"It's really not you, it is the dress"

When shopping for a bridesmaid dress there's nothing quite like a supportive shop assistant who offers to veto the hideous dress suggested by a third party, to take the fall, offering to refuse to sell it to us. Imagine a lizard shedding its skin, and then imagine slightly puffy sleeves, too short a hemline, and strangely emphasised body squidge and you'll have it.

With four months to the wedding, Erica and I went into town to find me a bridesmaid dress. Being the only bridesmaid means we could just look in normal shops and avoid the super expensive wedding-wear ones. We liked this one, but it is a little too busy, has too much white, and was a size too big (it's held up by willpower here) on a sale rack, so no other sizes available. If it had been in my size I might have considered it for some future event, but that's ok, there are a million other dresses in the shops.

After a restorative lunch-break with Stephen (Erica's fiancé) we created a final shove battle plan and put it into action. After the trauma of the lizard dress we went back to Myer for one final look. And settled on the second dress I'd tried on there. That's always the way isn't it? Of course, we have to order the right size from the Frankston Myer, so we're hoping it still looks as nice as the one I tried on (which was just a smidge too tight), but we can't know until it gets here.

It was a fun day - I quite enjoy dress shopping, pretending to be the kind of person who wears dresses regularly, finding gross things to try on, appreciating the nice things more when they appear. The conversations with the strangers waiting for other people in change rooms are also entertaining - the older lady who had opinions about one, the queue waiting for cubicles in another shop. But I'm glad we found something that we can accessorise to match Erica's dress, that I can wear again, and that doesn't make me look like wallpaper. I'm very grateful to have a best friend who doesn't want complicated or fussy. This is shaping up to be a smashing wedding!