Another Cinderella's Ball

What if Prince Charming wasn’t Cinderella’s first kiss?

Ah, dress shopping. The running of the brides and trying on big gauzy, fluffy, tight, slinky, lacy, satin dresses of fanciful dreams and all that jazz. Like it or not what you wear is a huge deal on your wedding day. Some say it is the most important thing you’ll ever wear. For sure I think it is the most photographed thing you’ll ever wear by far.

I think every bride dreams of her perfect dress or dressy outfit at least. And every mother dreams of being there to help her into it. Or to nix the bad ones at least.

So what if this step was taken completely out of the equation?

What then?

What are you left with? Going with the groom to pick out his tux, or in our case suit? Not very fun. Sorry guys.

This is what I’m faced with. Because life isn’t always a Cinderella fairy tale. Your Prince Charming is rarely ever the first guy you kissed. And in my case not the second. Maybe third. No, sorry, fourth. But that’s it Chris, I swear. *giggle*

All joking aside I have to admit I was engaged before. My side of the family and friends know the situation. Almost no one but me really liked the guy. And I was blind until God and reality stepped in and closed that door. Five months later I found my friend Kari opening the window and I crawled out of the dark musty room I was in out into the fresh air and found Chris.

When I was engaged before I was the one planning, I was the one forking over lots of money to buy things for the wedding. It was all me. So when I crawled out into the fresh air I had emotional and physical baggage. Literally I came with a wedding. Look! Bride in a bag, wedding in a box! Oh neat.

No, not neat. Not at all. I started going through all the stuff I had acquired. I talked to Chris and he said do whatever with it, keep it, toss it, whatever. It was my stuff, not Phillips. But the more I looked at all the stuff from my “previous life” the more I felt it was dark. Dark and not happy, not at all. The color I wanted was a dark plum, darn near black. The centerpieces were wrought iron candle holders. The only thing light and happy was the xmas/wedding lights.

So I started to purge. I purged out a lot of things and threw them on a garage sale. And when Chris and I started planning our wedding it was so different. I found a man who cared and wanted to have his input into our wedding. It would be fun, exciting and very Sheri and Chris, or Chris and Sheri. We have both come up with so many things inspired by our love of life. Board games, pop culture references, fun toys as kids. This all feels so ..... right. No more darkness, I’m out of the room and into life.

But through all my purging I came to a dead stop at one thing. Very few things survived the purging but one did. My dress.

My beautifully color embroidered, beaded, heavenly and wonderful dress.

In my “previous life” I went dress shopping once while I was engaged. A few friends came with me to try on the big white dresses. Or what I could find in my size that is. Not many bridal salons have my size. I’m not the biggest, not the smallest but I was about a 16/18 at the time. I found one that I really liked. We took some pictures, got some business cards but I couldn’t afford even the cheapest $500 dress. So I started looking online. Ebay, being my drug of choice (and still is). I came upon what I wrongfully remembered as an Alfred Angelo gown but really was a DaVinci. The gown maker DaVinci seems to be the designer knock off brand. But I don’t care. It was gorgeous. A size 20 but has a lace up back and you know all gowns and bridesmaid dresses run two sizes too small. I bid and won with shipping it was $150. What a steal. But could it be that good of a deal? It came and it was. I tried it on twice. Once for my friends when I first got it and once for my parents and his mom. That is the only memory I have associated with the dress and anyone from his side.

So I have waited to try this dress on. I lost some weight and am desperate to see if it still fits. I wanted to wait to try it on with both families. In lieu of going dress shopping I guess. I’m so confused about this. A small nagging voice tells me I should get a new dress but another part really wants this dress. This dress I bought for ME. No one else and I’d like for my true, real and true love Chris to see me in it. I have never seen its equal with the beading and embroidery. I honestly want to wear this dress. So why does that little voice tell me I’m missing out on something? Dress shopping would be more irritating than exciting for me.

So tomorrow both sets of parents are coming over. Then in my room I will have my mom lace up the back of the dress and make sure it fits properly. We’ll talk a bit about it and I’ll tell her how I feel while she’s lacing it all up. She'll have great wisdom for me like always. Then I’ll walk out into the room full of family and see how I feel about wearing this dress meant for another Cinderella’s ball.
I guess we’ll see.