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And So It Begins …
Marg-Ins
Marg's Mug.jpg

This week will bring some new experiences that, ready or not, here they are.

Now that my daughter and her fiancé have set the wedding date, it is time to start getting ready. They have already gotten the process started, looking at venues, deciding on a theme, figuring out how many people will be on the guest list … all those things that have to be done before the special day.

Both her best friend here and a good friend flying in from Arizona are going to help get the wedding dress shopping underway and my presence has also been requested for that day as well. Three appointments are already made; we are booked for the day, stopping and shopping.

My daughter asked me if I was going to cry while she tried on wedding dresses and my reaction wasn’t what she expected – I told her it would be “cool” to see the different styles and she was quite disappointed in my choice of words.

“Cool?” she asked, incredulous.

What can I say; it was the first word that popped into my head.

Truth is, I don’t honestly know if I will cry when I see her in a wedding dress; I’ve never done this before.

Not even with my own mom for my wedding. That’s because when Ally’s dad and I got married it was really a spur of the moment decision – we were in New York so he could meet all of my family and it just seemed like the right place and time. Not to mention his five sisters here all had their own ideas about how our wedding was going to be and we decided maybe it was better if we just went ahead and got married before we flew back to California. It came together in a couple of days, my parents were our witnesses, the former pastor of my childhood church officiated and his wife was our audience, complete with a box of tissues for herself. Then we went to a nice dinner, where my brother and sister-in-law were able to join us. My ‘dress’ was a simple non-bridal gown skirt and top outfit and my husband-to-be borrowed a jacket and tie from the pastor’s son. Not much in the way of traditional, but it worked.

Needless to say, however, I don’t have a lot of experience in wedding planning nor dress shopping.

It’s also mind boggling that we’re going out shopping for a wedding dress in the first place; seems like just a couple of years ago we were at the mall for back-to-school shopping and arguing over why she wanted jeans with rips in them. She had to have them, of course, but I didn’t want to spend the money for something that looked worn out. Back then, she couldn’t see my point of view. Today, as she buys her own clothes and pays her own bills, she admits to being a bit amazed about how she could ever want jeans that expensive. Well, that’s simple, she wasn’t paying for them; fashionably ripped jeans made perfect sense.

The wedding itself won’t be huge. In fact, if it was up to her fiancé, they’d just go to the courthouse and say their “I do’s” but he has slowly come around to the idea of having a venue and family and friends there to witness the big event.

So we shall see how the dress shopping excursion goes. We get to have a designated time slot at each of the three locations we are starting with this week – we don’t know if we will get lucky and find one right away or if this could be a lengthy process. She has certain styles she likes and wants to try on; I am looking forward to it and who knows? I might end up in a sobbing heap on the floor but I don’t think that will happen just yet.

Maybe next October when I see her walking down the aisle in the dress … now that’s when I will probably be a mess.

 

Marg Jackson is editor of The Escalon Times, The Oakdale Leader and The Riverbank News. She may be reached at mjackson@oakdaleleader.com or by calling 847-3021.