My older sister is soon to be married and so far, much to my bitter disappointment, nothing about this whole “throwing a party to celebrate commitment and the joining of Netflix accounts” thing has played out like the B-plot of a rom-com. Like I was led to believe it would.
If classic films have taught me anything, it’s that when you’re a single woman tasked with being a bridesmaid in an family wedding, hilarity and self-realization should ensue.
When I pictured the way this whole caper would pan out, I assumed I would be the cause of some monstrous pre-wedding disaster, which I would then attempt to fix in a nail-biting race against time just moments before the wedding was scheduled to take place (all in the pouring rain, naturally).
And then, after a heartfelt ceremony, I would end up falling in love with James Masters at the reception while coming to some brilliant realization about my life, just in time for the credits to roll.
That’s just the way these things always go. Hey, I don’t make the rules…
However, except for one quite hairy life and death moment where I had to sort out a venue change for an impending pre-wedding High Tea, this whole situation has been pretty light on the drama.
At least, that was the case until last weekend, when I decamped from Sydney to Brisbane in order to selflessly help my big sis navigate an intense weekend of wedding dress shopping.
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When my wife and I got married over in Malaysia, we were both completely unaware of the need to sort out the dress from the day you are born in Australia. We aren’t very traditional so I accompanied her to a bridal shop to help her find a dress.
First question was a very confronting who is that guy with you, my wife managed to convince her I was just a friend, which I’m pretty sure saved me from being burned at the stake. Then we were told we couldn’t see dresses until an appointment was made (in an empty shop). They had 3 hours until they closed and had no one booked in for rest of the day - it took a lot of negotiating to convince them to let us book in for the current time.
Some of the dresses were nice enough, but covered in makeup and badly sized (which I expect is why they need so long to alter). So we ended up giving up.
Jump forward to Malaysia. Turned up to a shop a week before our wedding. Gave them a rough design of what we wanted they asked if we wanted to use our own fabric or select from what they had - they didn’t have colours we wanted which they were fine with. They gave us some places that may have what we are after. We checked them out, bought fabric and ended up having 2 fittings within a week and a dress that fitted perfectly. They also made 2 bespoke suits for me, a tailored shirt and another fancy custom made dress for my wife to wear to our reception. (However they did advise us they had to enlist the help of their mother and her friends to help out). And all those clothes we bought cost 1500aud.