My boyfriend works for a charity organisation, and as part of their fundraising they were hosting a ball. The theme was to be “Brides and Grooms”. His workmates and he discussed various costume ideas for the weeks leading up to the event.

About a week ago, we were brainstorming and came up with the brilliant idea to dress as a Bride and Groom, but in reverse. My partner is a big guy, and so I custom made him a beautiful wedding gown by sewing parts of an op-shop bargain dress together. I decided to wear one of his formal suits.

Fast forward to tonight, we were pumped for this event. We took the elevator up to the conference floor of the hotel, and the elevator doors opened.

Immediately we turned heads. So, apparently a Bride and Groom ball is NOT a costume party. There were tuxedos, bow ties and wedding dresses that were definitely not from Vinnie’s (a second hand/thrift store). We were mortified. We looked at each other and grabbed a glass of wine each from the nearest waiter. We had seriously misread the situation, but it was too late to back out. We had to commit.

We spent the next three hours politely posing for people’s photos, laughing about our fuck up and generally trying to play it cool. In the end we won the best dressed competition, with the MC announcing “We all know who they are. Both of them have beards, though one is crocheted!”

TL;DR my boyfriend and I went to a ball as a gender reversed Bride and Groom. It turned out that the ball was a formal event.