Dressing for Weddings Not My Own

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Well, danaeris and I now have bridesmaid's dresses. We shopped for one and a half hours and spent just under four hundred dollars including tax on both gowns.



First we hit the big outlet stores at Meadowlands. For those of you outside Hamilton, Meadowlands is so called because there is no longer a meadow to be found within twenty miles of it. It consists entirely of big box stores, and outlet versions of mall chains. It's a big mall, times ten, but you have to go out in the rain to get to the next store. Now, don't get me wrong; I don't hate it. It's wonderful if you can get everything you want at one store, or if the goal is to lose yourself in shoppity goodness. But most of the time, I prefer a smaller, less prone-to-be-rained-on venue.

Well, we found absolutely nothing at Meadowlands. The Reitmans up there does have a bridal line, but it takes ten weeks to order the dresses. We only have five weeks. AE also had nothing. So we piled into our two cars and headed to Lime Ridge Mall.

I love Lime Ridge. I've always loved Lime Ridge. It's undergone a substantial renovation in the last few years with the loss of Eaton's and the advent of Old Navy, but I still love it. Tonight my faith in it was completely justified. We tried two versions of the same store - Laura Petites first, then Laura. In the second, we found the perfect dress.

Its longest point comes to my ankles, its shortest just below the knee. It is made of a swishy, purposely-crinkly, nicely-draping fabric that hugs curves and enhances them. The several different slanted cuts of the hem make legs look longer - at least, they will when we get high heels to put with them. (That might be a challenge, actually - high heels + backyard wedding = stuck.) The neckline has the kind of cowl loose draping that works best with that kind of fabric and flatters almost any bust. danaeris was not too happy with the distinct lack of cleavage, and good foundation garments will need to be purchased, but otherwise, we're both happy. I love the swishiness of it.

Elizabeth spent her time in the store peeking behind the curtains at the other shoppers. They were pretty nice about it, probably because she's the cutest voyeuse you ever did see. We advised one high school girl (grade nine, as it turned out, though it didn't look like it) on her lovely, slinky black dress which looked exactly as it was designed to look on her toothpick figure. She's going to have to learn to walk in heels before her prom, though. Our advice consisted mostly of: buy it, you look fabulous, and get spiky heels to set it off.

We headed off to Sears to see what we could find in toddler dresses to work with ours, but they didn't have any that spoke to us, so we have more shopping to do. Also shoes and foundation garments (that's womanspeak for fancy undies that push up the boobs. My motto is: if you've got it, flaunt it!)

I'm quite happy with life at the moment. Good friends, good family, pretty clothes - this has been a nice day.