Love at the Little Wedding Shop by the Sea - Jane Linfoot Page 0,115
little shiver. ‘I’ve been dreading all the attention a bride gets, but this would be different somehow. It’s more of an opportunity.’ Her nose wrinkles as she considers. ‘If it would help other woman like me see the possibilities and feel better about themselves I’d be doing it for them, not for me.’
Jess only ever purrs like this when she’s winning. ‘You’d make a wonderful ambassador, Pixie.’
Pixie sighs. ‘I wanted to try on my blue dress anyway to check that the shoes go. I’m up for trying on a few more, if you are.’ As she looks around the room, we’re all holding our breath. ‘So what are we waiting for? Let’s go for it!’
We don’t want to scare her off, so we start with a simple oyster satin shift that slips over her head and could easily be a bridesmaid’s dress.
Verdict: lovely feel, it looks fab, and the skirt stays well away from the wheels. But the impeccable satin’s not very forgiving for spills or small children climbing on her knee.
Then we move on to a variation in cream and add a champagne lace overdress, caught with a slim ribbon belt, which is very pretty and gets the thumbs up because it’s both gorgeous and less prone to showing marks. By this time we’re all getting into this. Not only is Holly jumping around taking pictures, I’m also filming Pixie’s reactions and comments on my phone.
Next we decide to try a much bigger dress, by a different designer, for the bride who wants to hide the chair under her skirt. When Pixie catches a glimpse herself in this in the mirror she lets out a scream.
‘Totally not for me.’ Then she gets more objective. ‘But for anyone looking for a Cinderella vibe who wants to make a statement and cover up the chair, this would be a dream.’
I can’t help smiling at her.
She pulls at the boned bodice. ‘On the down side, it’s less comfy, and you’d never find your pants with so many petticoats.’ She sniffs. ‘And if I did a wheel spin, I reckon there would be some serious lace carnage. Moving on …’
For Meghan fans, she attempts a fitted raw-silk dress with a Bardot neck, but even undone it’s too much like a straightjacket. So then we try one of Sera’s which is a silk and lace all-in-one flowing dress, but that loses a lot of the ‘wow factor’ because Pixie’s sitting down. And after that we move on to Sera’s mix-and-match separates, putting tulle skirts with different silk underdresses and tops and adding tiny jackets, which all work much better. Then Immie wheels the chair back towards the fitting room curtains to help Pixie out of a floaty tulle overskirt covered with tiny silver stars.
As Pixie reaches to unwind the pearl wires we slipped into her hair along the way her smile is rueful. ‘Thank you for showing me that wedding dresses don’t all have to be like meringues or nylon body scrubbers.’ She gives a wistful sigh. ‘If only I’d known these were here earlier.’
As I follow her behind the curtain, I’m not going to push it. ‘Your dress sounds lovely too; we can try that next.’
She leans forward so Poppy can undo the back of her skirt. ‘With an injury like mine, intensive physio can make a huge difference and I’m still in my golden time. That’s why Nic sorted out the wedding down here. But it does mean I was less in touch than I should have been.’
‘Apart from missing out on the dress, the rest worked fine – fingers crossed you like everything.’ As Immie and I lift Pixie forwards Poppy eases the skirt downwards.
Pixie sighs. ‘Nic took the accident so badly. Even now, all he thinks about is that I can’t walk.’
It only seems right to share. ‘He mentioned that he blames himself.’
Pixie nods. ‘I know. He thinks my life is wrecked, but I just don’t see it like that – I actually feel truly lucky because I still have some feeling in my legs, and everything above that is in tip-top working order. It’s different for me though – without the accident Ewan and I would never have got together. I have the downside of legs that won’t ever run again, but they also let me meet the love of my life. Ewan’s made me the happiest I’ve ever been, I feel like the luckiest woman in the world to have that.’