Look online for a photo of Grace Kelly on the day she had her first meeting with Prince Rainier. She was wearing a dress with multi-colored cabbage roses on it (made from a McCall’s pattern, by the way). She looks really bad. Prints are never a good idea.

 —a pearl of e-wisdom from my mother today, on bridesmaids dresses. What’s better: the barely perceptible shudder at the thought of a McCall’s Easy Sew pattern, or the laying bare of actual flaws in Grace Kelly’s trousseau?