Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Behind the Scenes on Wedding Day - Part II. "Wardrobe Malfunction"

By the time I got back pre-ceremony to the bride in the church ladies' room, after getting called out to the foyer to speak with the FOB, the bridesmaids had finished corseting her dress (very tightly!), and photos had been taken in that unsightly backdrop.  Guess who wasn't in them?  Me.  Of course, what did the Bride forget to do before getting that heavy dress on?  Umm...you guessed it.  Hello! -- remember bodily functions come before getting the gown on!  I think one of the bridesmaids helped her with that piece of detail.

Our wedding coordinator seemed to be a bit rattled whenever I would run into her -- she had heard about the snafu at the reception site with the big screen not being set up by the hotel staff. I think at this point, she was not even telling me half of the issues that were going on, just to keep me from worrying about them. (This is why you pay to have wedding coordinators!) I found out only after the wedding, that one of the groomsmen had a shaving accident that morning, and had bled on the collar of his shirt, so that was something else she had to deal with at the last minute, besides getting the guys a dressing room together in the first place (other than the common Men's Room.)   For some reason that was something that had not been worked out with the church beforehand.  Until she contained them in a room, we had the groom, groomsmen and ushers wandering about freely in the building, and that would not do.

Well, back to the bride...! After finally donning her dress and veil, and remembering to put on her jewelry at the last minute, (yes, I had forgotten all about it, too...) she was sitting in a chair, looking very pale and literally struggling to breathe!  It was very warm in the room and my daughter did have a few pre-wedding jitters, I think.  But the main causes of her discomfort were that she was laced so tightly into her gown, and also evidently her longline bustier had shrunk.  I had washed it after the hot, sweaty outdoor Bridal Portrait shoot on one of the warmest, muggiest spring days in Waco, and she had not had the opportunity to try it on again since then.


I had noticed the undergarment was harder than it had ever been to get it hooked up on her that morning, and I really doubted she had put on much if any weight, either, so I knew something had to be up with it.  I had washed it in cold water and did NOT put it in the dryer--just hung it to dry, so I do not understand why it shrunk.  Chalk it up to trying to save some bucks by buying it at David's Bridal, I guess.
Me, the Bride, and our Wedding
Coordinator, Denise Harlan

The wedding coordinator and I were not sure what was going on or how to help her, and talked to her about just relaxing and breathing. She seemed to be feeling so unwell that the photographer did not take many shots of her before the wedding.  (Not even posing with her parents before the ceremony as he did with the groom, or even some last minute shots alone with the MOB, much to my disappointment. The only good picture we got of her and me beforehand was taken by the wedding coordinator's daughter, and the wedding coordinator was also in the picture.)

Well, now it was really Showtime... and I wrote several months ago how things went, overall, with both the ceremony and reception. Remarkably true to our vision, I would say.  The ceremony honored the couple's Christian outlook on marriage and family, was personal, and featured some beautiful music. My daughter was physically uncomfortable through the whole wedding ceremony, through no fault of her own, but seemed to perk up a bit upon seeing her groom, and she hung in there during the ceremony and during the obligatory family photo session afterwards.


Looking back, one thing I definitely would change is that we should have had at least the ceremony videotaped. Your First Daughter's Wedding is a mighty important occasion. Not to mention, our younger daughter sang beautifully twice, and she doesn't sing in front of us often.  Also, my elderly mother was not able to attend, and I think she would have loved to have the opportunity to view a tape of the events of her first grand-daughter's wedding day!