A Wedding Dress Story
By Mother of the Bride, Andrea
Blair has a talent for doing the right thing, following her instincts and successfully bringing people together, which is why we found ourselves all together on a beautiful sunny afternoon in the desert. It was Saturday, March 16, 2013 and Blair’s mom, grandma, auntie, sister and two future mother-in-laws all joined together for a shopping excursion to find “the Dress”.
We had two appointments at different shops and had a ball! Chatting and learning about my new, soon to be family, sharing our wedding stories and of course, sharing our opinions. And there were lots of opinions! So many dresses, so many choices, all beautiful, but which one? This, as any bride can tell you. can be pretty exhausting work but we didn’t let her off the hook. She tried on everything and then some!
After a brief rest, we drove over to the Signature Bridal Salon in Palm Desert for a second round. The first shop had the fairly standard approach of collecting a selection of gowns from their stock and bringing them out to be modeled and shown. The second shop however, was going out of business and had all the stock out on racks in the show room so you could look through everything and pick what you wanted to try on. Blair made her selections and was swept off by her bridal consultant to the dressing rooms with her rack full of gorgeous gowns.
During an “intermission” while we waited for her to change into the next gown, I got up to go wander through the gowns. My mother , Dottie Merrill, had been in the gown business from the time I was a little girl and I grew up in her bridal shop, trying on veils, hoop skirts and merry widows for dress up. As a teenager, my first real job was as a salesgirl in my mom’s shop. So, I wandered here and there admiring the laces and embroidery, ruffles and fabrics. All of a sudden I felt inspired to ask my mom, now in the spirit world, to guide me to the perfect dress for Blair. I had a distinct sensation of being led over to a
Blair’s family led her to find the right dress.
So, I quickly and quietly took the dress and put it on Blair’s rack by her dressing room. Saying nothing, I rejoined the hen party in progress and waited to see the next dress. There were a few more before Blair came out in my mother’s selection and I was on pins and needles with anticipation to see if she and the other ladies would like this dress best. I stayed quiet and enjoyed all the positive comments. Blair really looked spectacular in this dress.
As usual, my mom had the eye and knew what to choose. Everyone agreed, and Blair loved it, so that was it! She said Yes to the Dress! After she went back to the dressing room to change, I told the women in my new family what had transpired, checking to see if they thought I was crazy. But they didn’t, and shared some of their own stories of “unusual” events. That was a wonderful day that I will never forget.
