Sneaking up on Wedding Dresses

I shared with Teri that the title for this blog came to me yesterday as we were actually out doing a little shopping. Well, not so much shopping as stalking, circling and sneaking up on potential dresses for Teri to wear in August.  I know that those of you who have been reading along with us know that after fussing and tackling my dress, I have mine tucked away with all the accessories waiting for the big day, but up until yesterday, Teri had not started her dress quest. As I have said before, we are two women with a great deal in common, but we are still two entirely different people with entirely different paces and approaches!

It started with a little online perusing to build confidence--sipping coffee and snuggled up in bed with our fuzzy robes yesterday morning, we pulled up a few sites and Teri started to clarify what she wants.  I realized after about fifteen minutes that I was totally controlling the laptop (for those of you who haven't figured it out yet, I was the eldest child in my family and Teri was the youngest--that is my explanation and while some of you may call me bossy, which is Teri's preferred term, it is often NOT intentional) and as soon as I did, I passed it over to her and made an excuse that I had to go to the bathroom.  Just so you realize the lack of driving focus for this quest, I climbed back on the bed with a coffee refill to find she was shopping for swimsuits!

A few hours later, we actually left the house with the goal of heading over to Macy's to possibly--gasp--try on a dress or two. The dresses she found online she liked were on the Macy's site and we thought they might have some in store to see in person.  First stop...Jerry's Home Improvement.  We didn't actually need anything there since we were just at that hotspot for tool-savvy lesbians and hetero men a couple days ago, but she managed to find several items that we needed to price and measure. After reading packages of solar garden lights for twenty minutes, I now know more that I thought possible about the batteries, materials and light longevity than I imagine I can retain.

We did eventually make it to Macy's and Teri parked at the far end.  I realized once we got in the store that we were not actually heading directly to where the dressy dresses might be.  Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, it was a maneuvering, circling, meandering path by which it felt as if we were stalking and sneaking up on the elusive and rare "possible wedding dress."  There were trousers, shorts, swim suits, boots and any number of other commodities that stood in the way of us and the dresses.

After finding nothing remotely appealing at Macy's, Teri decided that we would make the trip from that end of the mall to the other in order to get to JC Penney's where they just might have some possible dress contenders but where there would also be swimsuits and such to check out (to be fair, we are planning a long weekend get-away two weeks from now to a McMenamin's lodge with a soaking pool so suits are in order.)  There are many, many stores between Macy's and JC Penney's--stores selling books, shoes, ham, Build-a-Bears, children's clothes...

In the end, there was no actually trying on of dresses BUT Teri did take a photo of one she liked with her phone.  We celebrated with dinner from the little Japanese restaurant in the food court where they grill your stuff while you watch. It was a success, a start, and I completely understand when Teri shares how there are so many areas of her life where she has to move on other people's agendas that for this very big, important event, she wants her part of it to be on her terms and at her pacing.  I get that.  It is SO not the same approach that I take but that is just one of the many differences I enjoy about us.  It was a fun day and I felt incredibly fortunate to be invited along for the hunt!