Perfect Frock

Many brides just haven't a clue what suits them when it comes to wedding dresses. So sometimes you get huge meringues worn by those who dream of Fairytale Weddings, like the one poor Princess Diana wore, which was clearly designed to find out just howmany frills could be fitted around just one woman. It had a train about a mile long. And lo, when she stepped out of the car, the nation saw the Fairytale Frock and exclaimed in chorus,

"OH MY GOD! LOOK AT THE CREASES!"

Sadly I wasn't able to blog about it at the time for various reasons, such as there not being an internet, and also because at the time I was at Blarney Castle in Ireland, kissing the Blarney Stone (you guessed).

There's always something a bit dodgy about the Fairytale Frills Frock if you ask me. It suggests that there's a bit of clutching-at-daydreams going on because the reality has at least one big flaw in it - - which in Princess Di's case went by the name of Camilla Parker-Bowles.

Other brides decide that it's a novel and exciting idea to get the traditional dress and try to make it sexy with the addition of a plunging neckline, mini-skirt, satin shorts, revealing holes - - and it's never, ever a good idea. When she looks back at the photos - if she ever does - she will find she has to hide behind the sofa and peep at them from between her fingers and even then she''ll find herself sobbing at the horror of it all as well as at the fact that the bloke in question has gone off with her best friend Julie.

On Saturday I was at the wedding of Gareth's delightful sister Jo and her excellent fiance Ian.

Now I've known Jo since Olli met her when they were both fourteen, six years ago, and hence I knew that she'd manage to choose a perfect wedding dress. It does help that she's extraordinarily pretty with superb cheekbones, perfect skin and an hourglass figure. (Jo will hate me for saying all this but she's in the Maldives now and there's not a thing she can do about it, so there!)

So here it is: classy, elegant and it suited her perfectly. To her right is her now-husband Ian (looking rather good himself, as a matter of fact) and to her left are Gareth and then Olli, with Gareth and Jo's parents Les and Val on the outsides of the group.

I knew that Jo had made the right choice of frock when I saw Ian's expression when he saw her as she walked down the aisle: and the same expression also told me that Jo has made the right choice of husband.