My beautiful daughter, Julianna, became engaged on Christmas Eve. I never thought we would find her dress on our first (and last!) dress outing! We made an appointment for David's Bridal in Philadelphia last weekend. As we entered the huge (think, "showroom" like for car shows!) store, we quickly became overwhelmed. We had inadvertently chosen the launch date of Vera Wang's bridal debut for David's! The store was crowded with associates, eager mothers, glassy-eyed brides, and their individual entourage of "helpers". Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE shopping, but this was pushing even my comfort level. I breathed a quick prayer (before my daughter ran out of the store overwhelmed), "Oh, Lord, PLEASE let her find her dress quickly!" When we told our salesgirl Julianna's budget for her dress, I believe I caught her repeating my prayer as she glanced Heavenward...or was she cursing being stuck with the poster-children for cheapskates? Juianna's goal was to find a dress at about $300, agreeing to go up to $500 if needed. Let me remind you that most bridal gowns don't even start at under $500! We knew it could be done, and we wouldn't have to settle for second best. She wanted lace, so, I started by looking for lace in the sea of ginormous dresses. I pulled out the first one, while bumping into a kamakazi mother-of-the bride, and stepping on a bewildered brides toes. "What about this one??", I called to Julianna, over the buzzing of mama bees looking for baby bees perfect dress. She almost glanced at the dress, while saying, "sure, whatever" and no doubt thinking, "get me out of here now"! Soon it was our turn to have the coveted dressing room #22, which was a tiny closet that could barely fit a typical wedding dress, and an outer pedestal for which to show the entire world (or just this part of Philly) how you looked in a bridal gown. The sales girl brought 2 more dresses, and helped Julianna into the one I picked. When she stepped up on that pedestal, we all gasped...out loud, really! She looked like the most beautiful young woman in the world (well, she is, of course, as are all my girls! Aren't yours?) wearing the most stunning dress ever! Pay no mind that my dear offspring wears a size 4 dress, and this particular gown was a healthy size 12! She tried on the other 2, while they looked very lovely, it was obvious that she wasn't leaving the store without this dress! O.K., let's talk cost. The dress looked like a Vera Wang original mistakenly joined our thifty gowns, I was waiting for the, "Oh, it's on sale today only for only $5,000! Drum roll, please! The dress was in her $300 range! The estimated cost of altering...$350! Well, we decided to buy it and take it home. No, we didn't lose our minds, we just trusted God that something would work out. The next day, her fiance's grandma called. She knew of someone who was a lovely Christian woman who had an altering business. This woman had fixed a dress for a bride that had even more work needed for around $100, and did a lovely job! Grandma would love to pay for it! It pays to pray before you shop! Our Lord cares about even the smallest details.
