Woman beats quarantine blues by wearing wedding dress everywhere

BROCKTON — “When you’re bored, so you see if your wedding dress fits ...” was the caption on the photo that started it all for the Brockton woman who, she said, “beat the quarantine blues by wearing her wedding dress.”

Meredith Thorson Fruzzetti put on her wedding dress and stood by her refrigerator door. Her friend Erin Bell took the photo and Fruzzetti posted it to her Facebook page.

“Out of boredom, I thought it would be funny to put my wedding dress on and act casual,” Fruzzetti said.

Fruzzetti posed for a few more photos around her home on Briarcliff Road. Then she started thinking of different places to go to take pictures.

She petted a cow at Sheep Pasture in Easton, picked up breakfast from Zachary’s Restaurant in Stoughton, worked out at the Bridgewater Fire Station, slid into home plate at a Brockton ballfield, and even took a shower — all while wearing her $2,800 wedding dress.

Meredith Fruzzetti, 44, has lived in Brockton for most of her life. She is a jewelry designer for her own online business, Stash Jewelry. She started the business about five years ago, after closing Ultima Boutique on Belmont Street.

The same wedding dress she wore when she married her husband, Jeff Fruzzetti, on Dec. 31, 2009, in Rhode Island.

Jeff Fruzzetti, 56, is a lifelong resident of the city and works for National Grid in Brockton.

They have been together for 16 years.

It was after she had taken several photos and told her husband of her idea of wearing the dress for a shower photo that he asked, “Isn’t that going to ruin it?”

“Probably, but so what,” she replied.

After that, her husband started coming up with his own ideas for where to pose in the dress, she said.

After about the third photo, the Facebook posts started getting so many likes and comments, she realized people were having fun and she was having fun, too, so she kept going.

Some people even invited her to take pictures at their homes and businesses.

A couple of her friends, a Bridgewater firefighter and a Brockton police officer, helped her set up some pictures, too.

While taking the photo at the ballfield, Fruzzetti said a man walking by yelled, “Congratulations on your wedding.” She replied, “Thanks. It was 10 years ago.”

Bell has taken all the staged photos of her friend in the wedding dress. She was visiting the Fruzzettis when the quarantine started and they invited her to stay with them.

Meredith Fruzzetti recently went with Bell to Faria Auto Service at 1958 Broadway in Raynham, for Bell to have her car repaired. Of course, they didn’t miss the opportunity to take another picture.

Though she is not wearing a mask or gloves in some of the photos, she said she was careful to make sure no one was around and equipment was sanitized afterwards. The gas station wasn’t even open when she was there, she said.

Fruzetti has plans to keep on going.

“The dress is beat-up and filthy, what else am I going to do with it?” she said. “It’s just gonna sit in a box. Who cares?”