My First Real Bridezilla Moment

It finally happened. I swore it wouldn't. I swore I would be patient, flexible, and realistic about the budget, the style, and other people's perception of how important my wedding was. But I called the dress shop today, and I became bridezilla.

I spoke with the girl who had worked with my whole bridal party. I explained that I had given a lot of thought to what has happened with the dress, and that I really felt that there was no way that I actually gained that much in the bust. I told her about Land'sEnd.com's virtual model, and that I checked the measurements I had put in in October against the measurements now, and they haven't changed. I told her about the conversation I'd had with the tailor about how something like this could happen, and how the seam allowances are clipped and the dress can't be let out. And see, this is the thing. I wouldn't have even lost it, except she initially wouldn't admit that there was a possibility that they screwed up. She began by telling me that she had been doing measurements for 10 years and she trains people in the store on how to do it. And then she said that she also makes her recommendation based on how much "gap" there is on the sample dress when the bride is trying it on. And then she tried to imply that the tailor wasn't actually familiar enough with wedding and formal dresses to be able to tell if they ordered it correctly.

So that's when I lost it. I told her I'd had a horrible week, beating myself up emotionally because I was "too fat for my wedding dress," that every girl dreams about her wedding dress and to have something like this happen is heartbreaking. Then I said that my whole wedding party had gotten their clothing from them, spending a lot of money and giving them a lot of business. I said that I have many friends of marriageable age, and I couldn't imagine recommending this shop to my friends because the risk of such a bad screw-up was unacceptable. In fact, I could imagine steering my friends away from the store at this point. I told her that I don't know what they can do to fix this, but I wanted to give them an opportunity to make it right.

She called me back about 20 minutes later and said that they had checked the sample dress's seam allowances and they weren't clipped. And again implied that my tailor didn't know what he was talking about. I told her I had seen it with my own eyes. Then I had to explain to her about what I mean when I say "clipped," because she didn't know what that meant. For those of you who don't, when you make a dress you make perpendicular cuts to the seam allowance every inch or so in order to get the seam to lay flat and smooth. She said she'd call me back.

She called back 10 minutes later and asked if I could bring the dress in to the store, because the owner wants to see it, and they want to take some measurements themselves. I told her I can bring it in, but that the one thing which would be worse than things the way they stand now would be to have no dress at all on May 9th. She said she understood that. So, we'll see what happens.

Happier things... Matt and I went shopping today and found a great luggage set on sale at Kohl's. I also got a bathing suit, and he got several items off the winter sales rack, including a really nice winter coat. I also called The Flower Cart to make sure we are on track with them and they are still good and ready to go. Matt called the jeweler, and is waiting on a callback from him about the rings. We also stopped at BJ's and bought a lot of chocolate for the candy bar. We have made a decision about most of the music except the entrance song, and we've asked my nephew Michael and Matt's sister Therese to read for us. We booked the hotel, and I will call them the week before to ask what Catholic churches are nearby and what their Sunday mass schedule is. We couldn't get our marriage license because the state of NH's computer network was down (April Fool's moment?) so we'll try again tomorrow. Matt's working on the programs at work right now, and I'm about to head out the door to go to Michael's craft store and the grocery store. Good times.

And the hyacinths Matt bought me this weekend are blooming and starting to fill the whole apartment with their fragrance. Here they are, with my fabulous blue suede shoes: