I came back from visiting my sister with a new pair of jeans. And she also picked herself up a wedding dress. That right there is some successful shopping, wouldn’t you agree? If only one of us had bought a bathing suit: trifecta!
I spent the whole day on Saturday with my sister, my mom, and my sister’s future mother- and sister-in-law, looking for my sister’s wedding gown. My sister surprised us all by rejecting many dresses for insufficient bling. This is a woman who wears steel-toed boots to work every day and who, even when she’s not working, is extremely practical and down-to-earth (ha! because she’s a gardener! I kill me). She is most certainly not without style, but she’s never been one for frippery and bows. Plus, she’s getting married outdoors, on the side of a mountain, in August. That didn’t scream “20-foot train” or “lace, crystals, and lacy crystals” to me.
So she kept trying on ruffly, lacy, bedazzled dresses. They were all beautiful and she looked beautiful in them. But she didn’t start crying until she put on a simple dress that made up for its lack of sparkle with its understated elegance and delicate details. The. One!
Given the nature of our errand, we five spent the whole day talking about weddings. My mom recalled the time she had to wear a super-fitted silk sheath for a bridesmaid’s dress … days after getting a thigh-high cast off her leg. I remembered having a velvet bridesmaid’s dress that I couldn’t sit down in all day before the ceremony, because otherwise I’d get a crushed velvet butt-print on my back side. My sister’s future sister-in-law and her then-fiance reworked her grandmother’s wedding dress together, including hand-sewing beads and lace on the hem. How cute is that?
What’s the story you end up telling and retelling about your wedding, or one you attended? (The other one I trot out often is The Time the Caterer Ran Out of Food–and then accused the guests, of which I was one hungry one, of eating too much.)
(You can read about me geeking out over my smartphone during the trip over here, if you like.)
Edited to add: Magpie Musing and Painted Maypole played along at their blogs … don’t miss their tales of Weddings Gone Wrong.
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Is it awful that the funniest wedding related story I’ve got is how my dad cursed out Kyle’s dad a month or so before the actual day?
The day itself was actually lovely. You know, once I had a couple shots of vodka and calmed the f#$% down.
(So excited for your sister!)
What fun! It sounds like the perfect wedding dress hunt.
The summer that we had 8 dance friends get married . . . there was one day were two couples got married on the same day, so the “overlap guests” had to decide how to handle it. SwingDaddy, one friend, and I attended the ceremony at one, the reception at the other. Another of pair of friends sent her to one wedding and him to the other. A good time was had by all, but the logistics were entertaining.
I got nothing that can top crushed velvet butt.
I tried on a bazillion dresses with my MIL at the Schaumberg House of Brides (sounds like a horror movie). We were losing our energy and hanging on a hanger for us was something that looked like a sheet. We laughed about how horrible this would look – they had all looked horrible – and of course, like your sisters’, it was perfect. Delustred satin – off the shoulder – 1940′s classic. And it fit – no alterations needed beyond shortening it and buttons and loops to bustle it. Best of all – - it was a return and was marked down to $188!
About my wedding? That because we didn’t hire a photographer, there is not one picture of the two of us.
About a wedding I attended? I think that might have to be a blog post.
We had our reception in a Holiday Inn that was literally next door to my parents’ church. It was easier for all the travel guests (some people traveled 6 hours to get there) but it wasn’t the nicest of venues. Our photographer was completely wasted, our DJ was god-awful, and the food was sub-par. But everyone said it was the most fun wedding they’ve ever attended. It allowed everyone to party safely and didn’t force guests to find some place to hang out between the ceremony and the reception. I loved my wedding!
About another wedding: I was a bridesmaid for my cousin, and didn’t shave for like a week leading up to the big day. The morning of, I said ‘screw it’ and didn’t shave, forgetting the giant slit up the back. Also, I’m Italian, not Swedish. Disastrous! Luckily, people were distracted by her looking divine and not my hirsute legs.
A friend of mine went to drop off some champagne at her friend’s wedding reception site and discovered the wait staff had not shown up. There was food, but no staff. She and her husband frantically set 10 tables, ran to the ceremony, came back and asked for volunteers from each table to serve dinner. It went so smoothly that the bride and groom didn’t find out about the snafu until days later.
My mother offered to make the dresses for the bridesmaids in my wedding – my three sisters. We shopped for fabric months and months ahead; on the morning of the big day, my sisters were standing on tables so that my mother, an aunt and a cousin had 360-degree access to the hems. So it all felt very calm and well-planned.
I don’t think I’m in the mood to talk about the time I had to send in my measurements for a bridesmaids dress while I was eight months pregnant and the girl said, “We’ll need your current measurements, please. A lot of women say they’ll get the weight off in time, but…”
I was five months pregnant when I got married … the dress was a leetttllle tricky.
My wedding dress was one my mom found on Ebay several years ago and she talked me into going halfsies with her. It was not a favorite purchase because I had just finalized my divorce. Her idea was that she could wear it for her vow renewal, then I could wear it IF I ever got married again and I should just have some hope, and if nothing else, my daughter could wear it when she grew up. So I forked over my $130 and the dress sat in an air-locked bag for seven years. I wore it this past summer when I married my best friend.
Other wedding – when my brother and SIL got married they HAD TO have every female cousin over 12 in her family as a bridesmaid. So I was one of fifteen bridesmaids. And the dress was this red and black short “flamenco” style thing cut so low it was embarrassing (especially since I am very top heavy). I resembled a call girl with a bouquet!
I read Magpie’s story, and then had to tell a story as well:
http://paintedmaypole.blogspot.com/2010/03/benefit-of-straps.html
The family drama that ensured because of and following my wedding would make one very long, convoluted, and “boring-to-anyone-not-related-to-us” post. At least, everyone LOOKS happy in the photos… ha!
The wedding story I re-tell over and over was from a wedding where my husband was the best man and the maid of honor had just finished posing for Playboy the week before the wedding. She felt the need to share with everyone that she wasn’t wearing anything (!) under her bridesmaid dress, and then at the reception went around with the bride’s dad collecting “donations for the couple” in exchange for a performance.
The performance? Her deep throating an entire banana in the middle of the dance floor while everyone watched, and I sat next to my mother-in-law, completely stunned.
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