Two Women, Two Dresses, Check!

Yes, indeed, exciting news.  We now have two ivory dresses hanging in the closet!  Yesterday, Teri went back for a dress she found a couple weeks ago, tried it on and handed it over to me to make the purchase.  Well, if truth be told, I offered to carry it so that if she should start to change her mind or have thoughts of putting it back and purchasing a couple pair of cargo shorts instead--I could rush to the register and make a quick getaway.

Now her cocktail-length, lined linen dress can nestle up to my tea-length cotton one and wait for the big day.  Whew...

When I try on my dress, I feel like a bride. When Teri called me back into the dressing room from my backpack-watching post, I couldn't quite find the words to describe how I felt seeing her standing there in what is to be her dress.  As I told her later, when I try on my dress, I feel like a bride (albeit an older, somewhat lumpy one)--seeing her in the dress she will wear made me feel like a broom.  I feel lucky to get to explore all the different sides of this love, devotion, commitment package--both the gendered stuff and the doesn't-really-fit-the-gendered stuff.  She was beautiful, it is a perfect dress for her and it is completely different from mine.  For those who wonder about these things, we are not mirror images of each other and while we might both be wearing dresses come August 13th, there will not be anywhere near identical.

Each step we take on this journey to the marriage ceremony feels increasingly poignant and weighted with purpose.  There is intention, consideration, and patience with different processes.  I get to know her better and she, likewise, sees more and more of what makes me tick.  In the dress-hunting process, I learned all sorts of things about what she likes, what she doesn't and, ultimately, seeing her standing there in her dark socks and asking me to do up the back zipper, how she wants to be attired on our wedding day. So much about this process is both exciting and terrifying and knowing that we both now have our dresses hanging at the ready is one of those multi-status checklist items!