Page 126 of The Wedding Dress Repair Shop
‘I should think the wedding photos are interesting, to say the least,’ Thom said, grinning again.
‘They are – she sent one.’
I rummaged in the box and produced it. ‘Honey’s using it for part of the display. It’s a cracker!’
‘But a bridal misfortune with a happy ending, I hope?’
‘Eventually, because by the time she got to the hotel where the wedding reception was being held and could shower and change into clean, dry clothes, she’d caught a chill and a honeymoon spent in Iceland in search of the Northern Lights putthe finishing touches to it, so she was ill in bed for most of that. But she said they can laugh about it all now and are very happy.’
I put the photo back in the box. ‘She left the dress and everything just as they were when she took them off – and I’m not going to attempt to clean them up, just make a couple of small repairs to the underskirt and veil. Like some of the others, you can read the story through the damage to the dress.’
‘Are you carrying on now? I came to try to persuade you to come for a walk with Jester and me. Pearl and Simon have gone off on their own again somewhere and I thought by now you’d probably need some fresh air and exercise – and itisyour half-day, after all.’
‘You know, I think you’re right,’ I decided. ‘I’ve done enough for one day.’
*
In the pub that evening, Honey told me that we were meeting Cassy Chance and her team in Ormskirk at what she called ‘the ungodly hour’ of half past eight.
‘They’ve bribed a couple of the charity shops to let us in early, so they can film that sequence of the wedding dress search before anyone else is about. I think we pretend to look in two shops, before finding the wedding dress in the third, like we did in real life. So that will be the big find scene, and then Cassy spots your outfit on the vintage rack in the same shop, Garland.’
‘I’m not at all good at acting,’ I said, doubtfully.
‘You won’t have to do much,’ Honey said encouragingly, ‘and the next part is all about me, because we move on to a nearby dress agency, whereI’llfindmyoutfit, another vintageone. They’ve run some clothes past me and I think I know which one I’ll choose.’
‘It does all seem like cheating,’ Pearl commented. I’d noticed she was holding hands with Simon under the table, though I don’t think anyone else could see. ‘But the audience won’t know, I suppose.’
‘I don’t think it’s usually quite as contrived,’ said Honey. ‘They were just let down at the last minute by the potential bride they had lined up originally, so it’s a bit of a rush, and also, Cassy would like to get our episode out early in the series.’
‘Do you think the filming will take all day?’ I asked.
‘Notallof it. We’ll be back home by lunchtime and then, after that, they film the bit to go at the start of the programme, where Cassy arrives at the museum and we meet her for the first time. Then we go into your workroom and explain why we want a wedding dress and what we’d like to find, and also that it would be a bonus if we both discovered outfits to wear at the museum’s opening ceremony, too.’
‘It’s all back to front, but I suppose they just slice it up and then splice it back together again,’ said Baz vaguely.
‘I don’t actually think they use reels of film any more,’ said Thom.
‘OK, I’m a dinosaur,’ said Baz amiably.
‘I think that’s all the filming they’re doing, until they come back for the “reveal” scene, supposedly bringing the altered clothes with them,’ said Honey. ‘Only, of course, you will have made any changes or additions to the dress and your own suit, so that won’t exactly be a surprise. I think they’re going to take my outfit away after we find it in Ormskirk, though, and do something with it, so a bit of that reveal will be genuine.’
‘So, the filming tomorrow might be finished by mid-afternoon?’ I said, seizing what was, to me, the important bit of what Honey had said.
‘I expect so.’
‘Good, because once they’ve gone, I can get on with blinging up the wedding dress a bit and sorting out my accessories. I’m not touching my suit. Cassy wanted me to wear some kind of hairband, although that’s going to be more of a token gesture.’
‘I’ll make that for you,’ offered Simon. ‘I know what you want: something unobtrusive and not too much like a fascinator. I’ve got some bits of silk ribbon in two shades of old gold that should match the suit and I’ll cover a narrow band with alternating stripes of those and then add a fewtinyflowers and maybe a little beading up one side. You’ll hardly know it’s there, and I don’t mind if this Cassy person pretends she made it, either.’
‘Thanks, Simon, that would be wonderful,’ I said gratefully.
‘I suspect letting someone else do the work and taking all the credit will suit Cassy perfectly,’ said Honey drily.
*
We met the TV crew in the Ormskirk car park early next morning, then retraced our footsteps around the three charity shops we’d previously visited, only on this occasion the streets and the shops were deserted, except for the staff.
We made our ‘finds’ in the third, though this time Cassy pounced on a pair of white satin shoes with small heels, magically in my size, and told me, on camera, that they could be dyed to match my suit.
