In the lane, snow is glistening…and three girls are on a mission!

Posted January 18th, 2010 | 11:00 am | By Emily Wood |

One of the first questions that every bride is asked is, “What’s your date?,” but when you’re planning a December wedding in Winnipeg, the immediate response to your date isn’t the usual nodding and smiling—it’s a concerned look followed by “…but why?” For David and I it was simple: he worked in sports all summer and fall, so a December wedding was the first month we’d actually be able to do it in without risking a playoff game preventing him from attending!

While a winter wedding means the groom can definitely attend, it also means a big risk in the form of Mother Nature’s temperament, no matter how prepared we are. Come December 4 the average temperature here is -15°C with a record low of -38°C.  This is cold business, ladies and gents, and one of my first tasks in planning has been how to deal with it.  My first stop? Outerwear.

My wonderfully determined bridesmaids and I set out one evening in early December on a simple task: to find a white coat we could all wear for outdoor pictures. But about halfway through scouring the city’s largest shopping centre from top to bottom, we realized this was going to be far trickier than anticipated.

Realization #1: There is no such thing as a white wool coat.

Every pea coat we found came in ten different shades of black, with the odd exception being a shade of a yellowish cream. I like to think I’m a relaxed, easy-going bride who doesn’t stress over minor details, but our colours are white, ice blue and silver. Against my white dress, a cream jacket isn’t going to cut it. Is it?

Realization #2: If we’re set on white, we’ll have to accept that we will either look like Michelin Men, or first-year med students.

Everything that came in white seemed to be either a puffer jacket, or a sterile shade of thick linen that made us look like Gregory House’s latest recruits. I don’t want to be fastidious, but neither really says “wedding party” to me.

Realization #3: If you do find something that fits the bill, chances are it’ll be discontinued, and only available in XXXL.

Winter coats are a hot commodity here, so the few times we found something that worked, none of the stores in the city had anything in our sizes.  Even looking online and embracing astronomical shipping and duty charges (along with a dubious return process) left us empty handed, and wondering if white coats have ever existed at all!

So, our mission ended as an epic fail, but we’re still determined—and your help would be absolutely indispensable. What should we do?

1. Resign ourselves to cream.  It won’t look that bad over my white dress, and the chances of finding one that matches exactly is pretty slim anyway.

2. Give up on anything remotely flattering, and buy puffer jackets. At least they’ll fit the colour scheme!

3. Scout out a seamstress, and have cloaks made.  Even if they all seem to charge upwards of $250 per person. Yikes.

4. Forget outdoor pictures and just wear whatever’s comfortable. We’ll be outside for a grand total of 10 minutes before risking frostbite anyway, so we’ll just double our efforts to find an indoor location for posed pictures!

The challenge is on…

Tags: blogger search, bridesmaids, colour scheme, jacket, traditional, white, winter

Posted January 18th, 2010 | 11:00 am | By Emily Wood |

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