Wow. Oh. My. God. I tried on my wedding dress this morning. It is so stunning. The picture just simply does not do it justice. I wish all of you could be here to see it! It took literally only two minor alterations (we decided to put straps on it (won't be seen under the jacket anyway) because it was heavy enough and just big enough around the bust that ... well, let's just say it had the potential of revealing more than I might want to). It didn't need hemming or anything. And, the shoes I have to go with it (gold lame sandals, with 1 1/4" heel) matched perfectly, as if they were made to go with that dress. I wanted to just stand there and stare in the mirror. Wow.
On another note, I reported earlier that the Girl's brother is coming to the wedding; he's also bringing her 21 year old nephew. We've decided to have 6 people to a table at the reception, so it will be the Girl, me, my two daughters (19 and 21) and her brother and his son. I thought about that for a couple of minutes and asked the girl: "So, are we going to prepare them, or are we going to just let them choke on their salad the first time one of my girls says 'Hey, Dad!'"? She was actually startled by the question. Startled because, like most people that know me (and me as well), she "forgot" that I was transgendered (despite the focus of this blog, my transsexuality is not constantly in the forefront of my mind).
But, it does create an interesting situation. As I noted earlier, her brother (as well as his son) are born-again Christians. The Girl recounted to me how her brother at one time preached to her (I think long before he had any suspicions about her being lesbian) about the evils of homosexuality. The fact that he accepts that she is marrying another woman and is willing to attend and participate in the wedding is huge (we're renting him a tux (we thought about letting him borrow my old tux, but it's too big for him) and he's going to escort the Girl down the aisle - how cool is that?!). He's come so far that he probably won't have a big problem with my beings trans.
Still, it always bothers me that who I am has the potential for creating problems for people that I love. It was one of the things that I worried about even in the beginning and I still worry about it. I even thought that I could coach my daughters to just call me Denise, or D. We could talk about their "birth-mother" as being someone other than me so that they wouldn't have to deal with someone calling me their mom (which people will do, regardless). But, that seems dishonest to me; worse, it then shifts the burden to my children, which I am loath to do. I will not ask them to do this. As Melody once told me: "Your name to me is Daddy. It doesn't matter to me that you're a woman, that's your name."
So, the ball is, as they say, in the Girl's court. I have every confidence she can keep it in play (you don't hear many sports analogies from me; I deserve some accolades here -- that was a good one, I think!).
Wow, but that dress is gorgeous!