Until last week I had spent a fortune in not buying a dress to wear to a wedding.
I have two weddings to attend in April. The first is of a good and dear friend and the second is of a good and dear daughter. My friend had asked me to be her witness/brides maid (yes, maid) and as the only one, I didn’t have to endure the frills and fluff of the traditional frock. But I feel I have to wear something a bit special.
And my daughter’s is also pretty high on the agenda as deserving of a decent mother-of-the bride ensemble.
The purchase of said outfits (or potentially outfit) has caused me some consternation and lots of trips to the shops, dragging behind a reluctant husband on several of these occasions (refer to his seat-sitting approach to shopping in an earlier column).
Despite the trips, no suitable frocks have materialised. At this point, I am seriously lamenting the fact that I am not a size 8 or ever will be, because that would have been a whole different story. I had a similar epiphany recently while reading a magazine in my surgeon’s rooms. I noted that every single person in that magazine was in that size 8/10 range and looked pretty good.
There was no room in these magazines for the frumpy, over 50 (well almost 60) and the overweight. Hence my hunt for a frock that made me look – well – not 50, frumpy or overweight and did not carry a price tag that would cause any further and instant ageing.
But I digress. Because while I may have not had success in purchasing a dress for the weddings, I have in fact spend significant sums expanding my wardrobe for other occasions. All sorts of racks have enticed me towards them, many bearing ‘special’ signs. Turns out the outfits weren’t super special, but the prices were.
At this point, I am loathe to add up how much the hunt for the wedding frock has cost me, but suffice to say that I have a new and healthy wardrobe comprising new shoes, dresses, tops, pants and swimsuits.
How I look at the weddings remains as yet a mystery, but there is much to be said for my renewed appearance at work, on the beach and elsewhere. At this rate, there will be no allowance left for the frock of my wedding dreams.