I had my heart set on the Princess Pearl Medley Communion Dress
Last week as I was updating my blog with suggestions on how to find perfect communion dresses, I kept deleting tongue-in-check comments because they detracted from the message. Finally I realized that there was a post struggling to come out.
Finding special occasion dresses can be difficult enough. When you want the young lady in question to like what she’s going to wear then you’ve increased the level of difficulty exponentially. I’m not kidding. Your idea of lovely communion dresses can be diametrically opposed to your daughter’s idea. When evaluating dresses, there is a delicate balance that mothers must achieve. You need to be helpful but not dictatorial; provide guidance without stepping on feelings, teach elegance without squashing individuality. I’ve helped hundreds of customers find perfect communion dresses, so you would think that I would be able to help my youngest daughter select her own first communion dress.
Well, this weekend, my youngest daughter and I shopped for first communion dresses. Right off the bat, she nixed the communion dress that I had my heart set on. It was a beautiful dress with hand sewn pearls on the collar and the sash. I thought the dress was charming, feminine and just perfect for her personality. Nope. She wanted “sparkly” and no amount of negotiation was going to change her mind. Once I got over my disappointment (and trust me I REALLY tried to convince my daughter to change her mind) we decided to look for dresses that we both liked. As an opinionated mother, I do not believe in simply letting children select a special occasion outfit without any type of parental input. Pictures will be taken, conservative grandparents will be present so adult supervision in the selection process IS required. My daughter tried on 20 communion dresses. After several rounds of try-ons we narrowed it down to two contenders. We even brought in her older sister to provide an opinion on the final two dresses. That wasn’t of much value since both communion dresses were very elaborate and my oldest daughter kept emphasizing how she didn’t like dresses. My daughter wanted to add more bead work. A touch of elegant bead work didn’t provide the wattage that she desired. More, more, more had to be tempered with perhaps some, maybe a little bit, okay a few here.
In the end, she selected and designed a beautiful dress that she loves. I kept my sanity and we can both be seen in public. Do you have a story about shopping with your tween daughter? Share the details.
