Many brides start hunting for the perfect wedding gown as soon as their groom pops the question. They eagerly pore over magazines in the days and weeks that follow or scour bridal boutiques in the quest to say yes to a dress.

Jessica Scott knew exactly what she'd be wearing for her May wedding from the moment John Scott, then her boyfriend, proposed last year on a cruise to Mexico. After all, what she'd be wearing was part of the proposal.

"I cried for about 10 minutes, of course, and then he asked me 'Will you wear a kimono?' " she said.

John knew how much Jessica loved wearing a kimono for Japanese tea ceremonies, and he wanted her to have that same joy on their wedding day.

Jessica is not of Japanese descent, but she is a member of the Gedatsu Church, founded by Japanese native Gedatsu Kongo in 1929.

She loved the idea of wearing a wedding kimono. Bridal gowns never appealed to the 31-year-old child development worker.

"It went along with the style of my wedding too," she said. "We didn't want to be traditional. We wanted to do something that was unique to us." John Scott opted for a kilt in the Scott tartan. "I've never seen tartan and kimono together, but it turned out OK," Jessica Scott said.

Jessica bought her white wedding kimono, or shiro-kakeshita, from a Japanese antiques dealer on eBay and procured her accessories, including her pink uchikake (ooh-chee-kah-keh), an elaborate garment traditionally worn by brides, from another online purveyor. The beautiful obi – the wide sash that wrapped around her waist – was borrowed from her dresser.

She added a new veil and was lent a katsura, or wig, in the style of taka shimada, a chignon-style up-do that originated between 1603 and 1867 in the late Edo period.

All told, it took about 2 1/2 hours for dresser Kiyoko Shiota to get Scott ready for her wedding. It was the first time Shiota, who immigrated from Japan 45 years ago, had ever seen a bride – Japanese or otherwise – wear a wedding kimono in the United States.

"Only the very, very traditional" wear kimono during wedding ceremonies, Shiota said. Many Japanese women, whether in Japan or in the United States, wear white wedding gowns.

Elaine Nakatani, Scott's tea ceremony teacher, wore a Western-style gown when she married in 1965. A generation later, Nakatani's daughter also wore a bridal gown at her wedding.

"Only two people I know wore kimono for their wedding," Nakatani said, adding that both weddings were more than 50 years ago.

Even in Japan, wearing a wedding kimono is often just a fraction of the total bridal fashion statement. In Kyoto, bridal shop windows are filled with uchikake and bridal gowns, said Nancy McDonough, who owns New York-based Kyoto Kimono and leads a travel group to Japan each year.

"Certainly, some brides get the white (Western-style) wedding dress, but it's not unusual for a bride to have two or three ensembles," she said.

One of those may be the wedding kimono, which is typically rented and worn for the ceremony, while a bridal gown may be worn during another Western-style chapel ceremony. Still another dress or ensemble may be worn for the reception.

McDonough, who specializes in Japanese vintage garments, sells one or two wedding kimonos a month to second-generation Japanese women and more commonly to Western women who, like the Scotts, want a less-traditional wedding.

"Sometimes, people who go to Japan just develop an affinity for it," McDonough said.

For Jessica Scott, the appeal of the kimono lies in how the garment affects her, physically and spiritually. It invites her to slow down and be a more passive force in the environment.

"It forces you to stop and look at things more often," she said. "You can't run, you have to move a little slower."

And for a wedding day – a day that brides long to remember every detail of – that is a wonderful gift.

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