The idea for The Wedding Dress came when I took a chance.

Stepped out.

Had one of those moments when I could’ve easily and understandably said, “No.”

But I said, “Yes.”

A few acquaintances on Twitter said, “Let’s get together for a weekend,” and instead of sticking the notion in the land of Somewhere in the state of Sometime, we got busy and put  dates on the calendar.

Former Thomas Nelson Publisher and now President and CEO of Christian Leadership Alliance Tami Heim invited author Kim Cash Tate, Thomas Nelson Gifts and Children’s VP, Jennifer Deshler and Yours Truly to her gorgeous home in Gallatin, TN for a June getaway.

We talked, laughed, stayed in our pj’s for an unprecedented 16 hours — I never stay in my pj’s!

At one point the conversation turned to Tami’s daughter’s wedding and of course, wedding dress, and I was gone. Into story world.

Tami said something about finding the perfect dress, and something about wearing her grandmother’s dress, I think, but that trigger an idea in me.

What if there was a dress passed down through the generations? What if it was, say, 100 years old when the story opens?

While I’m mulling and dreaming, the conversation moves to business topics and everyone’s experience in the business world. (Kim is also an attorney.)

I pipe in with, “Y’all what if there’s a 100 year old wedding dress, like, four women wear over a hundred years?”

“Um, yea, sure, Rachel.”

But as the evening wore on, they caught up with my idea and it began to spark in all of us.

When I returned home, I couldn’t let the idea go. I was set to write another story but I finally had to call my editor and pitch her The Wedding Dress idea.

BTW, I’d looked up the title on Amazon and saw nothing like it. Must have been God hiding them to keep me from being discouraged.

Because the next month, the movie, The Wedding Dress, hit the airways. And it wasn’t a new movie but one released several years earlier to no real acclaim.

Hmmm…

The timing seemed right. This was the summer of 2010.

Eight months later the book is sold and turned in, and a bunch of things are starting to change in our lives.

In October of 2010, I spent a fun weekend in Vero Beach brainstorming with the great Debbie Macomber and Karen Young.

I had six hours of these master writer’s time to focus on The Wedding Dress.

The critical part was figuring out how the dress moved from bride-to-bride, decade-to-decade.

I also knew I didn’t want the women connected. Well, not all of them.

That felt too cliche and expected.

So, what was the journey of the dress?

More on that next time!

What about you? Do you have an interesting book idea story? Or read about one?