“The Ides of March” Series … Prompt #19 – “On the Eve of the Wedding”

Forgive me for being behind … the past couple of days have been rather grueling! So I’m skipping Prompt 18 & going straight to 19, because this particular memory makes me smile like none other.

The eve of any wedding is always filled with nerves, great excitement, anticipation, and just a little anxiety that things won’t go well. But sometimes, the “things that don’t go well” happen on the eve of the wedding, not the actual wedding itself. Such was the case with Kimi’s wedding … although now we look back on it as just another thing that made that wedding so memorable.

That whole wedding weekend, Kelsey & I had joked about not being able to fit into our bridesmaid dresses come Monday. Okay, maybe we were actually a little worried about it – hence the “attempt” to go running on Saturday [it didn’t last very long] and our frequent trying on of our dresses to make sure they still fit.

Sunday evening, we came home from an afternoon of putting flowers in little paper bouquets, and prepped for a settle-in cozy night before the big day.

“Maybe we should try our dresses on one more time,” Kelsey suggested.

I readily agreed, because when have I ever said no to trying dresses on??

So in we went to put them on for the tenth or twelfth time … and then came the cry of distress.

“I can’t get my zipper up!” Kelsey called out in a slightly panicked voice.

I quickly went in to help her, trying to assure her that no, she really hadn’t gained that much weight over the weekend [that girl could never get fat even if she wanted to!], but growing steadily more anxious myself as the zipper would not budge an inch.

We decided that it might be best if her mom tried to work on it without her in the dress, so we changed back, and handed over the dress – right about when the rainstorm started.

Always the adventurous one, I suggested, “Let’s run outside and dance in the rain!”

To get her mind off of the dress fiasco, Kelsey agreed, but by the time we finally put shoes and coats on, the rain wasn’t nearly as exciting. We still got rather soaked, and perhaps it did relieve a little tension of the moment.

Once inside, Kaylie and I decided ice cream was in order … Kelsey, too afraid she would add to the dress dilemma by eating anything, mournfully watched us down our chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. I can’t say that we were very sympathetic … seeing as we thoroughly enjoyed being able to eat all that ice cream!

Finally, mom and sisters had to concede defeat and call the seamstress friend who had helped alter the dress. She agreed, in the emergency situation, to replace the zipper that night and have the dress ready in the morning. Relieved, Kelsey, Kaylie, and I took off for WalMart to find the replacement zipper.

Next level of stress: WalMart didn’t carry brown zippers, only black.

We searched everywhere, but to no avail. Black it had to be, so we grabbed one, along with some thread, and dashed off to the seamstress’s house. And then … as we drove up to their house … Kelsey turned around to the back seat, and said, “Where’s the dress??”

Back home. Of course. We had left the dress hanging up back at the house, a good thirty minutes away. The situation was now a perfect mixture of comedy and tragedy depending on which person you were in the scenario, so Kaylie & I dutifully trotted up to the door and told them the situation and that we would be back in an hour with the dress securely in tow.

There was a lot of car time that night, but it made the perfect excuse for some long, heart-to-heart chats [which Kelsey & I never fail to excel at], and by the time the dress was actually delivered, both of us were feeling slightly relieved and maybe a little hysterical from the whole ordeal.

But in the morning, you never would have known the difference. The dress zipped perfectly – you couldn’t even tell that there was a black zipper – and Kelsey looked the part of the perfect bridesmaid. And the actual wedding went off without a hitch (well … except for the maid-of-honor forgetting the groom’s ring in the bathroom, but that problem was also solved in time, no worries!).

It was a wedding weekend filled with joy and laughter … some tears and stress, but mostly togetherness, happiness, and the family feeling that should accompany every wedding. The bridesmaid mission was accomplished successfully, and Kimi glowed as all beautiful brides should glow.

It’s the truth: every situation can be an ordeal or an adventure … it all depends on how you look at it. And I, for one, am thankful for even the near-disasters. Because when you share it with a best friend, it inevitably gets turned into an adventure and a memory.