To kick off the wonderful event two of my wonderful friends/bridesmaids came in from out of town to stay with me. My Maid of Honor from Arizona flew in and crashed with me on Friday and Saturday and my high school pal and bridesmaid from California arrived on Friday on the red eye.
Jen, the Maid of Honor, and myself stayed up late waiting for her flight to arrive. We finally headed out to get her and ended up circling the airport about 40 thousand times before we finally picked Katie up. I might have left a little early. I stress about airports.
If I'm not mistaken, we all went to bed right away as the bridal dress shopping was to commence relatively early in the morning. I was very excited to get there and try on dresses, but also extremely nervous. I had a couple of favorites that I hoped would be in stock at this particular store, but what if they didn't look good? What if they didn't have them? What if some of the stories people told me of dress shopping were true? So many times I would hear the bad experiences people would have with trying on dresses. Or read the reviews online. Stories of rude consultants or inattentive ones. Stories of botched alterations, though I have a lady so I didn't intend for the alterations to be done there. And finally bridesmaids turning into their own bridezillas.
Luckily, I had no real time to worry about that. The two out of towners were going to take my car and drive separate. They were out getting coffee, so myself and two other bridesmaids left ahead of them. Mel, the Matron of Honor and Deb, another great friend and bridesmaid. We were almost to the freeway when I received a call from Jen and Katie. There was some strange question regarding car keys. My car keys and where they were. Funny story. Only funny in hindsight as I write this. Apparently, as I was heading out of my garage to get into Deb's car, I for some insane reason, grabbed my car keys off the high top table. What on earth?
So back to the house we went, where we all departed at the same time and we were all late. I felt panicked, but to my relief it appeared that my mother and several others were late as well. We walked in and immediately were checked in. They had a list of my favorite dresses from the website. I was relieved and then suddenly overwhelmed when the rest of my bridesmaids began to come out of the woodwork. It was a hoard of women. I have 8, yes 8 bridesmaids. I also have 2 personal attendants and one of my friends since high school is my officiant. My mother also brought my sweet 14 year old brother who wanted to join. It was very cute that he wanted to be there, but I'm guessing he just didn't want to sit home alone. Ha! So besides me, there were 12 girls. I had gotten that number wrong earlier and thought 11, but whatever. I have a lot going on. People shouldn't rely on me for thinking.
Anyway, we definitely were a very intimidating group. We were directed to go about selecting (not touching, well remove dresses from the racks) dresses and let our consultant know which ones we wanted to try on. Too many ladies and it creates a vacuum of noise where they hear nothing, so some were scolded for taking the dresses down.
I found the two I wanted from the website and two other dresses were picked out for me by my lovely ladies. Once we had four solid picks, the consultant took me to a dressing room and the fun began. I had my breast biopsy not that long before, so the right side was a little sore. It didn't seem to bother me when she put on the bustier or the contraption that compressed all of my organs. Whatever it's called...oh, I still have to get one of those yet. And then came the dress parade. I am willing to share the pics of the dresses I didn't go with. So here we go...
Nothing makes a bride feel more beautiful than having the perfect bodied model trying on dresses directly behind her in all of her pictures. (It didn't bother me, I just found it ironically hysterical) When I had moved around the store, I noticed the girl next to me and her one friend. She looked happy trying on dresses. I went to the other side and noticed another woman trying on dresses with some bridesmaids. She didn't look very content at that very moment. I wondered how things were going there and hoped that it was just that one dress she didn't like. But I looked at my huge group of friends and family and was thankful. Even at the largest I have ever been in my life (I do hope to change that in the near future), I was still happy and still felt beautiful. Even with the beautiful woman directly behind me.
The experience was even more fun with the cute signs one of my personal attendant's Gina made. The fun creative signs to help vote on the dresses as I tried them on. My other personal attendant and cousin, Maria, is my solid rock and voluntary bouncer. She is almost hoping someone messes up just so she can utilize this part of her job title.
It was such a fun experience feeling spoiled by the consultant and my friends as they took pictures and made me feel like a princess. I have never had the experience of dress shopping and it did not disappoint. Though it could have been made better with champagne and the consultant agreed. To make up for that we all went to lunch directly afterward at Red Lobster. I had been craving seafood for such a long time.
Before we did that I still had to pick a dress. I went back to my number one fav. The first one I loved online, the first and the last one I tried on at the store. (not pictured of course) It was just the one I knew was the one when I saw it in pictures.
I even got to ring a bell and say yes to the dress. Just like the show! And then we did a group picture...we are short one bridesmaid in this picture. Those dang out of staters.
Now for the part I had been looking forward to all week...a delicious lunch and some cocktails. Seafood and drinks. Life couldn't be better at that very moment. It is not easy keeping up with such a large group conversationally, but hopefully the girls entertained themselves thoroughly. And of course it wasn't easy for the waiters either.
My Matron of Honor and Maid of Honor gave a speech and I spent an entire hour trying to open crab legs. Worth it. I should probably eat that every day. Just the sheer amount of time it takes to eat 5 legs would definitely be the best weight loss program ever. Though I hear shellfish isn't great for chemo ??? Not like I have been doing anything geared towards what's the best for chemo so far. My plan is to be better next week. Well, I will have little choice. The week of treatment I want nothing to eat and the week after I can't stop eating. This week I have been out of control. Part of me hoped to get that forced weight loss as a "benefit".
Every bride wants to lose weight and I have put on more weight since losing my brother. Time to dust of self pity and do the best I can to stay healthy going forward. Looking forward to this Saturday when the bridesmaids are on deck for dresses and cocktails. I haven't had drinks since treatment started...should be interesting. I may not want any cocktails. So unlike me. How on earth will I be funny? If I ever was...
No comments:
Post a Comment