A California bride honors her late mom by wearing the same wedding gown she wore down the aisle.
"She was always talked about how she can’t wait for our future,” Shelby Sander, 23, told InsideEdition.com. “I think she would have loved it."
She explained that her mom, Angie, was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in 2011. It eventually spread to her hips, lungs and stomach before she died in 2016. She was 49.
"Mom was an amazing woman," Sander said. "She was very family-oriented, loved to be around people — just super positive, outgoing energy, loving human being.”
Sander explained she met Scott Rogers, 24, just before her mom was diagnosed with cancer. "He’s been through this whole thing with me, from diagnosis to passing," she said.
When she and Rogers got engaged in December, she recalled that her mom had her wedding dress still stored in the attic. She decided she would wear the 80s gown — puffy sleeves and all — for their engagement portraits, shot by Taylor Brooke Photography.
Although she originally wanted to keep it a surprise from her dad, she couldn’t help but show him the photos.
"He told me that I looked just as beautiful as my mom did in the dress, and that I would be making my mom proud," Sander said. "My mom and dad had the most picture-perfect [marriage]. I hope Scott and I can live up to what my parents had."
She and Rogers are now planning their September wedding.
"My mom loved Scott," she said. "They had a great relationship. It was nice knowing that my mom gave me her approval of Scott."
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