A few weeks ago, Emily and Steve announced to me that they were expecting. The announcement was followed by a lot of excitement and hugging. Emily has a wonderful, two year-old daughter already, so I know they will be great parents to their new arrival.
A few minutes after the announcement, Emily started talking about what she should do about her bridesmaids dress. Most likely, at over three-months along, she will not be able to fit into the bridesmaids dress she's already purchased. So, we decided to go back to Sarah's Bridal Shoppe and see if maybe we could order her a new dress, in the same material. Possibly something with an empire waist...something with more room for the baby. I want her to be comfortable at the wedding...it will be an awfully long day if she has to be squeezed into a tight, satin dress the whole time.
Unfortunately, when we arrived at Sarah's, we didn't have a lot of options. Upon walking in, the proprietor, Sarah, made me feel very at ease. She said "Oh, we'll figure something out. This isn't the first time we've seen this."
We seemed lucky, the line of dresses we'd ordered from could get us a new dress in time for the wedding (all the other lines they carried would not arrive in time). However, they did not have any appropriate styles with an empire waist. The only maternity dress they had was a close enough red to get away with, but the material and style were completely different. I was okay with this one, if Emily liked it, but the price was almost twice the original dress we'd chosen! There had to be another option.
Mom suggested that we try a few more shops before making a final decision. The first on her list was J'Maries Off-the-Rack (our one-stop shop for all of our bridal party outfitting needs). Believe it or not we found a few different ensembles for her to try on, including one red satin maternity dress that almost completely matches the original bridesmaids dress-in her size! All for the low, low price of $29.99!!!!
It's style is different, obviously. It has thicker straps, and it's a two piece. I'm just so happy it matches the dress Liz will be wearing, and that we can still add the orange, satin sash to Emily's dress. Emily didn't seem thrilled that the dress was so big (I'm sure it's made for someone who could be 8 months along as well as someone like her, just a few months along.) Em's mother, Susan, has offered to do Emily's alterations to this dress, to make it fit closer to the day of the wedding (when we have a better idea of how it will fit).
Susan is also going to create the sashes for Emily, Liz and Rylee! I love her. We all hugged her when she agreed to do this (it is such a load off for mom and I-one less thing!) I'm so glad mom and Susan came with us to pick out the dress. Emily is so considerate, and she would probably buy and/or wear anything I asked her to. It's great to have a few more ideas/opinions for a decision like this. I don't think we could have gotten any luckier.
Emily admitted, afterward, that she didn't think we'd have any luck at the off-the-rack shop, but I'm so glad we did. It would have been awful if we'd settled for the maternity dress at Sarah's, considering that would have put Emily's total spending for her dress above what we've spent on my own!
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