends not only in Boston but all across the eastern seaboard - something Candace learned when she went down to New York to shop at Kleinfeld, only to have her financing rejected because they deemed it too risky to give her anything terribly expensive lest she lose it.

When she finally found a bridal shop willing to give her a chance to buy a dress, she jumped at the opportunity, only to be despondent when her bridesmaids started to agree with David.

"He's right, honey," Tessa was Candace's maid of honor, and her friend from high school, "having such an ornate dress, or even a dress at all, really isn't... you."

"You've known me for years," Candace fired back as she tried on the white ball gown, "I've been eyeing something like this for such a long time."

"Yeah, but..." Tessa didn't have the heart to tell Candace how things had changed in the years she had known her, especially in the wardrobe department; especially as Candace giggled with excitement as she checked out of the store with the dress.