Marva Hamilton
Life is full of surprises. My youngest son was married in November. The engagement party was nice, the shower was pretty, and the wedding was beautiful. The bride and groom have been friends since they were 8 and 10 years old. My, how time does fly.

As the mother-of-the-groom, I'd searched for days for the perfect garment when, one day, I walked into a bridal store and there it was — a special dress for me. It was beautiful — long and silky and a wonderful shade of brown. I thought my search was over when I brought it home and my husband gave his seal of approval, too.

A few days later, I explained my find to the bride-to-be, giving her all the pertinent information — long, silky, brown. She looked a little puzzled and said my description seemed to fit the gown she'd chosen for her bridesmaids. We looked up the dress online and guess what? We picked the same dress.

Now I realized why that brown dress was so special. With a smile on my face, I returned my pretty dress and began my search again in the same bridal shop. I tried on four different dresses, but the styles were not for me. I even searched online and found a dress for $2,000; now, that was over my budget. I took my first venture to Mamaroneck, but I really had no clue about shopping in New York. Besides, the bridal store I thought would be there was closed. I was determined, however, to find a modest, but elegant dress.

Next, I found this store called Mary Jane. I walked in and knew I

Advertisement
was in the wrong place when I saw a nice blue dress for $3,500. I just laughed. No more stops until I'm back home in Connecticut. Altogether I did try on about 10 dresses.

I shopped from New Haven to New York and all the cities in between until I found a beautiful copper-colored dress in Fairfield at Marie's Bridal Shop. The dress was perfect for an evening wedding. The price was more than I had anticipated, but it was for my son and daughter-in-law. This experience made me stop and think. Of all the things in the world, isn't it great to have good communication with family? I'm so glad my daughter-in-law shared the information about the dresses with me, otherwise, I would have looked like a bridesmaid instead of the mother-of-the-groom. Marva Hamilton is the librarian at the Connecticut Post. She can be reached at mhamilton@ctpost.com.