Flashback, April 2000, two months before the most important day of my life . . . my wedding, the day I had been dreaming about since I was a little girl. My fiance and I were visiting his parents for the weekend. I was sitting on his parents' couch looking through my wedding binder while my fiance was watching TV. I don't know how many "Brides-To-Be" have wedding binders, but I was one of those brides. I had a gigantic 3-ring binder with tabs. I kept all of my wedding "stuff" in that binder . . . contracts, receipts, pictures, magazine clippings, articles . . . anything and everything that was remotely related to a wedding was in that binder.
Enter my future Mother-in-law, carrying a large garment bag from Nordstrom. She wanted to show me the dress that she bought for our wedding. Now, being an extremely organized and anal bride, I had specifically told her to purchase a dress that was periwinkle blue. When she unzipped the garment bag to reveal the dress I was stunned to see a pastel yellow dress. Not the end of the world, right? Wrong! She removed the dress from the bag so I could get a good look at it. Here were the words that escaped my mouth at that moment in time . . . "That is the exact same dress as my bridesmaids! You can't wear that!" Crash . . . it was officially the end of the world!!! I immediately whipped open my binder to the "bridesmaid dress tab" and pulled out a picture of the dress that all of my bridesmaids would be wearing. I showed her the picture to prove that the dress she bought was indeed, exactly the same dress that all 5 of my bridesmaids would be wearing. My future Mother-in-law's response was as follows . . . "You never told me to buy a periwinkle blue dress. I spent hours picking out this dress. It looks really good on me because it's backless and shows off my back muscles, so I can't wear a bra with it. Oh, and I'm not taking it back." Then she zipped up the garment bag and returned to her bedroom.
I immediately ran into the spare room, got out my cell phone and called my mom in hysterics! I was bawling my head off! How could she? She was going to ruin everything! My mom, the wise and almighty, gave me excellent advice . . . let her wear the dress. Let her wear the dress? How could I let her wear that dress? What would everyone think? What -would -everyone-think? They would think she was a complete and total idiot. Hmmm, maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all. Instinctively I wanted to make a fuss, tell her to take the dress back, make her buy a periwinkle blue dress. But my mom convinced me that I should keep quiet and not start off my relationship with my future Mother-in-law on the wrong foot.
The wedding came and went. It was a picture perfect day and I didn't sweat the small stuff. She showed up wearing the yellow dress (without a bra), hair up in a banana clip, looking like she was going to the prom. People laughed, snickered, and called her the "50 Year Old Bridesmaid." To this day, when people see our wedding pictures they ask, "Who's the old bridesmaid?" Then I get the joy of retelling this story and getting the last laugh.
Enter my future Mother-in-law, carrying a large garment bag from Nordstrom. She wanted to show me the dress that she bought for our wedding. Now, being an extremely organized and anal bride, I had specifically told her to purchase a dress that was periwinkle blue. When she unzipped the garment bag to reveal the dress I was stunned to see a pastel yellow dress. Not the end of the world, right? Wrong! She removed the dress from the bag so I could get a good look at it. Here were the words that escaped my mouth at that moment in time . . . "That is the exact same dress as my bridesmaids! You can't wear that!" Crash . . . it was officially the end of the world!!! I immediately whipped open my binder to the "bridesmaid dress tab" and pulled out a picture of the dress that all of my bridesmaids would be wearing. I showed her the picture to prove that the dress she bought was indeed, exactly the same dress that all 5 of my bridesmaids would be wearing. My future Mother-in-law's response was as follows . . . "You never told me to buy a periwinkle blue dress. I spent hours picking out this dress. It looks really good on me because it's backless and shows off my back muscles, so I can't wear a bra with it. Oh, and I'm not taking it back." Then she zipped up the garment bag and returned to her bedroom.
I immediately ran into the spare room, got out my cell phone and called my mom in hysterics! I was bawling my head off! How could she? She was going to ruin everything! My mom, the wise and almighty, gave me excellent advice . . . let her wear the dress. Let her wear the dress? How could I let her wear that dress? What would everyone think? What -would -everyone-think? They would think she was a complete and total idiot. Hmmm, maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all. Instinctively I wanted to make a fuss, tell her to take the dress back, make her buy a periwinkle blue dress. But my mom convinced me that I should keep quiet and not start off my relationship with my future Mother-in-law on the wrong foot.
The wedding came and went. It was a picture perfect day and I didn't sweat the small stuff. She showed up wearing the yellow dress (without a bra), hair up in a banana clip, looking like she was going to the prom. People laughed, snickered, and called her the "50 Year Old Bridesmaid." To this day, when people see our wedding pictures they ask, "Who's the old bridesmaid?" Then I get the joy of retelling this story and getting the last laugh.
1 comment:
When you mentioned your wedding binder, the first thing I thought of was that episode of Friends where Monica whips out that binder of wedding stuff that she's had planned out since she was like 10 or something. lol
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