The Bridesmaids vs. The Dress

My friend Emmy got engaged many moons ago, and asked me to be one of her bridesmaids. I remember walking into the bridal shop, asking for the dress number in my "size" and taking it into the dressing room. Here, my friends, is where I had an emotional breakdown... I was not a size 6... The very kind and stylish designer would not let me fit into their size 6... today I was a 10. Double digits? I nearly died.

The same thing happened with my wedding... and the phone calls from the bridesmaids ensued... "Are you sure this is the dress we're supposed to wear?", "The size chart is wrong!"... Really? The size chart? From the designer who makes the dresses? You're going to argue with that? OK (the sarcasm on that remark was free).

Listen, I, of all people understand that your size does matter. We hold onto that size 2, 4, 6 or 16 with every inch; and when some dress designer wants to tell us that we're a size 10 or 20 it makes us stand there with our mouth open saying, "huh!?"

Here is what all bridesmaids need to understand... You were chosen out of many childhood friends, high school BFF's, college suitemates, and workplace confidants... YOU! The Bride chose YOU to stand up with her on the most important day of her life, and your only responsibility is to take stress OFF of your friend. I've worn bridesmaid dresses that I hated, thought were the wrong color, insulted at the size and sold afterward. Her taste may not be yours, and the designer may be off in your mind... but it's not really about you is it? Choose to be a friend in this time. The dress and the day is not about you... it's about the Bride and Groom. Put your focus there and you will make your Bride a friend for life.

Books that saved my life when I was a bridesmaid can be found here.

XOXO

Baron & Elizabeth Married!

Baron and Elizabeth's wedding was definitely an experience to remember... When I first arrived at the Meadowbrook Inn I grabbed my shootsac and headed for the bridal suite; only to discover that I locked my keys in my car along with my equipment, extra memory cards, additional lenses and batteries!! Thank God for AAA. 5 minutes before the ceremony started AAA showed up and retrieved my keys from my backseat... Luckily, the rest of the day was a dream!

If this had happened with any other couple I would have been sunk... Baron & Elizabeth are two of the most laid back people I've ever met, and took everything in stride. The ceremony was held on the terrace with the gorgeous Blowing Rock mountain view in the background. Being in the mountains for a July wedding didn't hurt either! The reception was just as laid back as the couple themselves, and dancing lingered into the later part of the evening. I keep telling Liz that she needs to quit cutting hair and start modeling!

Which is your fave?

Found this koozie in the Bridal Suite...
The wedding hospitality bags...
This little guy was rockin' out to Bon Jovi... absolutely stole the show!My fave...

Lost & Found

So my husband and I both have this bad habit of putting important things down and then not remembering where we put them... like phones, keys, credit cards and this past week's saga... my husband's jump drive.

Let me give you some back story... the hubby keeps our LIFE on that little white piece of plastic and hardware. We're talking our budget, miscellaneous work nuances, resumes and our billpay schedule - which means we got paid Friday (10 days ago) and couldn't pay our bills because we stopped our paper statments and didn't know what was due... talk about stressful!

So we know that it went missing sometime last Sunday night, and I thought I had heard the dog chewing on something plastic that same night... so we're talking a week of following the dog around everytime she went outside while Ryan was in Virginia, and I was secretly tearing the house apart looking for the darn thing... only to have him come home, slip into the shorts he was wearing that night and discover the drive... in his pocket.