Chapter 14 #2
‘Nope. As long as we’re willing to travel, which we are, they’re quite easy to find.
’ Ellie grinned, relieved that she had in fact discovered another wedding dress sale coming up.
It might be over two and a half hours away, but it would be a journey worth making if it meant Laura could source her perfect dress.
‘Especially when you have the contacts and know where to look for them.’
Passing the phone back to Ellie, Laura looked at her. ‘I really thought this would be my last chance to find a dress. I thought you were just telling me there were other sales and fairs so I didn’t panic.’
Laughing, Ellie shook her head. ‘I might try to shield you from some of the stresses of wedding planning, but I’m not going to lie to you.’ Please just don’t ask if a wedding caterer has been found.
‘Right, oh, okay. That’s okay then, isn’t it? I really don’t have to find my perfect dress here.’ Shaking out her arms by her sides, the creases in Laura’s forehead smoothed, and she smiled.
‘No, you really don’t. Of course, you might, but you don’t have to.’ Ellie slipped her mobile back into her bag and zipped it up. ‘Some of these sales are fantastic and have an abundance of gowns to choose from and some resemble Primark on a good day, with dresses strewn all over the place.’
‘Next.’ A tall woman standing by the door beckoned them forward.
‘That’s us. Come on, let’s do this.’ Rubbing her hands together, Nicola stepped forward.
As they walked into the large warehouse, Ellie scanned her eyes around the vast space.
Rails upon rails of gowns filled the area.
Judging from her first glance, they hadn’t been particularly well organised or grouped.
Puffy ball gowns were mixed with slinky fishtails, satin with tulle, and whites with ivories, with the odd red or purple mixed in.
She scrunched up her nose. She preferred it when dresses had been organised, streamlined so it was easier to search for what someone might be looking for, but this looked as though someone more experienced in jumble sales had been unleashed in the warehouse.
‘Wow, this is incredible! There must be hundreds of dresses in here.’ Pausing just inside the entrance, Nicola spun slowly on the spot, taking in the muted palette.
‘And hundreds of angry bridezillas searching for their perfect dress too.’ Laura grimaced and pointed towards a couple of women standing at the end of the closest clothes rail, both tugging on the edge of one dress.
‘Ha, they’ll be able to share that in a minute if they’re not careful!’ Nicola laughed. ‘They’ll each be able to take home half of it.’
Shaking her head at the squabbling pair, Ellie linked arms with Laura and Nicola and led them towards the far end of the large warehouse, as far away from the drama as possible.
The last thing she needed was for Laura to be getting nervous again.
‘We’ll start at the far end. That way, there’ll be fewer people as most start looking through the rails as soon as they walk in and then work their way outwards one way or the other. ’
‘That’s smart.’ Nicola nodded. ‘I guess you’re an old pro at these and go to a lot through your work?’
‘I’ve been to a fair few, yes. Although probably not as many as you think. A lot of the brides I work with are super excited about choosing their dress and have often bought one before even coming to me to help with the planning.’
‘You mean everyone else is organised.’ Laura grimaced.
‘No, I just mean that a lot, but not all, of my clients find their dream dress before or early on in the planning stage. It certainly doesn’t mean that you’re any less organised than them.
You and Jackson have chosen to do a fast-track wedding, so to speak, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
You’ve not chosen your dress because the wedding is only in a couple of months’ time.
A lot of people spend a year or more planning their big day.
’ Ellie squeezed Laura’s arm. ‘This is romantic. You and Jackson don’t want to wait. ’
‘Ellie’s right. It is romantic.’ Nicola grinned.
‘Umm, although you’ve just glossed over the tiny detail that we had decided to marry a good few months ago, we just hadn’t got any real plans in place before you came into our lives to rescue us from our bazillion part-baked ideas.’ Laura laughed.
‘Haha, yep, we don’t need to tell anyone that.
’ Ellie smiled. Now they were inside, Laura was a completely different person.
And with any luck, her bride-to-be might just begin to enjoy the process of figuring out what shape, style and fabric dress she might like to wear for her wedding.
And perhaps even discover that elusive dress she’d been trying to avoid finding for so long.
She pointed towards the last clothes rail.
‘Let’s start here, find three dresses to try on, each one a different shape. ’
‘Okay, yep. Try on, right,’ Laura mumbled under her breath.
‘Hey, you do know you’re going to have to try the dresses on, don’t you?’ Nicola looked at her and frowned. ‘You weren’t expecting to just come in and pluck one from the hanger and buy it?’
Looking down at the floor, Laura avoided Nicola’s eye contact. ‘Well, no. I just hadn’t given anything else much thought, though.’
‘Come on, it’ll be fun.’
‘I believe you.’
‘So what colour or fabric are we looking for? Laura?’ Stepping up to the clothes rail, Nicola began looking through the dresses.
‘It doesn’t matter. Not at this stage. All we’re going to be thinking about is the shape of the dress and how that makes you feel, Laura.
We can go through the fabric and colour options and everything else once we’ve narrowed down our search by shape.
’ Ellie pulled out an ivory ball gown, its puffy skirt at least five layers deep in tulle. ‘Here’s the first one.’
Nicola carefully held up a slinky satin fishtail. ‘Is this one a fishtail?’
‘Yep, that’s right.’ Ellie nodded before looking across at Laura, who was looking equally horrified and disgusted at the same time.
‘Remember, we’re just trying them on for the shape.
And you never know, you might find that the fishtail looks better than you imagine.
I’ve had loads of brides-to-be who have fought tooth and nail to try to wriggle out of trying on a certain shape only to realise that the one they thought they’d hate actually looks amazing on them. ’
‘Okay.’ Laura sighed as she reluctantly took the dresses, laying the skirts over her arm.
‘And here, one with an A-line skirt.’ Taking a dress from the rail, Ellie passed it to Nicola. ‘You two go on ahead to the fitting rooms and I’ll grab a couple of other shapes and meet you in there.’
‘Come on, Laura. Let’s go and try on some wedding dresses!’ Nicola led the way with Laura trailing behind.