Fortunately for me and (per Newton’s Third Law) equally and oppositely as unfortunate for Denise, our three daughters share the same shopping gene as their father. So when Denise and I traveled to Seattle to see Jenna and “shop for wedding dresses” I naturally assumed that this meant that I would be spending some quality time with Matt. I surmised that we would seek out a few of Seattle’s lesser publicized but wonderfully delectable coffee shops, take in some winery tours and tastings and then carouse around a few of Seattle’s scenic dog parks with Kasey and Maddox.
We’d have a wonderful time and simultaneously Denise and Jenna would pick out a wedding dress and all would be right in the universe. But this imagined fate was not to be mine.Rising early I enjoyed Matt’s home brew of coffee. I also enjoyed the assistance of Maddox as he "cleaned" my keyboard during my attempts to reply to a few pressing e-mails from the office. Then as Matt departed for work I was left wondering how in God’s name Jenna and I would survive an entire day of shopping for dresses with Denise.
Our journey began as it should in Seattle - in search of coffee. Following Matt’s suggestion we targeted Bauhaus Books & Coffee. 
This strategic move satisfied two pressing concerns. It served to quell my incessant whining and offered us an opportunity to plan our attack on the many shops and boutiques that would, in my estimation, serve as the girls' bliss and the boy's misery for the next twelve hours. And this was a great spot. Above the espresso bar looms a large period photograph of Walter Gropius, the German Modernist Architect
who founded the Bauhaus School in 1919. True to its namesake we found Bauhaus Books & Coffee to adequately combine form and function to achieve quality espresso within a cozy urban atmosphere. I could have stayed here all day.
Our next stop was I Do Bridal. This was a smallish little boutique and by the street view looks of the place my natural instinct was to keep driving. But Jenna had a one-hour appointment for selection and try-on and we would indeed begin our quest for the perfect bridal look here.
Immediately upon entering the shop we were greeted by our “personal attendant”. I trust that there is an actual title for a person in this position but the technical term escaped me…as did her name. So for lack of an actual name and for convenience sake let’s just call her “Pam”. “Pam” because by way of description, the closest universally recognizable character to resemble our “personal attendant” is Pam Beesly, the bashful receptionist on NBC’s “The Office”.
Armed with a proper appointment Pam quickly shuffled us off into the “hanging and trying room”…again my terms. There must have been five hundred wedding dresses hanging there on rack after rack after rack. Were they all real? Or were there mirrors that somehow reflected various different repetative views of the same few dresses? 
The entire store reminded me of standing at the closed in center one of those triple hinged dressing room mirrors where as a kid, forced to waste time while his Mother shopped, I would pivot them about their hinges so that the three mirrors formed a triangular universe around me. And standing amidst the triangulated reflections I could see a multitude of me within my imagined infinity. This little room in this little shop had such a quantity of seemingly identical white wedding dresses that the enormity of our quest was beginning to weigh uneasily upon my gut.
And it is precisely here where this tale turns surreal so listen up dads.
Perhaps noticing the color leaving my face, Pam politely informed me that I could sit and wait in the chair by the mirrors. Tempting as it was I held my position at the center of the room of dresses. Then without any proper organization or coordinated strategy the three of them (Denise, Jenna and Pam) disseminated upon the racks and began slicing through the seemingly endless supply of dresses. They would disperse and converge again, moving in and out and up and down in perfect unified harmony like flocking birds. As they would return to the center of the room and reject or admire their most recent finds I began to notice subtle differences. Eventually I realized that there were vast differences in cut, fit, fullness, color, material, design, beading, etc. Soon my uneasiness passed and I actually began to enjoy my newfound role as fashion advisor to my appreciative daughter, amused wife and unassuming Pam.
After amassing a suitable collection of “could-be” bridal gowns, 
Pam whisked Jenna away to a dressing room and began the task of slipping on and synching up the first dress. I assumed my position in the previously offered "man chair" by the mirrors.
And then it happened. My little girl emerged from the dressing room in all her bridal glory. I’ll never forget the first glimpse of my Jenna in a wedding dress - my God! She was at once both my giggly little girl and a beautiful grown woman. I was swallowed whole by the significance of this moment. How could I have not seen this coming? To think that left to my own devices I would have missed this monumental occasion. Suddenly I loved this day even more as well as this little shop and my wife and daughter and her engagement and everything!
Dress one was gorgeous. Then back to the dressing room with Pam. Dress two was equally gorgeous but much different. Then back to the dressing room with Pam. I remember thinking that this would be a long painful day filled with impossible decisions.
Then catching a glimpse of Jenna as Pam finished clipping and binding and adjusting dress three. “Whoa!” I gasped to Denise, “That’s the dress.” And as she floated past Denise and I, approached the mirrors, and then turned and looked at us there was indeed a glow about her. We both secretly knew that this was special and that this dress had just raised the bar considerably. And as she backed away and caught her first glimpse of our daughter in dress three, Pam was inexplicably brushing back tears…as were we. This was truly one of those heartwarming moments in your life that can never be forgotten. It was priceless. As Jenna and Pam returned to the dressing room, I grabbed my phone and pounded out a quick text message to Matt. “Unofficially we’re done…don’t tell anyone. First shop, third dress.”
Then, after many other wonderful (but less likely) dresses we were off to Cynerellies Closet for another hour or so. Then to Amanda’s Bridal Boutique and La Belle Reve and on and on.
Upon the conclusion of our day, we returned to join Matt for dinner. Jenna told him that she had a great day and that she was almost certain that she had decided upon a dress…first shop, third dress. YES!
[Unless you are Matt you can click here for a picture of The Dress.]
Realizing that I had survived an entire day of dress shopping, I made a mental note of another exception to my internal shopping clock. Time stands still while shopping at home improvement stores, electronics stores and daughter’s wedding dress shops. The next day, while Matt and I were tasting wines, Denise dutifully selected and purchased a couple of clothing items for me and thus preserved a few precious minutes of my annual shopping time for later.
