Supportive Sisters! – Dearest Fattie Anne
I spent a very enjoyable evening on Tuesday with a bride to be, her sister and two other female relatives. The bride is getting married in June, and she was looking for a dress, but didn’t know what style or colour she was looking for. She liked the first dress she tried on, but it was slightly too plain. She tried on a number of other dresses, and then tried on the first dress again. She still liked it, but was concerned it wouldn’t match the bridesmaid dress that she had already bought. We suggested she could change the colour of the ribbon for the corset back, to match the bridesmaid dress. Her sister, then came up with some inspirational ideas on how to not only match the dresses, but to add the extra something that she was looking for. Simple ideas like adding sparkle to the buttons on the back, adding coloured crystals to the plain crystal design, and subtle piping to the bodice in the contrasting colour, all added to the perfect dress.
This will make a truly unique dress for the bride, and as her sister Lisa is the one who came up with the ideas and is prepared to spend her time enhancing the dress, it will be an extra special gown, because of the time and love that has been put into it. Our seamstress could have done what was required, but obviously this would have been an extra cost, and would not have the same meaning. I cant wait to see the finished dress, and they have promised to let me see it before the big day.
What was so lovely about the evening was that it was such good fun, all the women got on so well, and they are obviously a very close family. They had such a good relationship that they could be honest with each other, when a dress didn’t suit and laugh when it was completely wrong, and all come up with good suggestions to make existing plans work with new ideas. They made the whole evening a family affair. Donna’s wedding is going to be perfect, because for her it isn’t all about the dress, it is about the family that are working together to give her the perfect dress and perfect day.
My dearest friend Janette is the closest thing I have to a sister. (thing?- that will bring in a phone call from her) I would like to cheer her up today. We met 130 years ago when we were both in our late teens, I was shy and impossibly skinny and she was so confident and had boobs that grown men had gone missing in. We became firm friends. Over the years our relationship has developed into a real love, and we know that no matter whatever happens in our lives, we can always depend on the other one to give us a kick up the bum. Our love for each other is not obvious to the outside world, infact our children could never work out why we were friends, as her pet name for me was ‘Auntie Bimbo’ and mine for her was ‘Fattie Anne’. (I only called her that when she lost weight, never when she put it on), and we spend most of our time pointing out each others flaws.
I got to her wedding 30 seconds before she did, nearly knocking her over in my attempt to get to my seat before ‘Here comes the bride and her very late friend’ started playing, and she sent me a ‘In deepest Sympathy’ card for my 30th birthday. ( I got her back by sending her womb a ‘sorry to hear you are leaving’ card, when she went into hospital a few years ago. It wasn’t as heartless as it sounds, it had put in many years of gallant service, and was well overdue for retirement) She has never let me forget the time, when I supported her wholeheartedly when she was losing a lot of weight and had had a bit of a makeover. She looked fabulous with a new hairstyle, and new clothes, so when I was driving past her office and saw her walking down the street in tight leggings looking amazing and confident, I slowed down and called out ‘Hey Fattie Anne, your backside is still to big for leggings’ and to my horror realised she was a complete stranger. I will never forget the look on that woman’s face. The traffic got faster so I couldn’t stop, and had no choice but to drive away. I circled that road for the next 10 minutes trying to find a beautiful women, who was now probably crying in shock, who really did look great in leggings, who thought she had been the victim of drive by abuse. I never found her . Janette loves to tell people that story to qualify why she calls me Bimbo. My favourite story I tell of her is when she picked up her brand new car and immediately took it through the car wash. Once the machine had started she realised she hadn’t pushed the aerial in, so jumped out and ran to the back of the car to do it. The hot water and soap started, and the rollers came down. She stood wet and in terror as she tried to hold back the 12 foot rollers as they rolled over her car and bent off the drivers side door which she had left open. On telling me what had happened, I could hardly stand up I was laughing so hard ‘I could have been killed’ she wailed – I nearly died laughing.
Thank you Janette for being my best friend, Sue x