For my guy's birthday I bought him tickets to the Utah Symphony's Production of Peter and the Wolf because it is one of his favorite pieces of music. By doing so I got a lesson on just how much I need to bring my "A" game when it comes to dressing for the occasion. I used to dress up more so than I thought other people would dress up, but not so much that I would stick out like sore thumb. My guy dresses for the occasion itself, and how he wants to present himself and show his respect regardless of how he may stand out. This has been an interesting challenge for me. I put on dark jeans and a nice shirt and he shows up in dark jeans, a collared shirt, a vest and a hat. So I add some nice jewelry to my outfit the next time and he adds a sports coat to his ensemble. It has been quite an interesting experience and one that often leaves me changing because, "I need to look like belong walking next to you." He always replies, "You look fine dear." And then he tells me that he doesn't care what I wear. But in all honesty I have had fun taking on the challenge of feeling appropriately dressed according to the occasion and according to whatever he may be wearing. And I have had so much fun adding those daring little touches to my outfits that I never had the guts to try before. But now that I have tried them I find them to be fun and exciting and they bring on compliments from strangers for both him and me. I didn't realize how much I missed playing with accessories and scarves. It was something I really enjoyed before I got married. But I think I slowly let myself get shamed for what little overdressing I did do, and then I slowly started to do less and less until I almost forgot that getting dressed up was something I truly enjoyed.
But even me with my "fine" dressing skills (feel free to laugh) found the Symphony outing to be quite a challenge. I asked him what I should wear. He chose things that were suitable for an evening at the symphony. This production happened to be a short afternoon show. The production also happened to be in March. A lot of his choices may have worked fine had it landed in winter months, but since it was a spring month I felt I needed something with lovely spring colors. So now how do I find a dress that screams spring and is still formal enough for his standards for the symphony. By the way, this whole time he said he didn't care what I wore, and it was up to me. But I still wanted his input and wanted him to like what I chose to wear.
Well he offered to take me dress shopping. I tried on several dresses, him liking ones that I felt were better suited for evening, and me liking ones that he felt looked lovely but were not formal enough for the occasion. Well we finally found a little white number that we both agreed looked great, and was formal enough. But this dress was sleeveless. A tiny complication when you are an endowed LDS woman.
No problem. I have worked with stuff like this my whole life. I kind of consider it a talent of mine ;). So I'm in Wal-Mart and I start looking at the bolero's they have. I find one that I feel will work. I send him a picture. . .
. . .and he says he feels that it just isn't formal enough for the dress. I go through a phase of frustration and a mood of not wanting to try and find something else because getting out to the store with four boys is just no fun. And my guy continues to say that he doesn't care what I wear and I don't even have to wear the white dress.
So I try and rack my brain on things I may have that would work. I decide to just try teaming it up with a bolero I already have. And I send a picture to him. . .
He loves this one and feels it's perfect. But I like the pop of color the pink added. But this combo does look better than I had originally thought it would. So I try it on, along with the pink one. While wearing the white bolero I feel like I'm in some sort of "post wedding bride leaving for her honeymoon" dress. And I still like the pink one better. So I keep wining. I try on both for my guy hoping he will just say, "You're right the pink looks very nice, and it doesn't look as informal as I thought it would."
Yeah that didn't happen.
So I finally just stop being stubborn, and making things impossible and I go to Urban Wear and purchase another bolero. Urban Wear is a great place to find boleros in any color by the way. And I send him a picture. . .
. . .and finally we both agree.
And of course we enjoyed a lovely afternoon at the symphony. And I had fun researching some new ways to style my hair for the occasion.
My guy even thanked me for putting so much effort into getting ready for a date with him. He found it to be very flattering.
What did I tell you?
I totally have to bring my "A" game with this guy.
I think I have done fairly well at accepting the challenge. And I really have enjoyed being able to do so. It has really brought back a lot of memories of, "Wait. . .I used to love to do this kind of stuff. Why did I stop?"
Kyle was sweet and charming, and took me all over Salt Lake. We even stopped at my brother's grave.
I, of course, took way too many selfies. When you put effort into it, feel you look adorable and for some reason don't feel you have fully captured that, you can get a little obsessed. What can I say? I'm pretty vain.
