Newlywed nearly 6 months now, I nonetheless clearly have wet feet, and not the kind I can blame on the Cumbrian weather. I sincerely hope to find out I’m not the only one in history who has done a really bird-brained thing causing her dear husband much angst.
It’s the stuff nightmares are made of. You know the kind … where you turn up somewhere public only to realize you are in your housecoat or something similar.
During the course of our relationship, A and I have had the pleasure of attending together a few formal or semi-formal charity events, dinners, balls, etc. A has been involved in these for years due to his political participation and elected office. (I, on the other hand, had attended exactly two Mayor’s Charity balls, a Mayor’s inaugural ball, and a Burn’s Supper). Naturally I presumed that four such events an expert makes, so I thought I knew the drill.
Some weeks ago, A and I received an invitation to a dinner and auction held at a castle to benefit the charity of the High Sheriff of Cumbria. I knew from a prior visit that this was a lovely setting, and a highly esteemed but down to earth family who has lived in the castle and community for many generations, who do a lot of good for the area and people. Needless to say we were looking forward to the evening.
As per instructions, I placed our meal selection orders in advance of the event, and received a letter with confirmation cards in return. In an effort to be ultra-efficient, I placed the cards into my evening bag so that we wouldn’t forget to bring them, and promptly forgot about them until the evening arrived. I had intended to mention the letter and cards to A on the day they arrived in the post, but due to one distraction or another I failed to do so. Ordinarily, that wouldn’t have been an issue, as to my cursory examination, the letter and cards merely appeared to be confirmation and meal selection cards which would be needed on the evening, so in that respect I was correct to set them aside where I wouldn’t forget them. My error was in failing to turn the cards over to reveal two words in small print that would unfortunately lead to much consternation. My further error, then, was forgetting to mention them to A so he never had a chance to see these two little words either.
Black tie.
A and I thus dressed as we always do for charity dinners, and A donned a suit and tie. We were happily en route and nearly to the event (which was some distance from home) when I pulled the cards out of my evening bag to show to A and to my horror noticed the reverse side and the dress code. Understandably, this led to a bit of drama and A’s mortification. I apologized ten different ways and tried to reassure poor A that surely others will have overlooked this and will turn up in suits and ties. I wasn’t exactly wearing a ball gown either, though I was dressed nicely and would blend in far more easily. Unfortunately A really was the only one who turned up in a mere suit and tie. Through no fault of his own, he felt rather self-conscious (understatement) and probably wasn’t too happy with me. It didn’t help that one of his colleagues upon greeting us had quite a good laugh at him.
In the end, these things don’t matter as much as we think they do in the moment, and a great time was had by all. I imagine that for A the first twenty minutes felt like he had turned up in The Emperor’s New Clothes, and I felt oh so bad for causing it. It was my mistake, so it should have been me who suffered for it. As I had hoped, ultimately no one really minded and it was a very nice evening. I even won a lake cruise in the raffle, which I hope will go some distance toward making amends.
I hope someday A will be able to have a laugh about this. He says he will forgive me in 2015, but I did ask him if he could make it sooner and he said he’d try.
We did have a lovely nighttime stroll afterwards as our coach was turning back into a pumpkin…
