MOG: Michelle Roberts
Mother of: Damon
Venue: Hotel LBI, Long Beach Island, New Jersey
Vibe: Jersey Shore formal
Dress: Xscape Evenings from Nordstrom
Michelle Roberts had a vision for what she wanted to wear to her son, Damon's Jersey Shore wedding: floor length, short sleeve, round neck in green or light blue. “Very covered,” she says.
Having been through the headaches of ordering and returning on repeat for her daughter’s 2023 wedding, Michelle started the search early. Living in rural France, she traveled to London to try on dresses at department stores. Nothing resonated. She ordered several online, with similarly dismal results. In one case, her husband said it looked like she was wearing a carpet bag.
Then there was the dress she ordered three times — each time, the website accepted her purchase only to then email telling her it was out of stock. “After three times, I decided the universe was telling me this dress was not meant to be!” Michelle says.
Several brands wouldn’t ship to France, so Michelle had dresses delivered to mother of the bride Diane’s home in New Jersey. She visited the U.S. in March — just two months before Maevis and Damon's wedding — only to find that all of the dresses waiting for her were duds.
“I knew I needed to go shopping on my own,” Michelle says. She headed to Nordstrom at Cherry Hill Mall.
Desperation creates opportunity. Michelle broke from the style she thought she wanted to try on an off the shoulder navy dress by Xscape Evenings with a cascade of ruffles down the side.
“I thought, the styles that I thought I wanted are not working for me - so why not try something totally different? And it worked,” Michelle says. Other shoppers got swept up in the breakthrough moment, helping Michelle zip up and cheering her on while the sales associate took photos.
Michelle’s message to other moms: “Don’t be rigid in what you think will suit you. You might just be surprised and amazed that a style that you thought you didn’t want looks great on you!”
The Xscape dress is made of a scuba material, which gives it a flattering stretch. But just for extra measure, Michelle added Fabletics Nearly Naked Shorts and wore the Wonderbra Ultimate Strapless Bra. “Both of these undergarments made a huge difference,” she says.
Wardrobe crisis averted just weeks before the wedding, Michelle and her husband boarded a flight from Newark to Paris. Her perfect mother of the groom dress was wrapped in tissue paper and tucked neatly into her suitcase. But when they got to the luggage carousel upon landing, the suitcase was missing. A woman had taken it, and left one that looked almost identical to Michelle’s.
“Not the dress!” her husband declared.
“He didn’t care about anything else,” Michelle says with a laugh, “he just said he couldn’t go through all of that again.”
After a bit of frantic detective work, the airline tracked down the passenger and she returned to the airport with Michelle’s suitcase.
“No No apologies were forthcoming from her,” Michelle jokes, “only an accusation that my suitcase looked like hers!!! So very French!!!
| Photography by Ann Coen