For the first time in I can’t remember when, I wore a dress.
We were discussing this at work and someone asked me when I wore one last, and
I honestly could not remember. Definitely while I was at AP, but I realized it’s
been 10 whole years since I worked there.
That realization was a fairly big shock in itself. My Peace
Corps start date was mid-September, and I remember I’d taken all my annual
leave leading up to it, so it would have been sometime in August, I guess, that
I left Detroit for the last time. I’ve no idea where those blog posts went. I
took them down but thought I had a copy saved somewhere, but I just checked and
the first I can find is from November 2007, when I was in Ras L’ma in Morocco.
It’s been 10 years since I pulled up stakes and made a
hugely drastic change to escape journalism. No regrets, even if I got pulled
back in for a year while I was in Jakarta.
It sure took forever to get where I am. I don’t want to leave.
Well, sometimes I do. It was another bad week, but I had a
dress-wearing day to look forward to over the weekend. And yeah, it was cause
to celebrate.
Two of my colleagues got married today, and about two-thirds
of my department went to the ceremony. Most everyone cleaned up a bit,
including me.
Fortunately, it was just the ceremony and no reception – the
couple is having a bigger celebration in his hometown during the holiday week,
the week after next.
A Turkish wedding is the way to go. Short and sweet. It was
in this reception hall thing that had something like eight back to back. The
ceremony itself doesn’t last five minutes.
One of my colleagues gave me the rundown before, so I knew what
was going on. Everyone gathers in this theater-ish room with three sections of
seating (plus a glassed-in balcony viewing area) that has a low stage, really
more of a riser.
Behind the stage, there are big double that open to the
stage, with a large dining room-like table in view of the audience.
The rectangular table has two seats on the long side, facing
the guests, and a long but low flower arrangement in front of them. That’s for
the bride and groom. To their right, there were two seats, in which sat a man
and a woman, the witnesses. I think they’re roughly equivalent of the best man
and maid of honor. To the bride and groom’s left was the officiator of the
ceremony. All three occupied sides of the table had microphones.
There’s no music or anything; the bride and groom just walk
out from the door and sit down. Then the officiator (who, in this case, was a
woman wearing some kind of regal-looking outfit; no idea about that) speaks
into the mic and asks the bride and groom individually to state their names,
their parents’ names and where they’re from. She then asked the witnesses their
names, and then went around to the bride and groom again and made some kind of
statement to each, and they responded with a hearty “Evet!” (Yes!), with big
smiles. In this case, and probably in
all cases, there was much applause after each “Evet!”
I asked later what all had been said and basically it was
the vows. They’re asked if they’re coming in of their free will and accept the
person as the husband/wife. It’s basically one sentence, maybe two.
Then the officiator says something to the witnesses and they
each say yes. Then it goes back to the officiator and it’s done, to more
applause.
It’s mind-blowingly short and after that whopping
five-minute ceremony, the bride and groom leave the room and go to a photo op
area, and everyone follows for the receiving line. It’s sort of like standing
in line at Disney to wait for a picture with Pluto or something. (For real,
they sell them and everything.)
For this, I wore a dress. In my case, there’s only four from
which to choose, and one of those is a turtleneck so on a day in the low 90s,
that wasn’t happening. Left me with two black dresses and a light blue one. Not
sure why I have two black dresses, basically the same. I went with the Lands’
End one. Can’t go wrong with Lands’ End, at least classics-wise. I suppose
their stuff isn’t normal wedding material, but since the Turkish ceremony is
only five minutes long it didn’t matter.
Honestly, the concern was more for shoes, because I do not
have regular flats. I have nice and comfy shoes that are wholly inappropriate
for weddings and little black dresses. My L.L. Bean comfort mocs, which I have
in black and brown, don’t work. Neither do the Ariats or Twisted Xs, which
leaves me with Chacos.
I adore my Chacos, which is why there are seven pairs in the
Pepsi crates that serve as my shoe rack. But Chacos, as much as I love them,
also aren’t exactly what you’d consider wedding footwear. Except, of course, if
you’re at a Peace Corps wedding, because Peace Corps volunteers love Chacos.
(This is not only because Chacos are durable sandals, but also because – at least
when I served – Chacos gave PCVs a 50 percent discount.)
But this wasn’t a Peace Corps wedding, so I struggled on
what to wear, way more so than with the dress itself. I seriously debated the
black straps ones, which, had the straps been fancy schmancy skinny leather and
the base not made out of tire rubber, would have been perfect. But, these being
Chacos, the straps were webbing and tire rubber, so that was out.
I have two pairs of Chacos without the webbing stuff: red
hiking shoes and leather flip flops. Clearly, the hiking shoes wouldn’t work –
heck, that’d be a stretch for even a Peace Corps wedding – so that left the
flip flops.
All I could think of was a story I’d read while at AP,
slugged “Flip Flop Flap,” about some collegiate women’s team, half of whose
members wore flip flops in a visit to the White House. But it’s all I had, so I went with it.
Lands’ End and Chacos. Who else would do this?
