Bridesmaid Nightmare?!? ... Hell no ... Not at this awesome wedding!

So .... I'm a bridesmaid in a wedding on Friday night.  Yeah, yeah .... oldest living bridesmaid, right??  I thought my days of participating in weddings were long gone.  Lately I have been invited to a few wedding vow renewals as well as weddings of a few children of close friends ... but all but one or two of my friends have been married divorced and married again for many years!  So when I got the invitation to be a bridesmaid ... at first I was a bit stunned and then incredibly proud to be asked to stand beside two spectacularly awesome people on one of the most important days in their lives.

The bride is a very cool (and I mean that in every sense of the word) local musician named Brigid Kaelin (geez .... I hope she doesn't mind me name dropping her) and her husband to be is David Caldwell.  She is Louisville personified through and through .... and by that ... I mean she eats, lives and breathes all the best of this little 'burg that we call home. She is one of those great gal friends that you could have a crazy adventure with or have a funky fab day lazing about doing nothing.    David is from Lubbock, Texas and truly lives up to the ideal of a strikingly handsome, genteel, stand-up southern guy.  Cupid must have really known what he was doing when he pulled back that bow and arrow on Brigid and David ...  because I tell you in all honesty ... I could not imagine either of these two wonderful people surviving a day without each other in their respective lives.  He is the calmness and patience that she needs in her life.  She is the spunk and artistic vibe that revs his engine.

yeah ... all of these would have been
a BIG 'no go' for me ... but David
probably would have loved the Texas
themed dress in the left lower corner!

After the excitement of the wedding announcement subsided.  It was time to get down to brass tacks and start planning the wedding.  Brigid was way beyond kind in her very wide parameters in regard to the bridesmaid dresses.  She essentially picked out a theme color and said to go find something in this 'color range'.  Do you know how CRAZY unique and unusual that is in the much more common world of wedding bridezillas???? WOW ...  That's it?!? ... No crazy couture crap?? ... no micro-managing the fittings or the silhouettes??  Just .... 'here's a color' .... have at it!  This was a complete and utter relief to me because at my age .... cutesy little bridesmaids dresses would have looked like I was participating in a bad Saturday Night Live skit.   I mean, if Brigid picked out a terribly unflattering dress ... as her friend .... of course, I would be supportive ... suck it up and wear it (cussing under my breath her every step down the aisle).

But .... the freedom of picking out our own dresses was something of a very generous gift and a tremendous treat!  So ... off I went to find a flattering dress that could hold up to the humidity and hot late July Kentucky weather.   As a lot of my friends know ... I am not a great in-store shopper.  I have very little patience for sales people and far shorter tempered with parking and walking through dozens of stores.  So ... I do what any 21st century bridesmaid does .... I head to the internet! I shopped relentlessly online for a few weeks and finally found a few dresses on-line that fit the bill.  I ordered both and decided on the one that I thought fit me and the event the best.   Brigid and David haven't seen my dress yet and hopefully she will be happy with my choice.

So ... as I head into the end of this week and eagerly anticipate the wedding events to come .... I will take in every moment for Brigid and David because as this seasoned ol' married gal knows .... it is an absolute whirl wind and incredibly difficult to stay present in the moment and appreciate the magnitude of the day.  I have a feeling, though ... knowing Brigid and David .... that in all the hectic craziness of the day .... no matter what they forget or miss .... they will never forget that precious moment that they say 'I Do'.

I love you both!

t