A Bridal Odyssey

I love dresses. No news here. In fact, I think I may have started another blog with this exact same sentence. Well, not quite.

Wow.

Anyway….This weekend I got to be around one of my favorite type of dresses—wedding gowns!!

I was asked by the wonderful ladies at Elegant Bride in Fresno to be a model for their show this weekend. The show was part of a huge bridal convention titled A Bridal Odyssey in Visalia.

And odyssey it was.

I drove down there in a half-stouper, hoping that someone would magically drop coffee through my moon roof. I had forgotten just how heavy my nuclear-bomb-resistant makeup case is, and trekking through muggy rain (in July!) didn’t start my day off great. I spent a lot of the day hanging around, not reading Jane Eyre, and convincing myself that it wasn’t doing me any favors to eat the complimentary doughnuts for the models.

We models then rehearsed by walking around in various patterns on the stable but shady-looking stage; I think seeing more seams in it than any of the wedding dresses we were going to wear makes anybody a little uneasy. After rehearsing, I spent a good portion of my morning creating the perfect hairdo that said, “I might look loose, but I’m rock solid. You should see how much hairspray is holding me together. You want to try a veil? Just try to get that headpiece out once you stick it in.”

Hair has a lot to say, apparently.

Overall, the show went really well, and you could tell the audience had a good time checking out all the gowns.

I think that when I was the engaged gal, full of excitement and endurance, I was able to make it through those bridal shows with a little bit more energy at the end of the day.*

Instead, I feel like I was run over by a Hummer limo driven by all of the angry grooms forced to the convention during the World Cup finale.

Perhaps it’s because my own wedding is already over and I’m burnt out on bridal stuff. Maybe it was the fact that, at 23 years old, I was the OLDEST model at that show**. Or, maybe I miss anticipating my own special day (with my wonderful now-husband), wearing my own wedding dress (which comes with a story so stupendous it merits its own post).

No matter the reason, I was glad to help out Elegant Bride, and to wear some gorgeous gowns. I don’t know what it was this weekend that made me so exhausted, but I hope I can get whatever it is out of my system so that they will ask me back.

To share in more complementary doughnuts, of course.


*This was my fourth or fifth show with Elegant Bride.

**I had forgotten what giggly high school girls were like. In case you have forgotten, too, it’s loud.