shopping for the Lovely Bride

This is our Lovely Bride--

- and this is her closet. There are already a few dresses there. So what could we be looking for?

We aren't shopping for just ANY dress, we are looking for THE dress, the one she will wear on January 3, 2009. Every Bride hopes she will find THE dress, THE one, the perfect dress. OUR Lovely Bride saw a dress in a magazine. And then she saw it in another magazine. And she looked and looked until she found a picture of the front and the back. And THAT is the dress she wanted to try on. So we set out to find it (or one just as pretty, but not weird) no matter where we have to go in 100+ degree heat, no matter how many different un-air conditioned dressing rooms we have to huddle in, no matter how much duchess satin and extravagant beading we have to shake our heads 'NO' to. Because....

. . . it's clear that this woman has something to celebrate. And just ANY dress will never do. We are looking for THE dress.

We started shopping in Nashville on Monday - half a day shopping resulted in.... ...the need for lunch and a beverage. That trip told us a lot....about what we did not want....and who we did not want to buy it from. We were carrying the magazine picture. We did not find THAT dress on the scout trip. We didn't find THE dress either.

So, a few days later, we went the opposite direction, over the river and through the woods...no, not through the woods . . . through the Delta, that achingly flat farmland alongside The River, to the big bordello style dress warehouse that has EVERY dress imaginable for ANY bride. During the drive, I worked hard to soften the blow ...THAT dress, the one in the magazine, was not in this store either, they had confirmed it by phone on Friday. I had plans to find it, to make appointments in the most sophisticated salons in New York, in Atlanta, in St. Louis, in Paris, in Rome, in Athens. Not really all of those, but sort of.

There were rooms and rooms and racks and racks of beautiful dresses. Thanks to our scout trip, we knew just what we were looking for ....and what we weren't looking for. But still . . .


lots of questions to ask

lots of details to look at....

The Lovely Bride tried on a lot of dresses, and liked a few dresses...but somewhere there was THAT dress she saw in the magazine. No matter how many dresses the Lovely Bride tried, she was still hoping to find THAT singular dress, just to try it on. I spent some time encouraging an 'open mind' that we would indeed find THE dress ...if not THAT dress. She wasn't having any part of it.

The Lovely Bride tried on some dresses for her maids. But would we go home without THE dress? Would we actually have to go to Athens or Atlanta or Paris to try to find it?

Worry not! Dress miracles happen! As we went up the creaking red-carpeted stairs in the store in the Delta, there it was at the top of the stairs, next to an enormous gold mirror...the dress from the magazine. And THAT dress, the dress at the top of the stairs, indeed turned out to be THE dress. (so we aren't showing it yet!)

Because the lady with the measuring tape arrived to measure from hollow to hem, the holy grail of measurments when buying THE dress.

So, while I won't show you the dress at the top of the stairs, since it is indeed THE dress, I can tell you that she chose this pretty blue taffeta dress for her maids.

And to get to this point, happy faces, we wiped a few tears. . . because THAT dress wasn't supposed to be there, but it was, and it was THE one. THE dress.

And these.....well, these are the ones we left behind!

And the whole fully illustrated story of 'the dress at the top of the stairs' will have to wait ....January 4, 2009.