…to wear a long dress (does lace make you sweaty?)

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2011/05/06 by Elizabeth

Wow – turns out I’m a bit slack at this blogging business huh? Oh well – I’d love to say this post will be worth the wait, but I’m not confident of that at all…

So, what a week we’ve had. There I was thinking the news would be full of nothing but Royal Wedding postmortems and speculation on when the now Duchess of Cambridge would manage to get a regal bun in her impossibly slender oven, when BAM! Obama strides confidently to the lectern and announces he’s killed Bin Laden! Who the hell saw that coming?! Way to seal the second term there Barack – well played sir, well played indeed.

I’m in no way qualified to offer any insightful commentary on Operation Geronimo, so will turn my attention back to ‘the wedding’. As previously reported, I gathered with some girlfriends to eat baked goods and drink some rather excellent sparkling white wine, as we watched Kate and Wills put an end to their days of living in sin in front of a global audience of two billion (disclaimer: haven’t fact checked that figure… but it sounds about right to me).

The Duchess wastes no time commencing her official duties

For all our pisstaking (most notably of Princess Beatrice’s reindeer inspired hat and Pippa Middleton’s Tahitian princess spray tan) I was actually genuinely happy for Kate and William. They looked incredibly comfortable with each other, and those little moments where they seemed to be stifling giggles were awfully sweet. And it can’t be denied, Kate’s dress from the House of Alexander McQueen was gorgeous and will no doubt be inspiring brides to be the world over.

Which segues rather clumsily into the actual subject of this post… my quest for a dress.

Let me assure you up front that I will not be drawing inspiration from the Duchess. For starters, our wedding is in Sydney in November, when I suspect it might be a bit warm for full length lace sleeves. The image of my sweaty pits is not something I want my guests to take away as a lasting memory of our day.

I have, however, been rethinking what I had in mind for my dress. Up until recently, I had my heart set on wearing a cute tea-length, 50s inspired number (in part to show off my fabulous shoes). As I flip through page after page of my increasingly large pile of bridal magazines though, I find myself putting more and more sticky notes on pages showcasing more traditional, long, dresses, and catching myself thinking “when else in life will I get to look like a princess?”.  I guess what I’m saying is – I have NO FREAKING IDEA what kind of dress I want to wear.

Tomorrow will be my first proper dress shopping adventure, when my wonderful bridesmaid, Mrs Ben, and I hit the Dymocks Building in the city. I’m bracing myself for the inevitable “ooh, you haven’t got much time, have you?” comments from the shop girls when I tell them I’m getting married in November. I’m hopeful though of being able to get something off the rack (on sale would be even better – you hear me dress gods?) and have it altered if necessary. There’s still the small matter of shedding some kilos too, but that’s for another post… I have no intention of actually buying a dress tomorrow, but I’m hoping it will at least give me some idea of what I want.

I may have said in a previous post that I felt sorry for Waitey Katie – not when it comes to dress shopping I’m afraid. I’d happily trade places with her and have an army of designers at my disposal, than be hunting in a field of cheap satin and ruffles with a thousand other bridezillas (and their mothers). Wish me (and Mrs Ben!) luck – if nothing else, tomorrow should at least give me some hilarious bridal shop related material for future posts. I might try on a hideously over the top meringue number, just to be sure.