My sister has been such a trooper. Poor Betsy! All she wanted was a hip, cool wedding where her sisters were the only ones to stand beside her, clad in not-matching-but-hip vintage-looking dresses from ModCloth. She herself is wearing our mother’s wedding dress from 1980. Lace, vintage. Wonderful.
She didn’t even dictate which specific dresses we’d wear, per se. She sent a short list for us each to choose from. And they were gorgeous. I could tell she and her fiance really spent a lot of time considering each of our body types, coloring, etc. I had my dress all ordered, and when it was way too short, we sent it back and poor Betsy picked out ANOTHER dress for me.
And then…I found out I am pregnant. In fact, I’ll have a newborn baby at her wedding, one who will be nursing every 90-minutes. Plus I’ll be just a few weeks postpartum (maybe 6 at the most, depending on when baby arrives), so I’ll have a body that looks maybe not so amazing in a lace-topped, fitted, vintage-looking dress.
Back to the drawing board we went, after only the briefest of breakdowns from my sister (my mother confessed that she had a very wee moment of “wasn’t she thinking of my wedding when she got pregnant??” and then regained her composure). She let go of her vision for her own wedding to help me find a dress that would work for nursing the baby but still look great and go with the theme of her wedding.
The dress that finally spoke to my sister’s sense of fashion AND my needs to nurse my new baby.
She looked through all the dresses A Mother’s Boutique had online at the time, but wasn’t thrilled with any of the styles in the colors available.
Until I showed her a picture Judy had taken of the Ivana dress in the shop on a mannequin!
By this point, we’d ordered and returned another 3 dresses from ModCloth–v-neck dresses and faux-wrap dresses. We’d found one that sort of would work in a pinch. But I’m so glad Judy had posted this picture of the dress on Facebook so I could send it to my sister–it looks quite different from the image of the dress in this color on the boutique webpage.
I’m mainly glad that I’ll be wearing a dress that’s designed for nursing moms. Rather than making do, stretching seams, and squeezing body parts into material that doesn’t have much give, I’ll be opening a designed nursing slot, putting baby to breast, and then going right back to my duties supporting my sister on her big day.
The online version of the dress that did not sway the bride to be.
The flowing, bamboo material will be forgiving on my postpartum body–the dress is designed to be worn during pregnancy as well, if necessary, so I know there will be room in the waist!
I’m pretty relieved to have found a dress that works for both of us. I’m proud of my sister for both understanding the needs of her sister and her future-nephew/niece. I’ve been the bride before and I’m not sure how I would have responded to such a wrench thrown in my grand plans for wardrobe for that day. I’m glad my younger sister has chosen to be so graceful for her own wedding.
What a wonderful statement about her own plans for the future of the family she’s creating that day, to be so accommodating of family. It’s more than just a dress to me!
But the dress itself is pretty great, too.
Note: While I am compensated to write blog posts for A Mother’s Boutique, I paid for the Ivana dress myself and all thoughts and opinions regarding the dress are my own.
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[…] moons ago, when I first learned I was pregnant, I wrote about locating a bridesmaids dress I could wear in my sister’s wedding and still nurse my baby. That wedding is approaching! And […]