Dress Stress

I am leaving my family in Arizona and heading to Massachusetts next week.  I'm taking a red eye on Wednesday night.  Thank goodness it is a direct flight, so I will land in Boston around 5 am, which is 2 am my time. I should be asleep at my friend Shauna's house by 7 am, which is 4 am my time.  That's do-able.  After what I hope will be a lovely long nap, I'll be on my own during the day, then Shauna and I are having dinner with each other on Thursday night.  I'm spending the whole day  in Boston with my friends Megan and Cathy on Friday.  Some other friends are joining us for dinner that night and then I'll be back at Shauna's house to sleep.

Saturday morning I'm renting a car and then picking my parents up from the airport to head to the actual reason for the trip.

To see these young things, Amy and Dan, get hitched.

A wee bit of background: my dad is good friends with Pete.  They've known each other since high school.  Eventually my dad married my mom, Pete married Julie, Pete and my dad remained friends and my mom and Julie became friends.  Pete and Julie had two kids, Mark and Amy, who are quite a bit younger than my brothers and me.  Amy actually celebrated her 15th birthday at my wedding!  So, I've known Amy for her entire life and now she is getting married.  At a golf club on Cape Cod.  

This is what the place looks like

As if that wasn't enough pressure already,  I went to Amy's bridal shower in January where it was revealed that the "dress code" for the wedding is "Cape Festive."

This is from their wedding website:  Attire is 'Cape' Festive- Dress to Impress! Boat Shoes, Sear Sucker, Summer Cocktail Dresses, Nautical Stripes, Navy Blazers, Garden Party attire, wedge heels, Vineyard Vines and Sunglasses are all highly encouraged.

** There will be a best dress award at the reception, so the Cape-ier the better!**

A few days after the shower I ordered a navy blue anchor dress from ebay.  It was $15 with free shipping.  I really like the dress and it fits well, but it was immediately apparent that it was way too casual for the wedding.

So I have been on the look-out for anything and everything nautical every time I've been anywhere that sells clothing.  And for 3 months I have found nothing.

About two weeks ago I decided it was seriously time to find something lest I show up to the wedding in an anchor t-shirt and jeans.

I almost bought this dress from Macy's, but it was only available online and would have been over $100 for just the dress.

Then last weekend I went to a second hand store and found this little number for $12.  The shoes were $14.  The problem is that the dress is too big (and, remember, second hand store, they didn't have it in other sizes).  It needs to be altered and made smaller if I'm going to wear it.  But, I bought it because it is Ralph Lauren and it was $12.  I figured if I didn't find anything else I had time to get it altered which won't cost all that much.  Plus, $12.  Not exactly a budget buster.  I still might have it altered and wear it for Easter next year.   And the shoes are Guess.  I'll definitely wear them.

Last week I decided to go on one more whirlwind shopping trip to find the perfect dress for this wedding, mostly because I was tired of stressing about what to wear.  Just for comparison, when Cathy got married two years ago and I went to New Hampshire for her wedding, I went to Ross a few weeks before the wedding, spent 10 minutes looking through the racks and bought the only dress I tried on.  I don't ever spend this much time looking for something to wear.  

Elliott and I went to Tempe Marketplace on Tuesday.  I figured if I didn't find a dress I could still go to Charming Charlies to buy some themed jewelry.  Well, I ended up buying my entire outfit there.

The dress.  Cute, huh?  And on sale.

The high in Boston was 45 degrees today and probably even colder out on the Cape, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to freeze to death, but I got a navy blue pashmina that will look great wrapped around my cold, dead body.  Oh, and a cool green purse.

Anchor bracelet and anchor earrings to round out the look.

These are my shoes.  I've had them for a long time.  Like, I'm pretty sure they are older than Elliott.

They remind me of nautical ropes though, so hopefully it will get me some bonus points for that prize.

And this is not dress related, but Elliott and I happened to be at Ross today and I bought this jacket to take on the trip.  Not sure when I'm going to wear it, but with the current weather patterns, maybe the entire time.