Slightly OT: bridal contagion at workplace

Hi all-- Last week it was my cube neighbor. "How was your weekend?" "Pretty good. I got engaged." While she was doing this, the gal on the other side of her was in Scotland on a two-week holiday, secretly eloping. (Some innocent just asked her how she liked her vaction. We all burst out LOL.) Someone on the other side of the floor wants to swap desks with me so she'll be next. The engaged one is casually looking for dresses (no date picked), and she found a used bridal site with a lovely dress (only $400). I eyeballed it, found a New Look pattern (6156) that would work from the knees up, and suggested the local seamstress route. Maybe I spent too much time on ettiquettehell.com, and this is the karmic payback.

--Karen M.

Reply to
Karen M.
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Does anyone remember when most women were married in a suit? A nice new suit that she then wore for years and years with new blouses? OK, this was a little before my time - my mother and other relatives were married in suits, not formal gowns, and it just makes good sense to me. I think of the money spent on a dress to wear once, plus all the bridesmaids' dresses, and all the money going down the drain and my tight-fisted Scottish heart has a mild attack. ;-)

Reply to
Joanne

Me too. No bridesmaids for me (when it happens). My cartload of sisters can have corsages and choose to wear something in the wedding colors or not. I plan to wear my aunt's dress, made by my grandmother. I want to feel different from everyday life, but not in a poverty-sense! I do intend to get the suit too, my mother used a linen one for her getaway outfit, wore it for years and it's still in circulation (in my closet).

-Charlotte

Reply to
Charlotte Henson

My mother was married in a suit, but that was during WWII. She didn't have a big wedding; just married my dad. I can see where it would make sense. As for me, I was married in a pair of jeans, a sweater, and hiking boots. (DH and I eloped on a fishing trip)

A nice new

Reply to
Beth Pierce

Sensible lass! I had the fat white dress because DH said he wanted to do it properly! I think he felt if he did it properly, with bells, church, me in the fat dress, all the lot, it would stick... So far he's been right! ;P

Reply to
Kate Dicey

Wasn't that a war time thing? I remember reading something about Barbara Cartland and a pile of her upper crust friends all donating their wedding gowns to a charity thing that loaned them out to the brides of service men and women during the war, so that despite clothing rations and severe restrictions on things, the girls could have the traditional white gown if they wanted it. I must try a google search to see if I'm remembering correctly.

My MIL was married in a lovely little suit my FIL made for her. Both were widowed, and they married in the local church. MIL had a very 'hatty' sort of a hat, and looked wonderful. Both she (first time round) and my mum got married with full pomp and Big White Dress in the

50's. Mum had hers converted into a ball dress and wore it to everything she could for the next few years, so it didn't do just the once. There were always formal Officer's Mess Do's for which Posh Long Frock and Dinner Jacket (or Mess Kit - MUCH more formal! Equivalent to White Tie!) were required.

EEEK! It's the IL's Silver Wedding next year! I need to get organized!

Reply to
Kate Dicey

Pass on my congrats to the newly engaged ones, and my sincere wishes for a smooth passage through the pitfalls of planning a wedding! Let's hope she remains human, or at worst, becomes a Wedding Bore (one who's every utterance contains a reference to My Wedding!). Let us all sincerely pray that there is NOT a Bridezilla in the making!

Each time I get a bridal enquiry, I go and look at that site, to remind me to stay sane! I managed to get everything for my own wedding organized without any such shenanigans, and thanks largely to my mum, who knows How Things Should Be Done, it went with almost no hitches. I made my gown, both bridesmaid dresses (and one lass lived in Denver and the other in Nairobi, so if you think doing things the awkward way was a trait I developed later in life, forget it! I've NEVER done things the easy way!), and the only two real problems we had were that the printers put the wrong version of the 23rd Psalm on the Order of Service cards, and the photographer took 3 goes to get the photos printed the right colour! In the end we took him a scrap of the bridesmaid dress fabric and ribbon to colour match. First time they came back, my dress looked Persil ad white (it was ivory), DH's suit looked royal blue (it was grey!) and the bridesmaid dresses looked pink (they were apricot!). Minor problems, all sorted with a smile.

I didn't toss my bouquet, I gave it to my MIL. Her daughter took it to bits, arranged all the flowers in little bowls (her student weekend job was in a flower shop!), and it lasted over a week.

Reply to
Kate Dicey

My momma did this. They eloped to Toledo (the Las Vegas of the Midwest) on Thanksgiving weekend 1950. I have the suit (French blue wool, elegant collarless with bound buttonholes, sheath skirt, no pockets) and had intended to revisit the concept for an engagement picture (but then we both ran away screaming). I even found a nice scarf that matches it, but have never worn it/them.

--Karen M. how doctors propose: "what's your blood type?"

Reply to
Karen M.

I think it was a "class" thing. The upper middle-class and those who aspired to it had the full blown white wedding with all the trimmings. It was an indication that the family was wealthy enough to blow the money. The middle middle class was more practical. They worked for their money and wanted to get the most out of it. In wartime, more people were practical for a lot of reasons - shortages, grooms on leave, etc. Patriotism played against such a display, too.

Those were the days that the home magazines showed houses with servants quarters, too. There was quite a gap between the middle class and the upper-middle class who were trying to edge into the upper class.

There's a similar history associated with the "lawn" that suburban houses display with pride.

Reply to
Joanne

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