Ryan and the Bridal Store

If you missed yesterday's podcast, then you missed the stories of Ryan's inaugural visit to the bridal salon. (Yes, you read that correctly.)

Here's how it happened: Ryan's sister got engaged a few days ago and invited me to go with her on dress shopping day. When I told Ryan about it, he sort of figured he was included in the invitation, because in general, that's how Shafferland invitations go. We are a package deal. You invite one of us, you've invited both of us. We don't like to be apart. I told him I wasn't sure he was invited, because typically this is sort of a girl thing. He was okay with that, but in a long, convoluted story that you don't have time for, his mom and sister found out he was interested and he ended up going.

His mom was glad he went because she doesn't really enjoy driving, and he could be our chauffeur! I was glad he went because Sunday is our family day, and we had been apart all day Saturday. I didn't want to be apart for a second day in a row!

SO! That's how it came to be that this carload of friends and family joined the caravan to travel south to Indianapolis on Sunday afternoon for wedding dress shopping!

We went to David's Bridal, and Ryan jumped right in to assist with the dress hunt.

There were about 14 of us in this entourage, and the nice lady ushered us to the back to our "area" to wait, and that was when our niece asked if she could borrow my camera. Normally I don't let her take my good camera on her own, but I hadn't brought my old camera (the one she usually plays with) and frankly, I was tired and not up to arguing with a six-year-old. So I gave it to her, on the condition that she would wear the strap around her neck, and without further ado, I would like to present to you "dress shopping through the eyes of a child." Much more entertaining than any photojournalism I could have done on my own. I'll pop in now and then with commentary, but for the most part, the pictures speak for themselves.

(This was the lesson of learning how the camera works. Fun when there are so many mirrors, you can be in a bunch of the pictures you take! And also. Why does Ryan look so confused?)

At this point, the waiting was getting to Ryan, so he set off to explore the far reaches of the bridal salon. His camera-woman followed.

The photographer capturing the photographer.

It was right about here that Ryan's mom (pictured above as the main photographer) said to me, "I hope you're getting some pictures, too." I said, (as captured below), "Actually, no I'm not because my camera has been camera-napped."

And Ryan is either reading the Colts blog or taking a picture of my backside. It really could go either way.

So that was how I got my camera back, and sadly, I can't show you most of the pictures, because they involve THE DRESS, which she said yes to in very short order! But here are a couple.

 (That's my sister-in-law, Megan. We don't have very many pictures of just the two of us. The last one was taken at Christmas and was not our best representation. It is funny, though. Look!)

And the grand finale photos. We wanted a group picture, so Ryan took it for us. This first one was before any of us were ready. Clearly. But it cracks me up. The outtakes of group pictures are almost always better than the intended-outcome photos.

I especially love the diggin-for-gold in the front row.

Take 36!

Ahhhh memories! This was my entourage in October, 2012!