This was going to be one of those blogs that Daughts calls boring!
No pictures! She still hasn’t got over the ommission of illustrations in the books she likes to read.
I think this may be one of the reasons she doesn’t read any more,
“I don’t read Mum…” She reminds me when I wave a good book at her.
Shame I think, but then, I don’t do Facebook or other social media. There are way too many pictures and logos going on in there for me to gently glide over the words as I so love to do.
Because this blog is about wedding dresses and my prospective daughter-in-law (PDL), I am not allowed to post a photo of her modelling the dresses because my son, her fiance, is not supposed to see her in her bridal gown before he cops an eyeful as she walks down the aisle.
But I did find some pictures just for you Daughts!
I enjoyed this unique experience of shopping for a wedding dress. I had never done it before even though I am married and I did have a dress and a veil, I didn’t go the bridal boutique route. I went to Top Shop or Peter Robinson or some similar chain store in London and bought a lovely white number, all lacy and flowing, off the rack for 1/20 of the cost of the one my cousin bought three years later for her wedding.
I got the wear out of my dress. It accompanied me to gorgeous summer flings and garden parties and May Balls up at Oxford and Cambridge. I wasn’t well known enough to appear in the society columns so had no worries of being seen twice or thrice in the same frock!
My cousin wore hers once and packed it away.
We went to several shops last week and were given varying levels of treatment, mostly attentive. Each dress was more beautiful than the last, if that is possible. There were no price tags but we looked at the cost of the veils, $300.00, and the bridesmaid dresses, $199.00 and soon cottoned on to the notion that the wedding dresses were un-speakably dear!
The sales girls were not satisfied with sweeping statements,
“I really like this one a lot…” did not cut it for them. After all, PDL liked lots of them, a lot!
“What is it you like about this one?” they’d ask.
“Do you only like that it shows your legs?” they’d probe.
“Is it the bling that’s captured your attention ?” they’d prod.
So PDL began getting technical in her likes…she liked the cut, the way it lay, the detail in the back, the train, the shape of the bodice, the way it flowed, the comfort, the colour, the organza!
“You have to like everything about it, it’s your wedding dress, it has to be perfect,” they insisted. So did we, the happy onlookers!
In the end the dress she bought did not fit her original idea. We had all played a part in pushing her, tweaking her vision, expanding her horizon.
On an exhausting day three, PDL sent photos of her four top dresses to everyone she knew and solicited votes.
My film maker son said, of the one he chose,
“I’ll have to hold Bro up at the altar, he’ll faint dead away at the sight of you in this…”
Enough said?
She had found THE ONE!
Daughts and I looked at each other and silently agreed to schedule a day, in the deep mid-winter, when our spirits needed lifting, to go bridal dress shopping, just for fun!
Well hello there! My name is Vivienne McNeny.
I am an empty nester exploring life as a Boomer…you could say I'm happily Boomering along!
As a homeschooling Mum I have finally quit the job of role model and mentor to my four children. I do what I want to do, eat when I feel like it, enjoy life with my blue eyed cowboy and clean my house once a month or so whether it needs it or not!
In true English form I write about the emergence of my true identity now that I can no longer hide behind my children as their Mum.
No comments so far!
Leave a Comment