When the time came for my husband's sister to get married, Sharon was asked to be a bridesmaid for the wedding day. At first I started thinking about the lovely dresses that the bridesmaid's, including my husband Sharon would be wearing and started to get a little jealous.

I entertained the idea of possibly making some arrangements so that after the girls got their bridesmaid's dresses, that I would get one fitted for myself, and thus, even though I could not participate in the wedding, as a bridesmaid, I could at least have a matching dress and shoes, and could feel like party of the wedding party.

I decided to discuss this idea with Sharon a few weeks before my season began this year. Well, Sharon did not want to have me get the exact same dress as the other bridesmaid's, and I respected her wishes, as she had some reasons of her own for that decision. Sharon did offer one consolation though, and she suggested that we go out and get matching dresses on our own. So with that suggestion, the "seed" was planted and the search for matching dresses was on.

If you have ever been pricing bridesmaid fashions, you will find that the dresses are basically in the $175 to $250 dollar range, then you need matching purses, heels, and jewelry. I had some money saved up for this occasion and when all was said and done, I only had enough to cover one complete ensemble, and I really wanted to see if I could get a better deal for Sharon and I.

Over the years, I have found that women get rid of their dresses, especially the specialty ones, like the bridesmaid's dress, as they can basically only wear it once, and they are willing to sell them for as low as $30. So with that in mind, I decided that I would place an ad in a local newspaper and the ad read,

"WANTED: 2 matching bridesmaid's dresses, colour and style do not matter, size 13/14 or 15/16, please contact Jennifer."

The paper was only out a day, and I got a phone call from a woman that had a wedding store that was going out of business and she informed me that she had "two lovely forest green bridesmaid's dresses, that are so cute". She asked when the wedding was and if the bride had her dress and I told her she did, and that we were the only two bridesmaid's and were the last of the party to get our dresses. We set a time for the following Saturday to meet in the morning, and she said that would be fine and that she would be waiting for us.

The bridesmaid's dress that Sharon got for her sisters wedding was not my kind of bridesmaid's dress, it breaks away from the traditional taffeta and satin designs. Over the course of many romantic dinners together, and Sharon trying on some of my bridesmaid's dresses, I told her that when I got dresses for us that it would be more of a traditional style and she understood that and said that would be perfect.

I had to wait until the following Friday to tell Sharon about the plans that I had made, but I knew that she would not mind. Before that Friday I started to think, as always, about what I was going to wear, I thought along two lines, one was that it was going to be a Saturday morning and I did not want to overdress. Thus I had a pair of black stretch pants, and a long pink cashmere sweater with my heels planned. On the other hand, Sharon always warned that when you go shopping for expensive dresses or clothes that you should look presentable in order to get noticed and the respect of the people you are seeing, so with that in mind, I had a long black leather skirt and a peach turtleneck, and my "business" height black 3" heels. I decided to let Sharon make the call, and wrote her a note and told asked her simply what she was going to be wearing the day of the trip. She wrote back and indicated, "whatever you wish", and it stayed that way until the morning of the trip.

On the morning of the trip, I took the first shift in the bathroom, while Sharon rested downstairs and watched TV. I slipped into my lingerie for the day, one of my favorite pair of purple panties, a lacy strapless bra, and nude coloured pantyhose. I then slipped on my pink silky dressing gown, and a low pair of black heels and applied my makeup. I decided to do my makeup carefully, with light colours on the upper lower lids of my eyes, black eyeliner, light blush, and a light pinkish-red lipstick. Once my makeup was all done, I called down to Sharon that I was finished with the washroom, and that she could come up and use the bathroom.

I started packing things for the day, while Sharon came up and started to getting dressed for the day. Sharon and I chatted as we scrambled around to get ready to go, I then asked Sharon what she was going to be wearing and she told me that, "well, normally when we go shopping together, you are all dressed up perfect for the office, and I look like a bum, so today, I am going to be wearing 'business casual', some stirrup pants and a blouse". So with that, I decided to go with the pants rather than a skirt, I then pulled out my stretch pants and pink cashmere sweater and slipped them on. I completed the rest of my look, the only thing that I wore other than the pants and the sweater was a pair of earrings I got for Christmas, and healthy spritz of Obsession perfume. I packed a tote bag for the day, and put in a book for me to read, and my 3" pair of black heels, and since Sharon did not want to wear her strapless bra that was going to be needed for trying on the dresses, I packed that as well.

So there I was, only my second time out ever, wearing pants instead of a skirt or a dress, and I decided that I would wear a conservative pair of 2 inch pair of black heels, the lowest I had worn out in public for over 3 years. I was all ready and told Sharon that I would wait for her downstairs, and as I walked by the washroom, I noticed that Sharon had her nails painted from the night before and asked her if she would not mind if I did mine as well, and she said no, and handed me the bottle of nailpoilsh that she had used.

I quickly did my nails and waited for Sharon to arrive from the upstairs washroom. After a few minutes, Sharon came downstairs and I noticed that instead of a blouse, she wore a red cowl neck sweater, one that I had given her for Christmas a few years ago, and it was long, just like my pink sweater, she looked great, and I told her so. After helping me comb out my hair, Sharon helped me into my coat and we headed into the van, and off to the appointment.

On the way to the appointment in Toronto, Sharon and I talked about how we would handle the situation for the wedding, as we had to make all of the different things up. I started by telling Sharon that we were two girls that did not want to spend a fortune on a bridesmaids dress, as we were both in a wedding the month previous to the wedding we were to be attendants in. The wedding "date" was set for Labor day weekend, and the brides name is Tracy, and I am going to be the maid of honor. We also talked about shoes, and I told Sharon that if she had shoes that we both wanted at least a 3" heel, as the men we have to stand beside are rather tall, and the bride wants us to "balance" out. As we got the last details set, we were almost at the house, and before we knew it, we were walking side by side up to the woman's front door.

The woman opened the door and greeted us on the stairs, saying, "my isn't it a lovely day ladies?", to that, Sharon and I chimed that it was, and then as we got up to the top of the stairs, she welcomed us in. Once inside, she took our coats and immediately started offering us tea, coffee, etc., but we said thanks, but no thanks. The woman was older, and her house was very well kept, and there were pictures of her children everywhere, and I got a special thrill looking at pictures of her daughters in formal dresses, and knew that they must have come from her store.

She told Sharon and I to follow her, and she lead us to a bedroom that had most of the leftover wedding merchandise in it, except for all of the dresses. She went on to explain that she was getting out of the business and had all of the dresses, both wedding and bridesmaid were in her basement. In the room was a bed, and she had hung up around the room a few different bridesmaid dresses, and a few wedding gowns also. She started to explain as she handed me one of the forest green bridesmaids dresses, and when I looked at it, I was not that impressed with the style or design, it had a bodice that consisted of a a couple of pieces of material that came up over the breasts, and looked kind of "tacky".

I looked at the dresses, and was very dissapointed, I was thinking of long flowing romantic forest green bridesmaids dresses, and these were not them!, but I was bound and determined to try them on, as they were matching, and Sharon I and I came all that way to try them on.

I had the dress in my hand and was looking it over, seeing all of the different features of it, when the woman reached over and handed Sharon the other dress.

Sharon looked it over, then she stood back for a bit and for a minute or so Sharon and I stood there looking at the dresses, and the woman stood there waiting for us. She then said, "go ahead ladies, slip into the dresses", I looked over at Sharon and she said, "do you mind?", in a very cordial manner and the lady actually said, "ohhh, would you like me to leave you alone to dress?", to which Sharon and I both gave her a "yes". She then left and Sharon and I stripped to our lingerie and slipped into the dresses, Once I started to do up my dress, and saw that it would not fit, I knew that Sharon's was not even close fitting. The dresses fit in every area, except for across the chest, both Sharon and I, and when the woman came back into the room, she explained that there was no room for letting these dresses out in the areas we both needed it.

I was disappointed and a little bit upset that the dresses did not fit, but the woman was prepared!, she had gone and gotten other dresses that matched and already had them in the room waiting. She then told us that we should look at these one at a time, and the first pair she handed to Sharon and I was an almost perfect matching pair of fusia gowns. The style was the same, with high puffy shoulders, low cut in the back, long gathered skirts, and detail on the bodice. Both gowns were satin, and one was a size 16, and the other a 14, Sharon was handed the 16, and I the 14, and once again we were left alone in the room to change out of the forest green bridesmaid's dresses and into the fusia gowns. It was at this point that I asked Sharon if she wanted to change into her strapless bra, as she was braless for the first dress, and she smiled at me and said, "sure", I helped her do up her bra, and after slipping into her dress, I helped zip her up. At first it seemed like the dresses would once again be too tight, but after helping Sharon slip into her dress, she help zip up mine and viola!, they fit, and as Sharon and I looked at each other in the mirror, they looked very pretty and Sharon commented how much she liked the dress that she had on. As the woman came back into the room, we were looking each others dress over, and as I was fixing the bow at the back of Sharon's dress, the woman showed Sharon how a set of pearls were part of the dress, they were draped over the back of the low back opening of the dress, and secured at the front with two broaches and velcro, and the look was very sexy and elegant!. The woman then went on to tell me that my skirt needed steaming, and that is all it needed, and she kept on commenting, "now, other women would tell you the dresses look lovely on you, but I will be honest and say that this colour is beautiful on the both of you, it really is!". She then went on to tell us that since it was only the two of us as attendants to the bride that there were different options, for example the dresses did not have to match exactly, as the only time it need to be that way when there are more than two bridesmaids.

The woman then asked Sharon and I if we had shoes to go with the dresses, and both of us answered no, and then she started to go through boxes and start to pull out shoes, and handed Sharon a pair of size 8 shoes with low heels, and she managed to find me a pair of size 7 1/2 pair, also with very low heels, and we both slipped them on, but they were really disappointing, and only about 1 1/2 inches of a heel, WAY to low for me!. I asked if she had any higher heels, and that is when the fun started!. Sharon looked over at me, and so did the woman, she looked at me as if I was from outer space, and I stated that I was looking for a height of about 3 inches. To that she started talking to me about how high 3 inches was, and how we were going to we in these shoes all day, and Sharon interjected with a comment and the woman replied with a comment, and the whole conversation, I will never forget,

"Well, the ushers we are standing beside are tall, and the bride, Tracy, wants us to be close to their height", said Sharon.

"The shoes are not that comfortable dear, 3 inches is very high, and besides, the shoes are not that important.", said the woman.

"She (pointing at me), wears 4 inch heels to work!", said Sharon

"Well, the 1 1/2 inch heels is the most popular these days", said the woman.

After the fusia bridesmaid dresses, she pointed out two green dresses that were hanging on the back of the door to the bedroom, and once again she started talking about how since we were two women in the wedding party, that we could vary on the styles of dress that we could have worn. So I was handed this dress that was a long straight style of dress, ankle length, actually, longer than my ankle length for me, and the top of the dress was a high collar, with a very open back, and a high front, with pieces of fabric cascading down the back, it was very elegant, but not the style I liked. The material was more like a cotton based material, and not the sexy satin or taffeta. Sharon's outfit was more of a top and skirt outfit, with the top a satin jacket that flared out near the waist, and the skirt was an "A" lined skirt, one that came just below her knees, and it looked terrific on her, but alas, the styles were not that pretty for the two of us as bridesmaids. When the woman came back into the room, she looked us over, and honestly told us that the fusia dresses were really the ones that looked the best on us.

Sharon then looked over at a set of floral bridesmaids dresses, and then looked over at me, and asked me if I wanted to try them on, and I said "sure!". So once again, the woman left the room, and I changed out of our green dresses and attempted to slip into the floral dresses, and they did not even come close to fitting.

I then asked Sharon if she would not mind trying on each other's fusia bridesmaid's dresses that we had tried on earlier, and she agreed. Well, the one Sharon was wearing first fit me really well, and the one that I was wearing was too tight around Sharon's chest area to fit. I was in secret hoping that we could swap dresses, as I really liked the dress she tried on first, but that was not to be.

Sharon and I then started to change back into our clothes we came in, and started to hang up all of the dresses that we tried on, and started talking about the dresses. The woman had told us that she was prepared to let the dresses go for $90 a piece and after looking at the price tags of both the dresses, Sharon let me know that the one dress was worth $250, and the other $190, and that basically, I was holding the "purse strings", and it was my decision. I told her that I wanted the dresses and that I thought we could not do any better unless we bought brand new dresses, which would cost over $500. Sharon also noted that I already had shoes that could be used with these dresses, and she was right!, last year, my fusia bridesmaid gown had a pair of shoes dyed for the dress, and hopefully the colour match would be close enough.

The woman came back, checking first to see if we had changed back, then asked if we wanted shoes, and we both said thanks, but no thanks. As we got our coats on to leave I informed the woman that we would take the dresses and she went to get a bag for the dresses, and all the while she was asking if the bride had all of her ensemble, to which Sharon and I both replied, "yes, Tracy has everything, it is just the bridesmaids that are not bought for".

Sharon and I left with our dresses and on the way home I asked her about her shoes, and she smiled, looked at me, then held my hand and said, "yes Jennifer, get me a pair of 3" heels to match yours".