The Blushing Bride & The Prom Queen

I suppose it happens to a lot of us.

While waiting in the doctor or dentist’s office or leisurely trying to evade unwanted attention at a local Starbucks, flipping through the latest issue of Cosmo or People and seeing the fabulous dresses splashed across every other page has always seemed to provoke the most deep-seated feelings of envy in me, albeit momentarily.

I guess those feelings were amplified in my bride-to-be best friend and teenage niece, who after being over one lazy Sunday afternoon, leisurely flipping through the pages of my extensive coffee table magazine collection, decidedly set their hearts upon both their wedding and prom dresses, respectively.

After the initial frenzy of excitement (and everybody seated again with their coffees back in their hands) we set about strategizing how to make both these dresses leap off the page and onto their bodies, because after all, it’s not like any of us could just pick up the Bat-phone and call up Donatella Versace for a dress emergency.

Luckily for both of them, my aunt is a professional seamstress, whose specialty is duplicating red-carpet dresses for bargain-basement prices. One quick call, and she put us on the right track: to C&M Textiles.

With my poor aunt in tow (once her expertise was revealed, she was pretty much kidnapped; come to think of it, so was I) we quickly drove to the St. Hubert location closest to her house.

Within the hour, we had the materials ready to create the dresses. My aunt’s expertise notwithstanding, the staff at C&M were extremely patient and accommodating (considering we were there with an extremely excitable Bridezilla and nitpicky teenager in tow) and the prices were not only affordable, they were a steal!

Final result? Ask the blushing bride and the prom queen.