One of my favorite days out this year was when my friend decided to get married and we went shopping for a wedding dress with the other girls in the bridal party. Our squad, our team of renegade wedding shoppers, consisted of my best friend and bride to be Sarah, her sister Jodie, another girlfriend of ours, Claire, and me.
At first, when Sarah asked me to be in the bridal party I flinched a little because I thought it would be a lot of work and take time which is something I don’t have a lot of. But when your best friend is getting married you have to step up to the plate. After all, I was so happy for her and wanted nothing more than for her to have the fairy-tale wedding she deserves.
So the day to go wedding dress and bridal party shopping arose and I was well rested and ready to go. The girls picked me up from my house. To my surprise they had hired a VW beetle convertible! They pulled into the soundtrack of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. I jumped in and we were away, ready for the big the day ahead of us. Everyone was beaming with excitement and sharing jokes and laughs all the way.
First stop was breakfast. We stopped at a beautiful little restaurant at the Rocks. The food was amazing and naturally, we had a champagne breakfast to give us the energy needed to survive the day.
Much to my surprise, I was starting to let loose and enjoy myself and I was really getting to know and bond with the other girls in the bridal party. Squad goals leveling up!
But we hadn’t started shopping yet, and if I am being honest, shopping isn’t one of my favorite things to do. I usually shop online to avoid crowds and having to try things on. Occasionally you get something that doesn’t fit you but it’s a small price to pay to avoid any real-world shopping.
Anyway, so we pull into the first bridal shops buzzing with excitement and the bubbles from breakfast. So obviously the bride had to be fitted out first. We all looked around for at some dresses for her to try (along with the lovely saleswoman) and we finally narrowed our list down to about 5.
As Sarah changed, we sat around eagerly waiting for the bride to be to show off her wares. To my surprise, Jodie pulls out some large cards and hands them out to the rest of the girls. On the cards were thumbs up and thumbs down. We all burst into laughter. The whole situation felt like something out of a movie.
The bride appears in the first dress; a long flowing number with a plunging neckline that was a little bit sexy. She received two thumbs up and Jodie (her sister) gave her the thumbs down. The bride wanted answers from Jodie. All she could come out with was “I don’t know I just don’t like it”. We all laughed at her terrible explanation.
The whole process of judging the dresses was fun and filled with laughter but we didn’t achieve the goal and that was to find a dress she loved.
So leaving the store empty handed, we decided to try another store a bit further out to see if we could find the perfect dress. We were getting hungry so on the way there, so we went to the Maccas drive-thru for some guilty pleasure.
So, the babe-mobile pulled into the carpark at the store. As soon as we started perusing the dresses I knew that if the bride couldn’t find a dress here, we were in for a long day.
The staff were on it in instant. Asking all the right questions that prompted answers of exactly the dress Sarah was looking for. The saleswoman asked us to relax and get comfortable as she started picking out dresses with precision, knowing exactly which ones to choose. After about 5 minutes she came back with 3 dresses, all of which were absolutely stunning, and I was sure Sarah would find “The One”.
Sarah went to the change rooms and changed into a beautifully designed Maggie Sottero dress with sweeping lines and a beautiful train. Instantly we all held up our signs. Three thumbs up for the first dress. We were off to a good start. Sarah loved and was admiring the intricacy and beauty of the dress in the mirror.
Next dress off the ranks was a more traditional princess-styled Mori Lee design. Equally as beautiful, but in a different way. Yet again the scorecards revealed three thumbs up and Sarah too loved this dress as much as the last. I could see her mind ticking over already, as to which dress she would prefer out of the first two.
Sarah tried on the third dress and as she peeled back the curtains for the big reveal, ambled forward, her leg catching in the curtain as she tumbled to the floor laughing all the way down. We gave her three thumbs up for the acrobatics and three thumbs down for the dress.
So it was down to the first two she had tried on. She couldn’t make a decision for the life of her. So Claire suggested tossing a coin. Really, regardless of which side the coin landed, Sarah was going to walk away with a beautiful dress. She tossed the coin and it ended up landing on heads and which was the beautiful Maggie Sottero dress. And that was that.
Wedding dress shopping doesn’t have to be a drag. It was one of the best and most memorable days I’ve had in a long time and it was a great way to catch up with the girls. The fun and silliness reminded me of being back in high school and also reminded me that I’m never too old to fun with my friends.
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