of gowns and cake

And another one bites the dust.

At our meeting last night, one of my sorority sisters announced she's got engaged on New Year's night.

How fun is that? A little background, most of the women in my cluster group are well beyond the blushing-bride stage. Our youngest member is 30, I think the oldest is somewhere early/mid-50s. E, the newly engaged one, either will be or just turned 50 (I can never remember). This will be her second marriage, the first having ended long long ago, and she also has a 22-year old son. She and the Fiancee have been together for longer than I've known her, and that's about 7 years now.

After she made the announcement - after the squealing and passing of the ring with hand attached had ended - we got down to serious business: Planning The Wedding.

Isn't it funny what that little sparkle of a ring does to women of all ages? We giggled, talked about colors, discussed location options, the benefits of a fall wedding - and all 8 of us demanded to be bridesmaids.

Did I mention we're mostly all 40s and 50s women? Most of us with at least one marriage behind us?

But hearing, "I'm getting married!!" turned us all into excited teenagers, lost in tulle and white roses.

It was exciting.