Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

A 1960s wedding dress

My mom and my sister, along with my sister's husband, came up on Saturday so that we three women could go shopping for my wedding dress.

My sister's husband stayed with The Gryphon and helped him prepare for a dinner party that night for our bridal party.

They arrived with enough time that we could grab some lunch first, so we went to Subway, which has a light menu.

When we walked into David's Bridal, they were clearly busy, but someone at the front desk greeted us and got us started. After taking our information, she assigned us to a very young looking assistant who was unusually quiet for a salesperson.

I explained that I wanted a tea length dress, and though I knew that would mean limited options, I would start there. She brought me three dresses to try, starting with one I specifically pointed out to her.

The first one was nice, but I didn't look at it and say, "Wow." Plus, it had a strange ribbon that ended up drawing extra attention to my rear. Not quite a butt bow, but not really something I wanted.

The second dress I immediately loved. This was another tea length dress with more detail, with a fitted top and an A-line skirt. It looked fabulous on me. Both my mom and my sister agreed it was pretty, but we decided to try on other dresses, just to be sure.

My sister suggested I try some full-length dresses, because I might be able to find one that would suit the style. We spoke to the salesperson about the fact that we were looking for a gown with very simple lines, and she brought one for us to try.

I wasn't blown away by it. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. It didn't have the "Wow" factor that the second dress had.

The shop seemed to get busier and busier, and our assistant was being pulled from one client to another. This is probably why she seemed like she had the attention span of a goldfish.

I wouldn't learn until later that she was coming by and checking in with Mom, who kept saying, "I guess they're OK." Sometimes there were things we could have used help with, but Mom didn't know that. She was seated on a chair, since it's easier on her knees. My sister, meanwhile, was in the dressing room helping me.

My sister looked through the catalogue and selected some other dresses for me to try, which the salesperson brought us. None of them seemed right. One was kind of nice except for a ribbon going across my hips, a bad idea, since it draws attention to my widest part.

Another dress my mom absolutely loved. It had filmy layers of cloth that made concentric circles, and it had an aqua ribbon around the waist. The main problem was that it had a train. Even if I could imagine wearing a full-length dress, I definitely didn't want to deal with a train.

She said it was too bad we couldn't have it altered, but my sister told her that would be really difficult because of the way the fabric lay.

After we'd tried all the styles we thought would possibly fit the look I was going for, we went back to the second dress. I tried it on again and loved it just as much. My sister asked our attendant for a short veil, and she brought a blusher veil. It was perfect with the dress and suits the retro '60s look, as well.

My mom was a little surprised that I wanted a veil, but I told her it went perfectly with the dress. She agreed it did look nice. A salesperson walked by and told me it looked great, only confirming my belief.

Since we had time, we looked at the bridesmaids dresses. Originally, we were going to do mix and match separates, with a teal top and a buttercup skirt. But when we saw them together, we decided the buttercup was a little too bright.

First, my sister suggested a champagne colored skirt, which is more of a gold color. She wanted to try those colors together, but they didn't have them in her size, so she tried a top that was too small with a skirt that was too big. Looking at herself in the mirror, she was still unsure about the combination, saying she felt the skirt was too large a field of color.

She and my mom came up with an alternate idea: a solid colored dress with a champagne colored ribbon around the waist and a champagne colored wrap or bolero jacket. That looked really nice on my sister, and even a salesperson came by and complimented the color combination.

Unfortunately, the only dress in teal was a velvet material that wasn't that flattering. So we looked at the other available styles and decided on a blue-green or aqua color called Oasis. There are three available tea length dresses in that color.

My sister's going to go to the David's Bridal nearest her and find the dress she likes, and I'll go with my bridesmaids in a couple weeks and look with them. We still might follow the original idea of allowing them to wear different dresses in the same color and same length. We'll see what we think of that idea when we get together to shop for the dresses.

I was feeling really good about our selection, and so I went up to the counter and ordered the dress and the blusher veil. It will arrive in December, which means I'll have to figure out how to store it, but at least this major wedding detail is now settled.

More on Alyce's wedding planning:

Musings on Alyce's Wedding

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

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