27 Dresses (Hardly)

Bride called me this morning with the news that the big decision over bridesmaid dresses has been made. Kate and two of her "maids," Lizzie and Lindsey (Lindsay?) went in to try on several designs to see what looked best on the two very differently shaped (from each other, I mean) young women.

Kate originally thought that she'd let the bridesmaids wear an assortment of styles (though all short, cocktail types), but evidently one looked great on everyone. Plus Lizzie and Lindsey gave a thumbs-up on the strapless number, so that's what matters. The plan is to change up the colors - variations using chocolate brown and a pewter-y color, with a periwinkle blue accent. The fabric will be a satin-faced shantung (a textured silk, as far as I can tell). And the dresses are fairly reasonably priced (could be much worse, in other words).

Kate knows fashion, so I'm confident the dresses will be lovely. At any rate, they'll be a far cry from the gingham Mexican wedding dress-style of my bridesmaids of the early 1970s. Ah, how times have changed. But then again, these maids are much more sophisticated than we were.

That's one more important thing to check off the list.

Putting On My Mother of the Bride Hat

Well, it finally happened. I had to put on my Mother of the Bride hat and pull a few strings on the Bride’s behalf last week. Yep. I found something I could stick my nose into and actually be of some help. Fortunately, it was church-related, so I knew just what to do.

Kate’s had a devil of a time getting in touch with the priest assigned to her wedding and pre-marital counseling. We have a couple of special requests – which were put forth right from the git-go – that we wanted to confirm, so it was important that the priest return Kate’s messages. Well, natch, the Bride was getting a little antsy since she’d been trying to reach this person since before Christmas, so I said, “Hey! I’ll get in touch with the church and let ‘em know that we need to hear from the Rev.!”

So I zapped off a pithy – but polite – email to the church’s wedding coordinator, and presto! I got a phone call from her right away. Seems the priest – a new one, not one I know – is pregnant (don’t understand why that makes a difference, but, oh well) and has erratic hours, or some such excuse. Anyway, we got the go ahead to have our friend Harry officiate (the pregnant chick will assist, I reckon), and I got a promise that Kate would be contacted about her other questions.

Sometimes the MoB just has to stick on that big ol’ BRIDE’S MAMA hat and make things happen. I figure as long as I avoid the “Momzilla Syndrome,” I can at least be of some help.