1 dress

DD and I saw 27 dresses a few weeks back, and for some reason, she got thinking about it today. She asked me if I had my bridesmaids wear some godawful thing like the girl in the movie wore. I told her no -- my bridesmaids seemed to like their dresses, and I knew for a fact that at least two of them wore them again later, so they weren't totally awful. And despite the fact that they were tea length, and the shoes had to match, they dyed them black after the fact and definitely wore them again.

I try to be pragmatic. Heck, I didn't even pick the colors for the wedding. I'm so indecisive, I had each of the girls pick their own color and wear what they liked. It was a pastel-y rainbow thing that I really liked and, considering it was the 80s, wasn't too far over the top. You'll have to look close, but it looks like the yellow version of this pattern.

My own dress, which was much like this one, but with short sleeves (we cut the long ones to a short length) was a wonderful thing to behold -- yards of silk organza, tons of ruffles, and a cute, but smaller than in the picture, satin butt bow. I love that dress to this day, and can still remember shopping for it with my mom. My parents had just moved to Orlando, and were still waiting in an empty house for the furniture to arrive. I had tried the dress on in Indianapolis, but just couldn't get myself to spend that kind of money -- $600 -- when I tried it on, so I told my mom, "let's go look at wedding dresses," since we had nothing else to do. Ran ALL over Orlando, till we ended up in Longwood, where they just happened to have the dress on the rack. I tried it on, and it was all over. Again.

Mom looked at me and said "we just spent the whole day looking, and you're going to buy the same dress as when we started, right?" Yep.

Hey, at least I was sure about it. Heck, I bought it sixteen months before the wedding, and it's still hanging upstairs now. I pull it out and look at it once in a while. I've never been able to figure out what to do with it, cause it's definitely not the dd's style -- she'll get married in cowboy boots and a shirt from Steve and Barry's -- but what does one do with something that beautiful? I had considered having it cut up and made into christening gowns for my someday grandchildren, or ring bearers' pillows, or something.

Yes, that points to the great hope that someday my children will indeed, enter into matrimonial bliss. Hope springs eternal.......

But meantime, it's upstairs, still waiting for me to decide if, or what, should be done with it. Meantime, I went browsing etsy, and found this idea -- cut it up with pinking shears and sell it off, for someone else to do something with. From seller spindlecatstudio, whose wedding may've gone badly, I don't know, or maybe there was too much champagne involved, but who is passing along marital bliss to the person who has the dough. I'm not sure what you'd do with it, but if you have good ideas, let me know. Maybe I'd have someone do something creative with mine. I just couldn't bring myself to do it, but recycling is almost always a good thing.