Recently I attended a bridal shower for a young lady. Besides numerous faux pas (which I may share at another point in time), I was shocked when the bride’s mother finally came up to me—dressed in tight, ripped jeans and a tight spagetti-strap shirt. Both myself and the guest who had driven with me had taken great care to dress in nice slacks and tops. After glancing around the room, I saw that most of the “young” people there were also dressed in sloppy jeans, cut off shorts, tight-tight tops, etc.
Okay, so I thought maybe this was just a one-time weird event until I went to a baby shower for a friend’s son. My friend (the grandma-to-be) was dressed in a nice dress, but her daughter, who was the hostess of the shower, was…again…dressed in a tight-tight black spaghetti strap top with the words “Billy’s Mom” across her large bosom - so of course everyone had to stare at her chest in order to read what was written across it. Because she was the main hostess, she had taken it upon herself to transport the gifts from the gift table to the mother to-be so her ample bosom bounced across the room every few minutes to bring a new gift.
Is it me, or am I out of the new generational loop where there’s an entirely new dress code for special events like bridal showers and wedding showers? Do these folks not know how they look? Is it more important to feel “comfortable” or do they honestly think they are wearing “nice” clothing? Don’t take me wrong, I am not of the “country club” set nor do I wear “nice” clothes often - I run a small farm, so you’ll find me most days in jeans and boots. But come on, I think it is appropriate and respectful to dress nicely to someone’s special event. 0411-10Onyx's comments:
Does anyone else think this submitter made herself a very unsympathetic character?
First of all, from my understanding of the story, many of the "sloppily"-dressed people seemed to be people close to the guest-of-honor and/or organizers of the shower (the mom-to-be's mother, the dad-to-be's sister who was also the hostess, the "young people" who were likely friends of the parents-to-be, etc.), which makes me think it was probably the submitter who was mistaken about the formality level, not the "sloppy" people. She didn't mention what the parent(s)-to-be at either shower wore, which I think would be very telling about the formality level they (the guests of honor) would have wanted.
Second, the way she describes the other people really puts me off. She and her friend "took great care" to dress in "nice slacks", but the "'young' people" dressed in "sloppy jeans"--I really wish I knew what the quotation marks around "young" were supposed to imply. Were they actually "young people", in which case there's no need for quotations, or is the submitter trying to imply that they weren't young but were acting "too young"? And then there was the description of the hostess of the second shower, a lady with "the words “Billy’s Mom” across her large bosom -
so of course everyone had to stare at her chest in order to read what was written across it. Because she was the main hostess, she had
taken it upon herself to transport the gifts from the gift table to the mother to-be so her
ample bosom bounced across the room every few minutes to bring a new gift." (emphasis mine). Regardless of whether her attire was appropriate, was that description necessary? Writing on shirts generally does go across the chest; it's not like the woman had to special-order that word-placement just to draw attention to her chest--it's more likely she would have to specify if she wanted to get a shirt with the words
elsewhere. Bringing the gifts over to the guest of honor seems like a pretty obvious and normal job for a shower hostess, isn't it? Saying she had "taken it upon herself" makes it sound like some bizarre look-at-me attention grab.
And her "ample bosom bounced"--would she have commented, or even
noticed, if the bosom of an equally well-endowed lady in "nice slacks and top" had bounced when she walked?
These kind of posts make me sad, and I don't even
like the tight tank tops and cutoffs fashion.
