There goes the bride, straight to eBay.

Cupcake Show Kari recommended that I check out IndieBride.com, a site for the more modern and progressively minded bride. I don't really see anything helpful there for me as a Maid of Honor and in general I find its content to be a little skimpy, but something did catch my eye this afternoon. I was browsing through the section marked "trousseau" where women can buy and sell their wedding gowns. I was surprised by how many of these "used" gowns were advertised as "brand new, never been worn". Only a couple ads mention that the wedding was called off, and in reselling a gown, this is a selling point, "The wedding was called off before a fitting was done so there have been no alterations." A couple of ads announce that after the woman bought this dress, she then went on to buy/borrow another dress, which sounds very strange to me. What do these women do, get engaged then run out and pick up a gown the next weekend only to realize, oh, this doesn't fit me and it's ugly as sin. I'll just go buy another one! Most of the ads for "brand new, never been worn" dresses do not mention how the would-be brides came to be in this situation. I think there's a lot of weddings getting called off out there.

When I was a kid, someone in my family called off a wedding (two people in my family have done this). The one I'm referring to now was very far along in the planning process; multiple gowns were bought, everything was booked and we had already attended a gigantic carnival-themed double shower. I was talking about it with a friend of mine in the backseat of the car and I said something stupid like, "If I ever canceled my wedding after all that, I think my Dad would kill me!" I remember that my mother, who was driving the car, said no, that if I ever found myself in a situation where I was engaged and I didn't want to go through with the wedding I could call it off and no one would be mad at me. I was probably 13 years old at the time this conversation took place and I still think about it. In my head, I've expanded my mother's words so that now it is as if she had said, "if you're ever in a situation where you know you're about to make a big mistake, you don't need to go through with it just for the sake of your pride or appearances". Believe it or not, I've acted upon this advice several times.