Life as a Wife: And other adventures!: A Black Tie Affair

Mr. W and I recently took a trip to Dallas, TX. Where the Southern accent is a little thicker and things are a little bigger! We went to Dallas for a wedding that Mr. W was in for his long-time friend. Bottom line: We had an absolute BLAST!

We got the invite a few months prior and got our airfare and everything with our stay taken care of. The most stressful part of all of this? What to wear! The invitation said ‘Black Tie.’ Of course, living in Nebraska our whole lives, we never had been to a Black Tie Affair. In fact, at our own wedding we had cowboys in wranglers, boots and cowboy hats. So as you could guess, I was extremely stressed about what to wear, what color to be in, etc. I immediately started asking around, as you may have guess the term, ‘Black Tie,’ has changed quite a bit for women. Men are still in the traditional tux and bowties, and women are still expected to be in long formal gowns, but the color choices have gone from black and navy to almost anything! I mean it, we saw almost every color you could image.

I took to the internet, our small town doesn’t have a great selection of floor length gowns in the middle of May. I was able to find a beautiful one-shoulder navy dress and couldn’t wait for it to come in! It came in about a week before we left, my mom took it up a bit so it didn’t drag, then it fit perfect. Comfy enough to dance in, nice enough to look extra-fancy! So off to Dallas we went! We met Cory and Hope there, Cory is another one of Mr. W’s life-long friends. It was nice to have another wife there that would also be dateless for the wedding ceremony.

It was about 6:05 on Saturday (the day of the wedding), when I decided I needed to get into my dress to make it to the 6:30 ceremony. Hope and I had been getting ready together and decided we probably should start to hurry in order to make it on time. So in I went. It was a perfect fit and I felt like a princess! I went to put my shoes on and stood back up, that’s when I heard it. My zipper SPLIT. Yep, completely split. How could this happen? It wasn’t like I was trying to fit in a smaller size here. Let’s be honest, I am not a size 0 and I keep that in mind when I order online! Figuring it was like any jacket I have ever had I figured, ok zip it down get it unstuck and zip it back up, all will be fine. Well, one problem. It wouldn’t go down. We tried to get the zipper down multiple times, that sucker was staying there. It was 6:15 by the time I got out my needle and thread (Still thanking my Grandma Elly for giving me a sewing kit for my purse a few years ago). I turned the dress around and started sewing myself in, Hope finished the job and you honestly couldn’t tell. All I could think at that point was, “Darn, we are in the wrong profession, we should have been seamstress!” Only this would happen to me. Right when I’m stuck in a town I don’t have extra dresses at my fingertips, a mother that could take out a zipper and sew one back in in five minutes flat, and less than 30 minutes before I have to go to a wedding ceremony.

We made it! Mr. W was curious to where his Mrs. had been. I waltz in like nothing was wrong. I whispered in his ear what had happen as he ushered Hope and I to our seats. I thought this would ruin my night that I would be so worried about my dress and how I looked, but we had an amazing time and Mr. W was so helpful making sure my sewing job was still doing the trick! It lasted through the night and all was well! Needless to say, I think next time we travel for a wedding, I’ll be bringing 3 if not 4 dresses!