Best. Sisters. Ever.

This weekend I was in Chicago for a small bridal shower hosted by my Aunt Ellen. My aunts, cousins, sisters, and mom were in attendance, and we played silly games and drank sangria and ate quiche, and it was a most fun and excellent afternoon. I also got some very lovely gifts, both for myself and for our home. But of all the biggest surprise of the day was from my sisters Claire and Julia, who bought me a wedding dress!

For those of you following the story, I had a really great vintage c.1960s dress, by 1950s-60s gown designer Seymour Jacobson, I planned to wear. When I picked it up from the dry cleaners a few weeks ago, it was ruined--the cleaning solution they used dissolved the dress's gold thread embroidery in patches, and there is no way to fix it. I've been scrambling to find a replacement, with not much luck. I've also been intent on using this debacle as an exercise in homing in on what should be important about the day---namely, that our friends and family are there, that the booze flows freely, that the music is good. And while in my heart of hearts I know that's all true, I still want to wear an awesome dress, dammit! But leave it to Claire, who has worked in fashion in New York for many years and who has an amazing eye for interesting clothes, to take command of the situation. She, with Julia's assistance and treasured second opinion (Claire can be a bit more adventurous than Julia or I), scooped up a lovely cream satin dress from the Marc Jacobs RTW Spring 2011 collection on super sale (a shout-out here to my mother for instilling in us the important value "never buy retail") that fits me perfectly, even though it is a size smaller than my usual (ironic shout-out to Eleanor Antin). More important, it's going to be extremely meaningful to me to walk down the aisle in a dress that my sisters helped choose, especially because my first dress was one I found with the help of my mom. I also like the symmetry of a move from Jacobson to Jacobs!

So, I have a dress. Now I just need to find shoes.