Five to ten years ago, my husband and I went to a load of friends’ weddings. Recently, however, it’s tapered off to only about one per year, and it’s become a good way to see our friends that we don’t see all of the time.
Last weekend, we had a beautiful outdoor wedding to attend in Newport. I was excited to go, because I grew up in Rhode Island, and hadn’t spent a lot of time there recently. Because it had been a while since I’d been to a wedding, I treated myself to a manicure/pedicure, and went shopping for a new dress. I had no real options in my closet, since I’d lost weight last year, and the few options I picked up while outlet shopping were deemed “too casual” by my husband.
I found a beautiful dress on Nordstrom.com, and ordered a little more than a week before the wedding, choosing two-day shipping. It should have arrived with plenty of time, except Nordstrom waited four days to send the dress and then sent it regular ground shipping. It was scheduled to arrive the day we left.
Starting a square one again, I went to my local Nordstrom, and found a beautiful dress that actual fit really well, a challenge since I’m 4’11”. I bought it and was thrilled with my purchase, until my other dress arrived right before we left. I pulled it out of the box, and it was EVEN more perfect – it fit like a glove, was cut just right, and was comfortable. I made a last minute switch, and left for the wedding.
As we were at our hotel getting dressed, I was pulling the dress into position when I realized it was ripped right in the center, near the gathering of the material. Of course, no pins or sewing kits were to be found, so I had to head ot the wedding that way. Once at the restaurant, I asked at the front for a safety pin.
The server brought me four safety pins and a …. binder clip. She said, “I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie ‘The Wedding Planner’ with JoLo, but binder clips can really save a dress”. I’m still not sure how I could repair a dress with a tear at the abdomen with a binder clip.
So much for looking good – I had a few safety clips attached to the front of my “perfect” dress!
Photo credit: Jen DeCesari
