That Sinking Feeling

I have to wholly admit, I have never been a Royalist. It’s not that I have anything against the Royal Family, I’m just indifferent. The feeling I have towards chocolate is the feeling I have towards the Royals – I can take them or leave them.

When it was announced that Prince William and Kate Middleton were engaged, being the huge fan of the Royals that my mum is she was most excited. ‘Good for them,’ was my reaction. That’s about as excited as I could get. Purely because I don’t know the couple, nor will I ever. If it was one of my friends who had announced their engagement to the world I would be over the moon for them!

Now, I CAN say that I was kind of looking forward to seeing what the bride and groom were going to be wearing on their big day. After all, whenever you happen to pass a church when a wedding is taking  place the first thing most girls do is keep a look out for a glimpse of the blushing bride to see how beautiful she looks on her big day. It was the same for Kate Middleton today.

So, as I was on a night shift last night I had a good excuse not to get up early and watch all of the media hype surrounding the couple and their wedding so off to bed I went. Let’s move forward a few hours after a nice, refreshing sleep. The first thing I did was pick up my ipod and have a quick look on the BBC News website to see what the brides dress was like. After all, there has been months of speculation as to the designer, the style…

There she was – the picture of Kate and her new husband William on the balcony. In a dress that almost resembles my own. My heart literally sank into my boots. OH NO! The first thing I did was ring my mum who is on holiday in Spain with my dad and I knew they were at a friend’s house celebrating the day big style. “Mum, I HAVE to change my dress,” I  blurted out with feelings of resentment for the new princess!

“I was waiting for you to wake up and ring me. No you can’t Laura, your dress is stunning and you are going to look gorgeous. You can’t change it. And why would you when you love it so much, why would you change it to something you don’t want and not enjoy wearing it. It’s your wedding day, you need to be happy,” she replied. “And you’ll never guess what, when your dad saw Kate he said to me that he doesn’t want to know exactly what your dress is like but asked if it is anything like hers. I kinda nodded without telling him anything and he started crying with happines.” Well at this point I was crying, mum was crying. “You mean MY Laura has chosen a dress like that, she is going to look like a princess.!” My parents have been together over 40 years, my dad was a captain in the Merchant Navy – a real man’s man, and mum nor I have EVER seen him cry. “You can’t let your dad down now,” mum said “he is so happy that you, his daughter has designed a dress that is the same style as the princess’, before her and William were even engaged. You have to keep your dress as it is.”

I just don’t know what to do now, I realise I may sound pathetic. To the outsider looking in it seems like such a trivial thing but to me it’s huge. Our wedding is 6 months away and I’m sure the feeling will settle down as we get closer but right now I just feel that people are going to think my dress is a cheap copy and this is really something that I don’t want to hear on my wedding day. I also don’t want to sound like a spoilt brat by making it common knowledge to people that I chose it first! How awful does that sound? I wanted to look different, classy and demour just as Middleton did today. Now I’m going to look like the many fashion conscious girls having their dress made like this as it’s “on trend” rather than something they love. Brides are going to be asking for “The Kate Dress” sparking a huge frenzy of Middleton inspired dresses and this saddens me. Massively. My sister in law told me that one store has promised to have a Kate style dress ready to buy off the peg by the end of next week. My feeling of designing and wearing something totally unique has well and truely gone down the pan.

Now the question is – shall I change my dress or keep it as it is? Answers on a postcard please!