Made From The Right Cloth - Part I

So it seems there may be a light at the end of the tunnel. After the copious hours of surfing the net looking at pictures, numerous appointments with designers and the tedious effort of getting into and out of gown after gown, I actually found a dress. Again. Only this time I put down a deposit. So its more like I found “the” dress rather than “a” dress. On a recommendation from a colleague, I visited a bridal outlet in Melbourne whilst in the city for another wedding and The Boy picked out a pearler. Yes it was The Boy who picked out my dress – but that was “picked out” and not “chose”. I’m not that liberal. It wasn’t what I’d been looking for at all but at the same time it seemingly fulfilled most of the requirements I had on my list.

The dress is not white, off-white, ivory, ecru, cream, eggshell or any other shade of “white” currently out there in the market. The dress is in fact a colour. I am not quite sure what colour it is because it is not exactly any colour I can actually think of however, but they call it “Antique”. The dress has quite simple lines and is not lacy, frilly or “busy”. It has some detail to it but it is not otherwise encumbered by a multitude of beads, stones, pearls, ribbons or other additions to the basic structure of the dress. It has a train which can be adjusted for dancing and most importantly, I look great in it. On the other hand, the dress does not have a fishtail skirt (which was an initial wish) and is in fact more of an A-line affair such as I was advised to wear by the evil bridal store owner but there is no point in cutting off my nose to spite my face. I will just have to live with the fact that part of what she said did get the better of me and I have seemingly gone with her recommendation.

Of course, having found the dress, this is only half the battle as I fully intend to wear a tailored jacket to my wedding. Since we’re holding the thing in Winter (and we do plan to have location shots) I’ll be damned if I’m going to freeze my assets off whilst my new husband revels in the fact that he gets to wear a three piece suit to ward off the elements. I need something to keep my back and my shoulders warm and I cannot think of anything more tacky than a faux fur shrug. If you think that they’re God’s gift to the evening dress then I’m sorry but I wasn’t born in Russia. There is no need for me to wear a fluffy bit of fur to my wedding, either the real stuff or the fake stuff.

And can I just ask, what is the go with some of the shrugs out there anyway!? Whilst I was getting instruction about what I should wear to my wedding so as to avoid looking like I’d been trussed up and served ready for the taking I was told that the witch could sell me a very nice shrug. She told me lots of girls buy them because they just need that something extra over their back and shoulders. Thats where you really feel the cold. What she then proceeded to show me however was an item neither functional nor aesthetically pleasing cause it looked a whole lot cheaper than it actually was and it sure as hell didn’t come anywhere near my shoulders or cover a significant portion of my back. I failed to see the point of the thing at all. And I thought that the woman needed a good anatomy lesson. Even 4 year olds can identify at which part of their body their shoulder is located.