This post is based on Alex Anderson's blog "My Dress" that was posted today on The Quilt Show blog. I had to chuckle. When my daughter set a date for her wedding, the hunt for a mother of the bride dress started in earnest. My only restriction was that it couldn't be too bright. The affair was to be black tie in the evening. This should be easy right? WRONG. I knew what type of dress I wanted. It had to be silk chiffon with some layering. I spent months looking and was getting frustrated. Forward to wedding dress shopping with DD. We arrived at store in NY at appointed time (yes, you need to make an appointment) and they were having several trunk shows that day. One was for several designers of wedding gowns, and the other for mother of the bride/groom dresses. My DD found the perfect dress so we all trouped over to see the trunk show for the MOB dresses. I figured what the heck, I haven't had any luck so far. The dresses were gorgeous and the price tags matched. A bit out of the range I had in mind (understatement). My DD said I should pick out a few and try them on anyway so keeping in the spirit of the morning, I complied. OK, I fell in love with one of them and so did everyone else (yes, we had a group)however, I almost fell over in a swoon at the price. I will admit the dress was drop dead gorgeous and made me look good. I got my arm twisted (you all know the argument.... only one child, only one wedding, blah, blah). After the initial shock I let them take measurements. These dresses need to be ordered and they are made to size. I only had to put down half the amount and had 6 months to pay the rest!!! They know how to get you. I had my first fitting 6 weeks before the wedding... they forgot to bill me for the rest after 6 months so I got an additional 2 months before my credit card went into cardiac arrest.
Fast forward to 3 days before wedding and final fitting. My fitter, who was a dream, says to me..... "What are you going to do about panty lines?" Huh?? I never even thought about it. This dress draped and hugged and I had to admit, you could see lines. She told me that there was a Victoria's Secret around the corner and I should get a thong!!! Oh yeah, right. I am 58 years old and I am going to start wearing thongs???? Hello. After the initial shock I figured, OK, it was only for one night, I could handle this. Now came the final blow. This is a strapless gown and they managed to give me cleavage, ha ha. She says to me... " The dress looks terrific but it would look even better if you had a tan". I am very light skinned and never go out in the sun and I do admit I am rather pale looking. This one I was not succumbing to so easily. Back to the dress. Being naive about transporting gowns, I assumed they would put it in a bag and I could take it with me... with cab and ferry back to where I was staying in New Jersey before checking into hotel in Manhattan. She sort of looked at me like I had two heads and said I would not be able to carry it, I needed a car or taxi. I had a car to use so I said I would pick it up the next morning before we checked into hotel. Turns out they stuff this out so much that there seems to actually be another body inside.
In the meantime, I went underwear shopping (women's underwear is priced inversely proportional to the amount of fabric it contains)and met my daughter for lunch who also pushed for the tan. I had visions of turning orange or yellow or other such horrors and was not happy about this. Mom, says my daughter (you all know that tone of voice), they are professionals. They do all the stars for the Tony's etc and they have a reputation they have to maintain. No one is coming out looking bad. Sigh, OK, with much trepidation I make an appointment for the next day. I arrive at the place and have to fill out a questionnaire about what kind of tan I wanted. Then they have you go into a booth where you undress and have the choice of fully nude or they give you a paper thong to put on along with a shower cap to cover your hair. Since I haven't gone the nudist beach route quite yet, I opted for the sparse covering. They spray the tan on in several sweeps. The positions you need to maintain resemble something out of a mime show. At some point she stops and asks if I like the color. Surprise! It looks really good. I opted for one more coating. The tan lasts 5-6 days.
The dress, with added "accessories" indeed looked better. Kudos to my fitter.
Photo is of view of Brooklyn bridge with one of the waterfalls taken from our balcony. Still waiting on wedding photos....patience.
I forgot to mention that I have a wonderful new son-in-law and his equally great family.
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