Get a load of these ugly bridesmaid dresses, would ya? They’re downright amazing, right? Wow! The light blue and avocado green color combination vaguely reminds me of the algae growing in my auntie’s pool. I remember it, terrifying as it was, from my days as a little kid living in Hacienda Heights, a very 1970s suburb of Los Angeles.
Crazy what sticks with you, huh?
Back in those days, all the girls, including my older sisters, wore corduroy bell bottoms (I love cords to this day), crushed velvet mini skirts and baby doll dresses, sometimes with keyhole necklines. The Like the girls, Southern California boys were suntanned and had long, sun-streaked hair. I was four and then five and then six and then seven, and I walked myself to school every day. No need to worry, though. We Baby Busters (it would be many years before they decided to call us Gen-Xers) stuck together and avoided the slow-rolling, kid-trolling vans. Ugh. They were so creepy. Even in those days before milk carton warnings, I was convinced anyone driving a van was going to snatch me, torture me and dump me in the woods.
Anyway, I went to a few weddings as a kids (rainbow weddings, so kitschy-divine!) and often fantasized about being a flower girl. Unfortunately, by the time my Boomer sisters, Faith and Rebecca, married in 1980 and 1978, respectively, I was too old to throw petals down the aisle. Instead I was relegated to more lofty positions of candle-lighter and junior bridesmaid. All things considered, they weren’t bad gigs. 😉
How Come All The Men Are Dressed Like the Groom?
So, about the above photo. Can you imagine what that poor bride had to go through to coordinate that wedding party’s attire? I hope the marriage lasted! Take for example the lavender satin ribbon at the waist of the bridesmaids’ dresses and those funky lavender veil-like headpieces. They match the Gen-X flower girl’s lavender dress. In addition, the gold flowers in the bridesmaids’ dresses complement the mustard-colored groomsmen’s shirts. When I showed the picture to my daughter Bridgy she asked, “How come all the men are dressed like the groom, but the girls aren’t dressed like the bride?”
All my boomer cousins had bridal outfits that had one thing in common: instead of the veil, there was the large, slightly floppy, white broad-brimmed hat. Like what a Southern belle would wear on the veranda. Never seen it before or since, but for a short period of time in the second half of the 1970s into the very early 80s, that was ALL you saw!
LOL! That’s what I wore for my first wedding in 1975. I wasn’t following the fashion, I had no idea that other women my age were also doing it. The whole veil thing, and the symbolism of the fresh virgin ready to be unwrapped, seemed a little creepy to me, and definitely not appropriate in my case. And my father didn’t “give me away,” either. It’s always blown my mind that women of subsequent generations are still being “given away.”
I understand what you’re saying. It’s hard to be given away when you raise yourself.