How to Style a Wedding: Would you like a Marriage With That?

Yesterday, my parents celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary.

Yep, there they are in all their purely eighties glory. Okay, they're pretty cute... but mom, really? Exactly what would you call the color of those bridesmaids dresses??

In my extremely up-to-date, fashionable, and oh-so wise mind (har har), this is what I like to imagine went on in my mother's mind in preparation for her joyous occasion:

"Ma'am... I need big sleeves. No, bigger! They're very flattering. A mesh neckline is all the rage, gotta have that... and a hat! Yes, a hat! Perfect excuse to fire the hairstylist!"

Apparently, these...fashions... were the style then, and I'm sure she had no idea that just 30 years later... her daughter would be chuckling at her wedding wardrobe.

Does this mean that 30 years from now, I will have a daughter rolling her eyes at whatever white dress I choose to walk down the aisle in? Surely, I would never pick something that could ever be considered out-dated! (Or maybe, in this world of revolving fashion, my mother's dress will pop back up in the pages of The Knot magazine, and I would actually consider stepping into it...)

Apparently, according to John Tesh and because of Kate Middleton, the days of princess tiaras and ridiculously large crinoline ball gowns are not only back in the wedding limelight, but far from-out-of-date in weddings from Wales to Wisconsin.

Spare me.

Sure, your wedding day is the perfect chance to show off your personal style, your handsome groom, and the aisle runner that only took 62 appointments to choose. (I'm sure people were just marveling over it...)

More than that though, (much more than that), it is the time to stand before the people you love and promise yourself to the person God created for you... arrive two and leave as one.

So whether you're adorned with pouffy sleeves, rhinestones, neckline up to your chin, or something the saleswoman promised you was "timeless," when you look back on the photo 30 years from then as your daughter is trying so hard to muffle her chuckles, if you're still gazing at the man you did so long ago, with an identical twinkle in your eye, I'd bargain to say you made the right choice. Bridesmaids dresses and all.