It seems a few of you have been wondering how my aforementioned search for the perfect mother-of-the-groom dress has gone.
You may rest easy. It has been found, altered and pressed. I love almost everything about it. It is gray and silver with a design and jacket that accentuate my positives and eliminate my negatives. My only hesitation is that half of it a silver print. Sparkly silver, if you will. I’m not terribly comfortable with sparkly. All the other votes from friends say it is lovely and that I need to get over it. I am trying, but I did feel the need to remove the rather gaudy rhinestone clasp on the jacket. I replaced it with an under-stated silver-gray frog. (No, not a frog-frog. It’s a style of knotted, cloth button).
This is a dress I would never have pulled off the rack, had I been shopping alone. And that is just one more reason to celebrate girlfriends. You need to go shopping with that dearest of friend whose style you admire and will tell straight out when something’s just wrong.
However, this same beautifully dressed friend loves heels and likes sparkly a bit more than I do. To her dismay, I have chosen gray pearl earrings rather than rhinestones. She would also have me wearing gorgeous, trendy and incredibly painful heels she lent me. They are perfect with the dress, but my feet said, “Oh, I don’t think so!” To my joy and relief, I found some adequately sparkly flats that are equally perfect.
So the dress is done and dusted, but wait! There’s more! I need an outfit for the rehearsal dinner, too. Business casual, the bride said. Around here, that’s jeans and a hoodie. In Philadelphia, I think more is expected. After two weeks of searching online and in store, for simple, black pants, I had an old pair altered. I will wear them with a lovely, blue-green jacket that just needs a plain, same-color top underneath. This has turned out to be more of challenge than the dress or the pants, but I shall persevere.
Out there somewhere, hopefully on a sale rack, hangs that perfect, dressy but-not-too-dressy, blue-green T-shirt. I have three weeks to hunt down this final piece of my wedding ensemble. It’s time to power shop.
Jean Gillette is a freelance writer whose normal wardrobe is pretty much T-shirt and sparkle-free. Contact her at [email protected].
