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How Elizabeth Smart Found the Perfect Wedding Gown

02/22/2012 at 01:30 PM ET

Elizabeth Smart Wedding Dress
Neil Rasmus/BFAnyc/Sipa Press

With just one month to plan her secret Hawaiian wedding, Elizabeth Smart had mere days to finalize details like flowers, a guest list … and her dress.

“I tried on just about every dress in Utah,” Smart tells PEOPLE. Frustrated, she hoped a quick cross-country trip would prove fruitful. “I was going to New York with my friend for the weekend and we thought, ‘Why don’t we just see if we can get into Kleinfeld’s and look around?’”

Miraculously, she scored an open appointment slot at the famed Manhattan bridal shop (featured on TLC’s Say Yes to the Dress) — and found her dress, too. The Alita Graham gown — with lace sleeves, a sweetheart neckline and satin-covered buttons down the back — was an ideal fit for her nuptials.

“It was traditional, but still was different,” she explains. “I felt like it was just perfect.”

And while she did plan her dream wedding in record time, she also had to gloss over a few traditions. When asked if she chose “something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue” for her big day, the newlywed laughs. “Are you kidding?” she says. “There’s been no time!”

For more details and exclusive photos of Smart’s wedding — and to see what the groom wore, too! — pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

–Reporting by Alicia Dennis and Cathy Free

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Showing 90 comments

lottogirl846 on

TULAN: She was not kidnapped for YEARS. She was missing for 9 MONTHS. She looks very beautiful in that dress and I wish you nothing but a happy life.

KathyC on

She looks so beautiful and happy. Best of luck Elizabeth. May you and your husband have a lifetime of happiness.

amy on

Beautiful dress,beautiful bride.

Susan on

@ jones…that’s the first thing I thought of…nobody just gets an “open appt” @ Kleinfeld’s, she said who she was & it was a done deal. No ill-will towards her & everything she has been through, but I concur she is not asking for a private life when she is on the cover or People or any other magazine.

Katiedid on

Oh my goodness, that is truely a beautiful wedding gown. She deserves all the happiness in the world.

Colleen on

I am so very happy for her-she deserves it! I just love to hear hopeful, happy endings like this. She is Americas Sweetheart!

Kristine on

@ MOONSTAR…calm down already, lol. Elizabeth got exactly what she wanted…a private wedding. She never said anything about afterwards. And she didn’t pose for people. They used one of her wedding photos which they would have gotten hold of anyway. At least this way it’s on her terms.

Gina on

You look beautiful Elizabeth–thank you for not wearing a strapless gown! Way too many of them nowadays…

Janey on

All the best to them!

aimlessanddrifting on

congrats to her. she looks beautiful and happy.
i honestly couldn’t care less about the fact she’s always on people. maybe it’s her way of coping with what happened to her and proving that she’s doing well and a-okay. it could be her way of gaining control in her life that she once lost.

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