The Curse of David's Bridal

I am not a superstitious person. For the most part. But I *may* have cursed myself. Only time will tell.

A few years back I took a little trip to Orlando with Leslie. We had no plans for this trip. We just flew there, rented a car and figured we would just wing it. Florida is full of things to do, right? Disney, Universal Studios, Busch Gardens, Sea World....the options were endless. We spent the first night at Universal Studios. It was fun - as expected. What we did the second night, we vowed we would take to our graves. But I'm about to share it because I'm older and wiser(debatable) and I don't care what people think.

The evening started with an early dinner at the Olive Garden. (Where, no doubt, I ordered the Veal Parmesan because I'm a sad creature of habit). After dinner we sat at the table and discussed our itinerary for the evening. Disney? Nah. Sea World? Nah. We peered out the window and saw David's Bridal. Our minds began to spin. Hhhmmmm. We don't know anyone here. We can be ANYONE we want to be. And so our adventure began.

Suddenly, we were both newly engaged girls, excited about our upcoming "weddings". We entered the store with our new identities and spent HOURS playing. We tried on dress after dress after dress. Though Les had a boyfriend in real life, they were not engaged at the time. I invented a fake fiance who was adamant we have a winter wedding. We were both destined to be each other's maid of honour which led us to trying on bridesmaid dresses too, of course.

You know the girl from every sitcom who has been planning her wedding from childhood? That's not me. I'm not the frilly / dress type. I usually don't care about that stuff. But here is what I do like - lying. Maybe not so much the lying - but the making stuff up part. Maybe it's the same thing, I don't know. All I know is that I was enjoying inventing my fake life, fake fiance, fake wedding. We were both cracking up. But as we ran in and out of the change rooms in all sorts of gowns, there was a bride there for her final fitting. I can only assume she was an actual bride with a real wedding in her future. As she stood on that round pedestal while a woman pinned every nook and cranny of her body - she vested great interest in our dress parade. Each time we stepped out of the change room she offered her opinion and shared in our enthusiasm. She told us details of her wedding and asked questions about ours. We rocked it like real brides. Or real jerks. One or the other.

Later, when we were all were back in our 'street clothes' I started to feel bad. I actually felt like we were friends with this girl and her enthusiasm for her wedding was genuine. As she left the store she hugged us both and wished us well for our weddings. We hugged her back and wished her the same. Though I may have winced inside, I truly was happy for her.

Then we walked back to our car and laughed and laughed and laughed. And vowed never to speak of the incident again. It was a fun Floridian adventure.

I have since stood up in Leslie's real wedding. It was an awesome day and she married the best guy ever. I love my Les and I love her Jimmy too. (Check out how cute they are)

But I just have to say - if I never wear a wedding dress again, it may be because I cursed myself on this sunny day in Orlando. There could be a million reasons why, but I'll chalk it up to me being a whack job in David's Bridal. Sorry Mom.

Favourite of the Day: I got a new flat iron. It's one of the good ones. You know that's exciting.