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festyles change with each generation. Fashions change. Few women cheap prom dresses as they did in the heyday of princesses Grace Kelly or Diana Spencer. But, for one Pasadena family, a stylish tradition has endured through three generations.

When 19-year old Catherine Bahlman was buttoned into her dramatic wedding dress on June 18, 1955, the petite, young woman had no idea she would see the same dress walking down the aisle at the nuptials of a daughter and a granddaughter.

"I saw the dress in Modern Bride magazine," she said. The bride-to-be, a recent graduate of Notre Dame High School in Baltimore, tried the dress on at Stewart's Department Store, housed in an Italian Renaissance Revival style building at the corner of Howard and Lexington Streets. She loved the way it looked and purchased it.

The multi-layered satin and netting skirt of the dress flounced out over a 10-tiered set of hoops like a soft snowdrift. The sheer netting on the neckline, the long sleeves and the gathered, outer layer of the skirt were embellished with unusual medallions of cut lace. A delicate floral design resembling Alençon lace was hand-painted, cut out, outlined with machine-stitched corded embroidery and used to trim the garment.

After the wedding, Bahlman said, she put the dress in a garbage bag and placed it in a cedar chest that had once belonged to her mother. In the years since that wedding, she's been widowed twice and, now a resident of Bishopville on the Eastern Shore, she is married to her third husband.

Her daughter Colette Jerrell found the dress in the old chest when she was 14 years old. The preteen breathlessly slipped into it — and loved the way it looked.

Ten years later, when her own wedding date neared, she visited several shops to peruse the wedding gowns. She remembered her mother's dress, pulled it out of the chest and tried it on again. It fit.

"The only thing I had to change was the veil," the Northeast High School graduate recalled.

However, she is nearly a head taller than her mother. Colette used a 5-tier hoop skirt under the satin skirt which narrowed and lengthened the full skirt.

During the wedding on October 6, 1984, the groomsmen became boisterous. They lifted the new bride up and hoisted her over their heads. As she flailed her arms, the fragile netting on the sleeves tore.

After the ceremony, the gown was folded up, placed in a garbage bag and returned to the cedar chest.

Now divorced, Colette Jerrell (Oltman) Dodson lives in Delmar.

More than 23 years passed before another young woman pulled the dress out of the antique chest. Catherine Oltman, Colette's then 19-year old daughter, tried it one day and found it fit.

It became her dream to wear The Dress.

Her turn came nine years later when Kyle Colbert, a student at University of Baltimore Law School, asked her to marry him.

It was her turn to stroll up the aisle in The Dress.

"Kyle was excited about the tradition and knew I was excited," said Oltman.

Like her mom, Oltman, 28, is a graduate of Northeast High. She works as a medical assistant in the office of a local doctor. And, like her mother, her wedding, June 25, 2016, was a religious ceremony at the St. Jane Frances de Chantal Roman Catholic Church in Riviera Beach, Pasadena.

Through word-of-mouth, Oltman heard of Suzanne Reams, a Bowie-based seamstress specializing in vintage gowns and custom alterations.

"I love that one," said Reams. "It was such a fun dress."

The shredded sleeves of the dress were removed. Even if a repair was possible, they were too short for Oltman's long, slender arms. She is slightly taller than her mother. A slimmer hoop skirt with only three tiers of hoops made the skirt length "just right" for Oltman. "The grandmother's hoop skirt was much wider, 144 inches in circumference," Reams said. Despite the changes in height, the hem and train of the dress still trailed on the stones of the church aisle when Oltman wore it.

Reams arranged for the gown to be placed in a gentle chemical bath to brighten its color at Gowns Remembered, a company in Crofton that cleans, restores and preserves bridal dresses.

Reams removed the sleeves and remade them into a headdress for a future wearer.

"I had fun working with this dress," said Reams.

Bridesmaid Jodi Eren, a cousin, 15, observed the dress is "really pretty. It's cool Catherine is wearing her mom and grandmother's wedding dress. I'm thinking about wearing my mom's dress."

"I cried a lot wearing the dress," said Oltman. "I've been super-excited since I was 19 to wear it. As soon as Kyle proposed to me, I was looking forward to wearing the cheap prom dresses uk.

"I was thrilled my grandmother was here to see this," she said. Her grandmother beamed proudly.

It is now resting in her great-grandmother's cedar chest, along with the "new" headdress.

"The headdress made from the sleeves is for a future generation. For my daughter," said Oltman. With a giggle, she added, "I have to have one."