Dress Shopping With My Momma

My dress is already ordered. The bridesmaid dresses are already ordered. If you read my last post though, you'd know there were still a number of women involved with this wedding who weren't yet dressed.

When I talked about Momma Kettle's wedding clothes options, I thought she might be leaning more towards getting a suit, like what Grandmother Kettle got. But, I was completely off. When I mentioned that I figured she'd look best in something similar to what she wore for my cotillion, she seemed a bit un-enthused.

Turns out, she definitely had an evening gown in mind, but not one like she wore at the cotillion. The cotillion had all these rules about what had to be covered and her dress had long sleeves. For the wedding, she had something a little less... covered in mind.

Off we went to West 95th street, in search of a bridal shop. I'm not sure whether or not we ended up at the same place Mima Kettle got her dress from or not. We just stopped at the first store we saw. We went inside and met a lovely young woman who got us started on finding the perfect mother-of-the-bride gown.

I showed her some pictures Momma Kettle and I brought from a magazine to give her an idea of what we were looking for. She found a couple dresses that fit the basics and we went to the dressing room. It was really nice to be on the other end of the dress trying on.

Personal photo: My chair set up at the viewing area outside the fitting rooms

She began trying on dresses. The first one she put on fit our requirement of a very elegant dress. All the dresses are in colors that may not necessarily be what we would've ordered them in.

Personal photo: This dress was very elegant and pretty. But it wasn't much besides that And the train, while beautiful, could possibly interfere with my mother's dancing on the wedding night. Momma Kettle is a dance machine!

Personal photo: Neither of us really loved this dress. But seeing this photo now, it looks pretty amazing. But we still ruled it out while we were still at the store.

Personal photo: After seeing the elegant dress, we wanted to see a fun dress. This dress was definitely fun!

Personal photo: There was a bolero that went with it that we loved. there was also a train/cape thingee that we couldn't figure it out.

Personal photo: At this point we were having too much fun! After not being able to figure out what the train was doing, we decided it should be a cape. Momma Kettle is so much fun.

When we were trying to sort through the dresses, we decided we'd choose one of these. Another saleslady came over to "help", but I found her extremely annoying. She wasn't being helpful. She was just trying to take over our first lady's appointment. Knowing, they work on commission, I wasn't having that.

I dragged our first lady off to find this other dress she mentioned. That gave my mother a chance to talk the ear of the other woman, who was thankfully gone when we got back with the dress. She put my mom into the dress and she walked out in it. It was great! Just see for yourself.

Personal photo: It was a bit too large, but it was super cute. It was elegant, sexy, fun, and everything we wanted for her dress that night.

Personal photo: This fabric color is called "honey". It's a beautiful neutral color that's in the golden family. It's a chiffon fabric and will be fabulous!

Personal photo: This is the dress on the mannequin. Zoomed in so you can see the pretty swooped fabric.

We ordered the dress and and were very happy to do so. Because we got it from a bridal shop, we had to put a rush order in (+$60) to get it here in time for the wedding. But it doesn't matter, because she's got her dress.

I also want to clarify about the clothes for people who aren't bridesmaids. I think it might be a cultural difference kind of thing. But most weddings I go to at my church have everyone coordinated who's even loosely related to the wedding.

Imagine a procession of of 25 family members all dressed in white clothes and black/silver shoes. That's how things are around here. By giving my family three-four different color options for clothes and letting them pick their own jewelry and shoes with only loose guidelines for color is actually seen as easy-going.

There are people who hand-pick stuff their second cousin wears to the wedding. That's why it's good to have Weddingbee.  Hive, you keep me in perspective. I've always thought planning out clothes for the entire family was a bit crazy.

I figured making sure those who would be wearing corsages and bouts are coordinated would be pretty tame by comparison. But I decided to back off and let people wear what they want. And in typical contrary fashion, as soon as I called my grandmother to tell her it was fine is she wore silver, she said she had thought about it and decided she didn't want to be the only person in silver and would be sticking with her gold accessories. After all, she doesn't even like silver.

I'm deciding to put the women's clothes on the list with the men's tuxes. I haven't asked much about the tuxes since that fiasco. I'm 100% sure the neither Mr. Kettle nor Daddy Kettle have gotten their tuxes yet. But we're still over 100 days out, so it's no big deal, right? Right?

How was dress shopping with your mom? Have you ever gone overboard on planning other peoples' roles in your wedding? Is that just me?