Yesterday was a first, I joined a elite group of males in the world and I saw women as we guys never get to see them – wedding dress shopping. My best friend Lisa was ready to look for a wedding dress and I was going with her. As her honorary, though unofficial and unnamed, maid of honor it was something I had to do. And since I’m standing on the groom’s side, it was my duty.
And, truth be told, it was a lot of fun.
I was there with my girlfriend (who set up the appointment), Lisa’s sister and her sister-in-law. We started the day at David’s Bridal at 10:00 a.m. We arrived at about 9:57 a.m., 3 minutes before the store opened and we were amazed to see almost 30 women waiting outside the door and in their cars counting down the time until the store opened.
Thank goodness the love of my life made this appointment.
We went inside, filled out a form and were whisked away to a comfy couch (OK, it was a couch, but it wasn’t exactly comfy). Being my first and probably only experience in a bridal shop, I decided to take it all in.
Dresses and more dresses exist for a single usage, not only for the bride, but for the brides maids, the flower girls and the junior bridesmaids. It was a overwhelming, but for most of the women there, it was heaven. Very few problems seem to exist in this world of dress up and make believe. Family and friends gather round the bride-to-be and show their support! Actually they express their own opinion and collectively provide more free advice than any bride can handle. Everyone has an opinion and I saw more than one bride get lost in the shuffle of her friends and family trying to bend her will to their way.
The process if terrible for the bride…she leaves her friends and family on the couch while she goes to try on the umpteenth dress. The friends and family are left behind to discuss their real thoughts about the bride, her figure and usually the groom while she is out of ear shot. The carefully worded recommendation from the last dress is quickly replaced with the biting commentary of how the last dress really looked on the bride.
No matter how innocent the comments are intended to be, when you candidly discuss how these very expensive and beautiful outfits look on each part of the female body (butt, breasts, stomach, etc) any statement can be harmful if taken the wrong way.
I’m not sure that there is an equivalent event for guys. We haven’t spent our entire life dreaming of our wedding. In fact until we meet the right person we usually haven’t thought anything about a wedding at all. Once we find her and we ask her to marry us, things begin to happen. We are caught up in the tidal-wave of emotion and fun and basically we go along for the ride. The bride to be and her friends know far more than we do and luckily have no problem telling us what we should be doing or more likely – what we should have already done. 
I truly enjoyed my field trip to David’s Bridal, our time there was productive and exciting and she had her dress picked out in record time. She will certainly make a beautiful bride!
