White dress shopping – every girl’s dream?Have you similar memories, dreadful disasters or funny stories to share? Post to my blog or email [email protected]
With only a week to go before finishing Primary school for good, Junior needed photos ranging from babyhood to his present 6th class status. A selection was required by teacher to create a slideshow of each pupil’s development through their school years. As I rooted through boxes desperately seeking baby pictures, I cursed my disorganisation and failure to file the multiple packets of images into ordered, easy-to-view albums.
I flicked through the stash of communion photos and couldn’t help getting all nostalgic remembering how we kitted out our kids – the boys sporting big white badges on their dark rented blazers and the fun with daughter when we bought her white dress.
I loved the whole experience and can’t resist eyeing Communion or even bridal dresses when I see them in shop windows. But these gowns can be expensive, and the practicality of handing down the Communion dress to a younger sibling, for example, doesn’t always work.
Some little girls long to have their own. I’m reminded of one mum’s saga of white dress shopping. Her adult daughter has jokingly never forgiven but certainly not forgotten how she was ‘forced’ to wear her older sister’s Communion dress. “I wanted my own!” she moaned, “And worse still, you made me wear shoes three sizes TOO BIG, telling me I’d grow into them!”
Although taunted in jest, the guilt-ridden mum vowed she’d be suitably supportive, should her girl ever need help selecting a wedding trousseau. The day, indeed, came when the daughter sought her mum’s assistance.
“I couldn’t get it right then, either!” admitted the mum.At the bridal boutique, the daughter adored a particular gown that accentuated her fabulous figure. “What do you think?” she asked expectantly. “Too booby,” blurted mum, “Well, you asked for my honest opinion!” “Not that honest,” seethed daughter.
She didn’t purchase but was visibly upset. Regardless of mother’s viewpoint, the bride-to-be returned later to have the dress modified to a more modest décolleté. However, years later when they were both perusing the wedding album, her daughter reluctantly admitted, “Mum, you were right.”
I wonder when that girl’s own children are ready to make their Communion, will she splurge or have any ‘Clothes-share’ and ‘Big-shoe’ economic concerns like her mother? I hope her mum will keep me posted. As for me, I’d better buy some albums and begin to file the family photos!
Maeve O’Keeffe, the Frazzled Mammy!
Maeve O’Keeffe is a Cartoonist, Illustrator and Journalist in Cork, Ireland
Contact blog www.frazzledmammy.com or e-mail [email protected] or tweet @frazzled_mammy
©Maeve O’Keeffe 2014