My daughter is getting married. She got engaged at the height of the pandemic in March 2020. She and her fiance set the wedding for the first weekend in June 2021. Everything was set within the first couple of months of their engagement.
I was even able to throw a socially distanced, mask-only engagement party in August for them. I had it catered and hired one of my former students to perform. It was a beautiful affair, held in my backyard.
But, COVID got bad again. We’ve been discussing the possibility of changing the wedding to October.
In the meantime, we bought her a gorgeous wedding dress.
For the most part, everything was set for the June date. She called all the vendors and asked about the October date. Some where able to do it while others couldn’t.
Mother of the Bride Dress
Well, I needed a dress for either June or October. I surfed the internet to see if there were little boutiques where I could find a dress. There weren’t any. They all went out of business or just closed their doors. So, I went to Nordstorm’s in New York City on 57th Street with my daughter.
When we walked in, it felt a little odd. There were very few people there. It was a Friday and it was in the midst of the biggest pandemic this country has faced in more than 100 years.
We asked the security guard what floor the dressy dresses were on.
“Hmmm… I don’t know. You can look at 3, 4 or 5,” he told us.
Floor 3 and 4
When we got to floor 3, we asked a woman at a register. “Oh, there aren’t any dressy dresses any more in the store,” she told us.
I was disappointed. I knew there was a whole section on Long Island, although I haven’t walked into a store in a long time, so I wasn’t 100 percent that was accurate.
We went to floor 4 and there was nothing.
Floor 5
We found a few dressy dresses on Floor 5. As we were looking a man approached us, “can I help you with something?” he said to my daughter.
“Yes, we’re looking for dresses, mother of the bride dresses,” I said. He looked me up and down. At first, he had a little bit of an attitude. Then he asked me my size. I told him and he came back with a half dozen dresses.
While we waited, I found a couple on my own.
“Let me take those,” he said and approached a small dressing room right were we were looking at dresses. “No,” he shook his head, “let me take you to the VIP Lounge.”
And with that, we followed Garry (we later found out his name) down to the VIP area.
VIP Area?
I’ve been shopping at Nordstroms for years now and never knew there was a VIP area with concierge services. He took us to an area that was totally private, had beautiful coaches and large windows. We followed him to the dressing area. He offered us water, which we took him up on.
Have you noticed that when you wear your mask you drink less? I feel dehydrated all the time!
Garry came back with some refreshments for us and I tried on all the dresses.
My favorites
With Garry’s help, I found two dresses immediately. A lovely tee-length dress in emerald green for the wedding and a predominantly black dress with green and white florals embroidered in the lace for the rehearsal dinner. Both were awesome!
“What about you, Zoey?” he asked my daughter. “What will you wear to the rehearsal dinner?”
“Ummm, I’m not sure yet,” she said.
And with that, Garry flew out of the room and came back with another half dozen dresses. He also brought in shoes.
Rehearsal Dresses
Garry places the dresses in the room and my daughter proceeds to try on these incredible designer dresses. One was more expensive than the next and each looked better on her than the one before.
She tried on this short white silk dress, which was originally $7,000 but now on sale for$1500, that had feathers on the top of it. She looked absolutely stunning! She didn’t feel that way and we walked away from buying any of the dresses.
I re-tried my dresses and made a hard decision.
We spent most of the day with Garry and had such a blast. My biggest regret — not getting a selfie with the three of us! I can’t wait to go on another shopping spree again. You know who I’m going to call!
