Florala

Issue date: 10/5/06 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Christine Fink

When I last left you, I was complaining about the difficulties of finding an affordable wedding dress that actually fit.

After trips to H u n t s v i l l e , Birmingham and all over the Shoals area I realized that maybe I was trying too hard. So, to the chagrin of my mother and other worrywarts in my life, I stopped looking for my dress.

Egad! Three months before my wedding and the search for a dress went out with a whimper. I just decided to chill out and let the dress come to me.

I don't recommend that course of action, however. It's a risky thing to try, and becoming apathetic towards a situation that isn't working out, as I am wont to do, usually ends poorly. Good things don't always come to those who wait.

I got lucky.

A couple of weekends ago my fiance and I went out to play miniature golf and were greeted by a ferocious wall of rain.

We detoured to Regency Square Mall and parked at a department store entrance, which we never do. The only reason we parked there this time was that it was the quickest way to get out of the rain.

A s we ran in and made our way to the mall opening a rack of white caught my eye. I fingered through the dresses and found that they were all size 6 and under. Then I saw it: an ivory colored vintage-looking dress that screamed "Wear me to your wedding!"

I eagerly grabbed it up and saw that it was $11.98 (!!!), and a size 12, which is a few sizes too small for me. Disappointed, I began to hang it back on the rack when something (which I'm beginning to think was desperation) told me to look at it again.

I scrutinized the seams, pulled and tugged on the waistline and finally decided to try it on. What the hell, I thought. I traipsed to the dressing room and lost my clothes. As I slid the dress down over my body, it became a slow motion scene from a movie.

I heard Chariots of Fire playing over the speakers (or in my head). As the lowest hem brushed my calves I stood, looking triumphantly at myself in the mirror and struggling really hard to suck in.

I had found my dress. And it cost less than UNA's graduation fee.

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