A Bridemaid's Dress in the Hottest Shade of Pink Ever

Our eldest sister, Felicity is getting married in the spring. Imogen and I are two of her bridesmaids and Gemma-Rose and Sophie are her flower girls. This is so exciting but we have had some pretty amazing problems getting the bridesmaids dresses.

The first problem was finding the dress. Mum searched the Internet with a fine toothed comb to locate a shop that made a dress that we liked, could make the dresses to our own particular measurements and that Felicity liked. After a long while on the computer Mum found the perfect dress.

But then came problem number two. We had to ask Felicity's opinion of the dress. She lives way over on the other side of Australia in Perth. It's difficult to catch her on the phone to discuss the wedding preparations. But eventually news leaked through that the dress had been approved. Felicity decided that she'd like Imogen to wear blue and me to wear pink (of course!).

Measuring had to be done next though. Mum cornered us in her lair with her measuring tape (actually she called us into her bedroom). We were wound round and round in measuring tape and numbers were noted done in a notebook.

"We'll just check your height again," Mum told me.

I kicked off my pink slippers again. I stood by the wall behind Mum's bedroom door and was nearly squished when Dad opened it suddenly. Mum placed a book on my head and marked away with a pencil.

"You've gotten shorter!" Mum exclaimed.

She hurriedly measured me for the dress length again. Sure enough I was a few centimetres shorter than last time I was measured. Mum measured and remeasured trying to find my actual height and the length for the dress. But I didn't get much taller. Eventually we gave up. I was obviously not going to get any taller any time soon.

After a few days Mum sent off the order for the dresses. All we had to do now was wait and get some flower girl dresses. But a few days later there was an email.

"The lengths for the dresses don't seem right," the email announced. "Please send us the heights of the young ladies (it actually said that)."

After another round of measuring Mum sent off our heights. I still wasn't any taller. Another email arrived.

"The heights match the length," it announced.

We breathed sighs of relief. Thank goodness Mum had measured us right. And so we went back to waiting.

So we waited patiently, thinking that the dresses would come in early spring. But this morning when we were saying our morning prayers the parcel man arrived. He handed Mum a large grey post pack. We crowded around Mum vying for the best place to stand.

"I think it's the dresses," Mum announced.

She ripped the bag open and pulled out two plastic wrapped parcels. One was the hottest shade of hot pink imaginable and the other was vibrant blue.

"Wow," I said.

"Go and try them on," Mum urged.

Imogen and I fled to our bedroom. I pulled the packaging off the dress and unfolded it. The pink look even pinker without the wrapping. But the dress didn't look quite right. There was supposed to be chiffon layer. I turned the back of the dress towards me. The zip was on the wrong side of the dress. But I took a look at the inside and laughed at myself. They'd folded the dresses inside out. I unzipped the dress and turned right side out. This side wasn't quite as bright but it is still the most beautiful shade of pink I've ever seen.

Imogen and I did each other's zip up and paraded out to Mum. Thankfully Mum didn't ask for a longer skirt for me. If the skirt had been any longer than it is I would have been walking on the end.

The dress is beautiful. I can hardly wait for spring to wear it. And the skirt is long enough for me to do some growing in the next few months.

I can't actually post any photos as we're not allowed to reveal the dresses till The Big Day. But later after the wedding I will post up some photos.