post meltdown status update

You guys are so wonderful. Time and again you blow me away with your generosity. To those of you who have offered your beautiful dresses, you can’t know how deeply that touches me. Especially those who thought there was even the slightest possibility I could fit into a single-digit dress size. God love ya.  Okay, maybe I’d make it into an 8 with some Spanx and a Gone with the Wind corseting – but when I tell you I have made zero effort to skinny-up for this event, it’s no joke.

My mother even offered to buy me a dress – and hooboy, that caused an even BIGGER meltdown. The idea of standing in front of three-way mirror in bad lighting, feeling squishy and pale while I try to make my body fit into a stranger’s idea of how a woman’s body should be shaped – holy cow, I’d rather prance around my new workplace in a bikini.

In brief, the wedding dress status is: the folks at the shop in London who had the fabric special ordered for me are going to send remnants and my seamstress is going to figure out how to make a dress out of them. My original order was for 7 meters; they had 10 made. So the left over 3, plus the few they had on the original bolt in their store will be sent via DHL tomorrow (it’s a holiday today in the UK) and arrive Thursday.  IT WILL. I’m willing it to.

I’m going to answer every one of your emails, I swear – just give me until the middle of the week. Tonight is our last night in the house before the floors get done and even after I spent thirty-six hours working on that time suck of a house this weekend, buckets of chemical stripper and the four of us scraping and scraping and scraping, the task is still not quite finished. I can barely hold a pen, my hands are so sore. It will be worth it though, right? Of course right.

23 comments to post meltdown status update

  • Jessica Mac

    Excellent!!! I’m sending all of my good karma and crossed fingers toward getting that package here on time!

  • Katherine

    Good thoughts, good thoughts, good thoughts. It will come together. Just keep thinking about Italy.

  • Carrie Boo

    Good for you fish – taking it all in stride, minus a breakdown or 2! Can’t do much better than that. You’re dealing with this amazingly!

  • CaliGal

    Oh my goodness, darlin’! I’ve been away from a computer for a few days and I cannot believe what I’m reading.

    But, fear not. It’ll come together and yes, it’ll be TOTALLY worth it.

    Just keep breathing.

    I’m sending those positive vibes…..All will be well. :)

  • Wow. Just wow.

    I’ll whisper into the Spaghetti Monster’s ear for good things to happen to you from now on.

  • Light at the end of the tunnel! It’s going to work out!

  • Lilly

    I’m also sending good karma your way, though if I were you, I would be popping vitamins, drinking a lot of liquids, and sleeping as much as I can. You don’t want to be sick in Italy. You wouldn’t be able to taste the gelatos!!

  • javonne

    I’m amazed by the readers! They have me in tears. Hope everything works out for you. Unfortunately, I have no dress to offer. I got married years ago in a purple dress I picked up off a rack someplace. good thing, too, cause I’m now divorced.

  • Suzanne

    it will it will it will work out!!

    jcrew has some very nice wedding dresses ;)
    also, white house|black market just in case!!

  • Cori

    Phew! So glad to hear it.

  • Oh, honey. It’ll be wonderful. It will or I will break something!

    And remember: The worst thing that can happen on your wedding day is for you to lose your sense of humor. The biggest travesties I’ve ever seen have always been the thing we talked and laughed about later.

    Oh, god, I just sounded like an old lady and told you stuff you already know. I’m sorry! You’re just so stressed you make me feel like a mom! I want to brush your hair and rub your back! I can’t help it.

  • SEL

    Hopefully the wedding glitches karma will translate into smooth marriage karma. :)

  • Melissa

    Oh Fish, I’m so glad to hear it!

  • Lawyerchik

    Um, did I read “new workplace” aright? :)

    Wishing you the best of all possible futures – and that your wedding is beautiful and wonderful and memorable as all get out!! :)

  • Genki

    So very glad to hear this and have all my fingers and toes crossed that it works out. I was at a loss about what to say before but hoped one of the generously offered dresses would fit. This is better!

  • Carrie

    I too have been away from a computer for a few days. I can’t believe all this! I am so bummed that your dress situation has taken this turn and want to punch the Post Office in the face! I would offer you my wedding dress but since I got divorced I think that is probably bad mojo. Plus I am 5 foot nothing and weighed like 105 pounds 12 years ago… but the fabric is beautiful though and it could be chopped up into something lovely. (Which is actually why I kept it, apparently I forgot that I am not crafty.)
    I will send you well wishes, happy thoughts and lots of love and some good peace and throw you our work mantra “I am a hollow reed- troubles blow through me like the wind”. It really hasn’t helped with anything but it makes my coworker and I giggle when we say it. Laugher is the best medicine and all that.

  • melissa

    I offered one of those “size 8″ dresses and let me tell you spanx and corset type devices were involved for me too… even after my seamstress took out two inches on the hips.

  • melissa

    By took out I mean let it out/made it larger.

  • Bill

    Heather:
    I can’t imagine I’m offering this, but if you need a wedding dress in an emergency, I would send you my late wife’s wedding gown. We are New Yorkers and she got an amazing deal on a beautiful gown for our wedding in June 2002. She passed away from cancer (who knew that one was coming?) on Christmas Day 2004. I’ve kept the gown (cleaned and sealed in a garment bag) ever since. It’s yours if you need it. (I can send photos privately if that helps.) Mary was an extraordinary woman and the love of my life so this gown deserves to go to an equally good soul.

    Now breathe….
    Bill

    • thisfish

      Bill,

      I’ve tried replying to you six or seven times now but I can’t seem to find the right words. I am so incredibly touched by your generosity. And not just by offering up the dress – but by the generosity of spirit that accompanies such an offer. I haven’t stopped thinking about it. I feel unbelievably honored and simultaneously undeserving of such a remarkable gesture. Lat night when I met with my seamstress I told her what you’d written and she said that I would remember that as long as I lived. I agreed. What a tribute to your late wife. She was a fortunate lady to be loved so truly.

  • Bill

    Thank You. I’m glad you finally got your fabric and will be wearing the exact dress you wanted. That’s the best option of all! My offer was an honest Plan B in case all else failed. (Naked weddings can be kinda stressful.) Very best wishes to the both of you for a perfect wedding and a long, happy marriage.