If you thought your kids grew up and flew the nest way too soon, wait until you have grandkids who are old enough to get married.
It seems like just yesterday I quit my job at the local newspaper office to drive two hours one way twice a week just so I could have the privilege of babysitting our first grandchild–a girl. You know she had to be pretty special to get me to drive anywhere at five o'clock in the morning in all kinds of weather. All I can say is she is very special. She was the firstborn out of what would eventually become 14 grandchildren and three great-grandsons. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, 'How'd she get three great-grandsons if her grandkids aren't married?' It's complicated. Well, not really but that's what people say when they don't want to go into a long, drawn-out explanation.
I was thrilled I was able to accompany our granddaughter, along with her sister (grand baby No. 2), our daughter, and our granddaughter's future mother-inlaw to Oklahoma City and Edmond where we 'shopped until we dropped' at some very exclusive shops searching for the perfect wedding dress.
It's been a lot of years since my daughter and I shopped for her wedding dress. I won't say how long but we've gone through four presidents, some of whom got more than one whack at it. Even though momma was paying for the dress I was the one suffering with sticker shock. I know everything's gone up but dang. I was grateful for the chairs and couches that were provided since we spent almost five hours just watching my granddaughter try on dresses. I got to enjoy it from the comfort of my chair and closed wallet.
My wedding plans went nothing like hers. If I remember correctly (probably not after 50 years) I pretty much stayed in a daze the whole time. I also didn't give myself a year to plan. I won't say how long the planning stage took but the milk probably wouldn't have gone bad in between. My sister did pretty much all the work, I think. I do remember having gallon jugs of cheap store-bought punch with the cake. As I said, I was in a daze.
Anyway, I really admire her organizational skills since she sure didn't get it from me. Our bride-to-be is so organized she's already working on her own flower arrangements so it's a good thing she's spending a whole year before the wedding getting everything just right.
She called and made appointments at three shops for trying on dresses, which I never knew was a requirement. When we were planning our daughter's wedding we just walked in and said, 'What do you have that won't break the bank?' Apparently, that isn't an option nowadays. I'm talking about the walking in and the not breaking the bank part.
She tried on dress after dress after dress until they all started to look alike to me until we found 'THE ONE.' It was a gorgeous dress that the lady said was from an exciting new upand- coming designer they had just been unboxed (the dress, not the designer. Ha! Ha!) She excitedly pointed out that our granddaughter would be the very first one to try it on. The other salesladies made a point of passing through and ooohing and ahhing at her vision of loveliness. I don't know if they were selling us a bill of goods, but it worked. That is the dress she (and by she I mean momma) purchased.
Here's the part that baffled and confused me–we can't take it home with us. There was no finding the right dress, buying it, and taking it home. At least not in the shops we patronized. Oh, no! They don't carry dresses in my granddaughter's size. They'd take a dress off the rack that was four, five, six sizes too big and use clamps that looked like they came from the local home improvement store to make the front of the dress look like it fit. From the back it looked like the bride of Frankenstein just had a little nip and tuck.
There were no prices on the merchandise, which I think is a devious way to get the bride-to-be to fall in love with the dress without a discouraging old price tag hanging off it to sway her decision.
I know the wedding will be perfect and I can't wait from my vantage point of being a proud Nana who only has to show up. I will have to go dress shopping and I'm sure it'll take me the next eight months to get up the gumption to go. Wish me luck. I'm gonna need it.