Omama, the bride (3 of 6)

Omama, 23, inched her way from the bedroom wearing her wedding dress for the first time. She posed in the living room light, turning this way and that, peering into a long mirror that Nader's wife Rasha was holding. The dress was beautiful - slightly off white lace with delicate floral motifs and tiny pearls, a small trail, and lined long sleeves and high neckline, as requested. Omama looked stunning, with the radiant glow of a bride-to-be. She seemed pleased.Omama had thought she’d find ‘the one’ dress in a store, but she tried on dozens and it was hard to find something modest; plus the dresses were expensive for something she would wear only once, she said. The day after our KindWorks dinner with Nader, a nonprofit organzaiton called Mozaic posted photos of Nader’s dresses on their facebook page; Omama’s sister in law tagged her in the post, and Omama got in touch with Mozaic’s founder Raghad, who she’d known since she was young.“It was a little risky, I don’t think a lot of brides would be like yeah one month before my wedding I’ll just have someone make my dress,” she laughs. “But it just felt like the right thing to do, especially with all the things happening in Syria and all over the world." At the same time, Omama was looking for a capstone project for her Master’s degree in interactive journalism at American University. A wedding dress made by a Syrian refugee seemed perfect, for many reasons. She and Nader went fabric shopping at the end of March; Omama shared some pictures of dresses that she liked and Nader drew a pattern. In early April, Nader had to have heart surgery and needed time to recuperate. He also required a special industrial size machine to make the dress; several women donated to buy the mammoth 250 lb machine, which arrived three weeks before the wedding.(3 of 6)Photo: George Kolotov