A Dream Come True for Military Brides

By AMANDA RAUS

Updated 6:00 PM EST, Wed, Nov 11, 2009

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NBC Connecticut

Bride-to-be Amelia O'Brien is getting married April 22, 2010, and she had yet to find her dream dress. Both she, and her fiance are in the Air Force and were stationed overseas.

"We're both in the military, actually, funny story. We actually met in Iraq, but we became more involved as we got home, and we were doing long distance because he continued his deployment," said O'Brien, a resident of Chicopee, Mass.

So when she heard the Brides Across America Program, a charity dedicated to providing free wedding gowns for military brides, was pairing up with Camille Bridal in West Hartford, she knew she had to come down and take a look.

"Just to know that there are people out there that actually care about our veterans , care about us, that they're willing to donated their time, their effort, their dresses, that's amazing. It's been awesome," said O'Brien.

She wasn't disappointed.

O'Brien was just one of many military brides lined up outside of the West Hartford bridal boutique. They either have fiances fighting in either Iraq or Afghanistan or are military members themselves, and say it's hard planning a wedding with their other half overseas. So they're thankful for events like this one.

"It's very tough. I was going to hold on the bridal gown search, but now that this opportunity came about, I'm taking it as I go," said Jackie Benitez of Norwalk.

"It's a great thing. We're trying to budget for the wedding and that was a big part of it. This will help us a lot with keeping in our budget," said Nicole Kelly, a resident of Holyoke, Mass.

The boutique says it's all about saying thanks to our soldiers.

"I'm humbled that we'll have these girls wearing something that we enabled them to have, that otherwise they have not been able to afford," said Irene Zalevsky, the owner of Camille Bridal Couture.

The boutique gave away 16 of the 30 dresses it had for the event. Those 16 dresses were given away in the first two hours.