Weddingses!!! Royal Edition

Wedding season is upon us, but for the first time in 5 years, I have no wedding to attend this summer!

It is to laugh (with joy) because no wedding attendance means more money in my pocket. All but one of the 7 weddings I have attended during grad school have been out of state. Thus requiring plane fare.

The weddings were each different and each a true joy to attend. Some were in church, some were outdoors, some were huge, some were tiny. Morning, noon, evening receptions. Breakfasts, luncheons, dinners. Dancing, no dancing. Music, no music. In the wedding party, not in the wedding party.

I loved them all.

And I am so happy I don't need to go to one this year!

But I am also kind of in wedding withdrawal because my summers have usually involved hearing about other people's exciting plans for an exciting party that I was attending wearing an exciting dress.

So it was a perk today to hear about the Royal Wedding.

It had three things I really loved.

1) Uniforms. They looked nice. Not as nice as USMC uniforms, and no saber salute, but decent for foreign military (hee hee)! It actually makes me kind of happy that incredibly poorly paid US Marines and Seamen have snazzier weddings in one respect than the heir to the British throne.

Good:

















Better:
















Best:















Go Navy!


2) Hats:

I'd like to see bossy ignoramuses get the Queen to remove HER hat in church! I know this isn't the hat she wore today, but I thought it was adorable, so feast your eyes on TEH FLOWERIE!

The hat the Queen wore today wasn't so exciting. The Queen is a real class act! No way would she upstage the bride by busting out a hat from crazytown. And gorgeous as Kate was today, I think we all know that if Her Majesty had decided to truly rock some wild hat, all eyes would be on her! So way to show restraint, Your Majesty. Would that your subjects would imitate you in that regard!



I liked the pink hat on this Spanish princess best of all:








I have had my summer church hat for 4 years and want a new one for Pentecost. This hat would be perfect if the turban part were a lighter color instead of black:



3) Wedding gown with sleeves (not white ballgown)
I have not been so happy with Miss Vera Wang ever since I heard about her in high school. Look, every girl's idea of a proper wedding is shaped by her childhood. I grew up in the post-princess Di years. My mom and she were the same age and married the same year. Lucky for me my mom and dad were actually madly in love, put Christ at the center of their relationship, and were a model of faithful Christian marriage! They are still together and about to celebrate their 30th anniversary this summer! YAY :) One thing Charles & Diana did have over my parents was loads of cash, so Diana's dress was way fancier. But my mom had a sewing machine, knowledge, and money for cloth. She made her wedding dress and wore her mom's veil. Looking through my parents' wedding album, I admired the love in their eyes, and was amazed at how young and good-looking they were back then. They looked so much less stressed and tired than in the photos where they were holding me and my siblings as babies! Anyway, one thing I wasn't admiring was my mom's decolletage/cleavage/entire back/shoulders, because they WEREN'T VISIBLE!

Lots of other women of my mom's generation, and all the brides in the movies, wore dresses with long sleeves. They looked graceful and elegant, and formed my image of a bride.

Good luck finding a dress like that now! My friend from college had but one request from her fiance: please find a non-strapless dress. He was tired of photographing weddings and editing out photos of brides tugging at their gowns all evening. He did not want to watch his wife do that all through their reception. I went shopping with her. She found a lovely gown that was not strapless. It was Not Easy, though. Three different stores, and a full weekend. And she wasn't a picky girl! She just wanted...something. Something to anchor the dress to her chest. She wanted to make her fiance happy, so she worked very hard to find a non-strapless dress that made her look lovely. Without that commitment, I'm sure she'd have been sold a strapless dress because that's what most of them are.

Another friend of mine really wanted bell gauze sleeves & had them added to a spaghetti strap dress. That was a real hassle, too. And by hassle I mean: extra time, thought, research, and money.

All the other brides (7 if you count the ones pre-grad school) wore strapless dresses. Because they didn't like bare shoulders or were cold, they also then had to buy white wraps or tiny jackets for a high sum. And special bras. Ugh. You are getting less of a dress and being forced to spend money for it while the dress company has an easier time not fitting the sleeves.

Thanks to Kate Middleton, maybe the next decade of brides will be spared all this. Though I notice the lacy shoulders mean she probably had to wear a special bra. Boo. At least there were sleeves, though. I hope this summer the Bridezillas will rise up and demand Long, Lacy Sleeves. People like to knock demanding brides, but I secretly love them, because I hope that if I ever get married, I can coast on their reputation and get nice stuff because of the power these other, more organized women have wielded.