Why with the sequins? WHY?

My time down south is coming to an end. I leave today to float up back home, but I’m happy to report that my head is in a much better place and I won’t be rending my garments and falling to the floor in paroxysms of misery and angst.

I've decided that I ought to open up a cottage industry, finding wedding gowns for people. (I just lost ALL of my male readers right there, I guarantee it.) I came down here with the intention of doing a lot of sitting and inspecting the insides of my eyelids, but my niece went and got engaged a few weeks ago, and we decided that a bulk of this weekend would be dedicated to finding The Dress. Seeing as I accomplished this with Angie just recently, I was primed and ready to wade my way through fields of sequins and bead work and tulle to find something sleek and magnificent for Heidi.

(Honestly, I’m having a hard time with her being engaged. Not only do I feel as though I was JUST changing her diapers yesterday, but so many of my memories are of her being small and racing around - she never walked - with a fountain of blond hair coming off of the top of her head that seeing her in dresses that make her look decidedly statuesque and grown up have me thinking, “WAIT! Is she potty trained yet? Come here and let me help you blow your nose!” I feel as though I’ve spent the last 20 some years standing still, and all of the tiny people in my life have just grown up so quickly around me. It’s strange, this getting older thing.)

We did find the most perfect and beautiful dress for Heidi. Poor Scott is not going to know what to do when she walks down the aisle. I suggest we have a glass of water on hand, more to throw at him than anything as there might be fainting involved. We were fortunate enough to find the right dress at the first boutique that we went into. Though, feeling as though we ought to do our due diligence and cast a wider net, we went to another shop yesterday. Bad idea. We walked in and it looked as though a sequin factory had had intestinal issues and exploded all over everything in sight – we all immediately broke out in hives, dry mouth and my left leg is still itching. Our requests of things that were “Sleek. Sophisticated. No trimmings,” somehow got translated into, “AS CLOSE TO LITTLE BO PEEP AS POSSIBLE.” All that was missing was the flock of sheep. Sweet fancy Moses, we didn’t last long and decided that we needed to go back to the original shop and try on The Dress once more just to erase the memory of the prior shop. And then have drinks. DRINKS WERE REQUIRED AND PURELY MEDICINAL.

And then we spent the rest of the day decorating various flat surfaces all over the house in an effort to recover. We do not like shopping. The end.