Faithlift, Wedding Dress, and Blue Suede Shoes

So, no wireless over the weekend at Grace Chapel. That was okay, because it meant I spent the two days talking with the people in the music group and spending time with them. I think my favorite thing about doing gigs like this is the downtime between worship sessions when we get to socialize and enjoy each other. Normally when we get together on Sunday mornings, we are focused on prayer, and then on the music, and then once mass is over we all have family and friends who pull us in different directions. This weekend, we had two separate stretches of time with nothing to do but hang out with each other. In the morning, I went to the Burlington Mall with Zack and Sue, and in the afternoon the ladies spread a blanket on the grass outside and hung out and chatted.

The conference itself was phenomenal. There was about 1000 women there, and they were very enthusiastic and responsive to the music, clapping, lifting their hands, singing and shouting. When we played "Shout to the Lord," they were singing so loudly that I could hear them well over the sound system. So well, in fact, that when they sang a line with a different rhythm than I usually sing it, they threw me off and I lost my place! I recovered quickly, but it cracked me up. There was a whole group of deaf people in the front, and I've never seen deaf people do this before, but they signed along with us the way a hearing person would sing along. That was pretty cool to watch. I did catch the end of the keynote speaker's afternoon talk, and she was funny and the part I heard was excellent. Overall just a great conference. After the conference was over, I had many women come up to thank me and tell me how much they loved the group, and we sold a lot of CDs.

So, also this week, my wedding dress came in. I went to pick it up on Monday, and I was absolutely heartbroken because it doesn't fit. It was fine in the hip and waist, but the bust was about 3 inches away from zipping. This really surprised me, because I carry weight in the waist and hips, not up top, but the girl measured me and said that I was 2 inches bigger from when they measured me to order the dress. I left there crying and feeling miserable about myself, hating my body, feeling like I'd ruined things because I had "let myself go." And I was so stunned, because I haven't noticed my bras fitting differently or my shirts pulling. I will be honest, I have gained about 5-8 pounds, but from the way my clothes feel, I had thought it was in the butt.

And then I started thinking about it, and it really started making NO sense to me. 3 inches? Surely I would have noticed 3 inches! Surely Matt would have noticed, but when I told him he assured me that he has not noticed anything like that, and he "keeps an eye on them," so to speak. And then Thursday I brought the dress to the tailor. I put it on, and he took one look and said "This dress isn't going to work." Tears all over again, but then he told me that it made no sense to him that the dress would be too small on top, and that he thinks that the dress shop screwed up. And then yesterday morning I remembered that Lands End has a virtual model on their website that you plug your measurements into and it tells you what size to order, and I had done this last fall. I access my virtual model, checked the measurements on there and remeasured myself. SAME. Nothing gained. So it was kind of a relief and kind of maddening to realize that I have been walking around all week feeling like a fat cow, but it really was that either they messed up measuring me the first time or the manufacturer messed up in making the dress.

So the plan now is that the tailor is going to put a corset into the dress, and that will make it work. I am also going to put all of this into a letter of complaint to the dress shop and see how they respond. I will post their response here.

Last thing this morning, I found the shoes I'm going to wear for the wedding. They're blue suede and they perfectly match the blue of the girl's dresses! I found them with Zack and Sue at the Burlington mall, but the store didn't have them in my size there. They called around and located a pair in my size at the Natick mall, so I'm driving down there tonight to pick them up. I had wanted to wear blue shoes instead of the traditional white, so I'm pretty excited. I'll try to post pictures tonight when I get home.