"Thank you very much, Miss McGill" said Dana, the wedding coordinator, as Stacey handed her a check. "Is there anything else I can help you with or show you?" Stacey thought for a minute before saying "No, I don't think so" and then turned to Claudia, who had joined her that afternoon for a tour of the ranch and wedding venue and asked "how about you?"

"I think we're good here" answered Claudia.

"Alright, then. So we'll have one more meeting with you and David a week before the wedding to go over all the final details and then your wedding rehearsal will be the day before at 3:30" said Dana.

"Perfect" said Stacey. Dana extended her hand to shake Stacey's and said "it's been a pleasure working with you, Stacey. The wedding is going to be GORGEOUS, trust me." She then smiled before turning to Claudia and saying "it was very nice to meet you as well, Claudia. Stacey is very lucky to have such an involved maid of honor."

"Aww, thanks" said Claudia.

"Ok. Bye ladies" she said. "See you soon."

"Bye" said Stacey as her and walked back to Claudia's car. After they were sitting down and buckled in, Claudia started the car and asked "Where to now?"

"I don't know. I'm kind of tired" replied Stacey.

"Well, you can't put off shopping for your dress forever, Stace, and we're already in Malibu. Why don't we check out some of the cute shops at the Malibu Country Mart and see if we can find anything?" asked Claudia. While it certainly wasn't as much fun for Stacey now that she was very pregnant and couldn't dress as cute as she used to, she was never one to pass up shopping and said to Claudia, "oh alright."

It didn't take them too long to get there and they enjoyed casually walking around, chatting about the baby and the wedding details and what not. They had been window shopping for about 20 minutes before a store with adorable beach attire in the window finally caught Claudia's eye. "Calypso St. Barth's" she said out loud. "This place looks cool. Come on Stace" as she pulled on her wrist to go inside the shop.

"For a wedding dress?" asked Stacey.

"Um, no." said Claudia. "For me."

Stacey laughed and said "Fine." If she couldn't find anything in that store, she could at least have fun watching Claudia try on clothes. After about 5 minutes of browsing the racks, pulling several pieces of clothing for a closer look before putting it back, Claudia said, "You know, this place is a bit too casual and..pastely for me. I think I'm done here." While Stacey also thought the place didn't suit Claudia, it was definitely HER type of store and said "I agree..but can we stay and browse a bit? I know I can't fit into any of this stuff right now but I actually like this place."

"Of course!" said Claudia. "Stay as long as you want. I'll go check out the jewelry at the counter. Some of that stuff looks cute" and she walked away.

As Stacey meandered around the store for a bit, staring at the beautiful clothes, hoping she would be able to fit into stuff like that again. Suddenly Claudia came up behind her holding up something on a hanger and saying "Stacey! I found something for you!" Stacey turned around and saw that Claudia was holding what looked like a caftan which was an off white tan color and had gold and shiny polka dots all over. The material was beautiful but Stacey had no idea when or WHY she would ever wear that and said to Claudia "A mumu? Really? I know I'm huge but could you be a little nicer?"

"Oh, quit it" said Claudia. You aren't huge and THIS is a caftan" as she held it up higher.

Stacey replied "I know it's a caftan, Claud..but is there much of a difference?"

"Maaaybe" she said, adding, "can you please do me a favor and try it on? I saw it and..it just seems like your dress."

"You mean, you think I should wear this thing to my wedding?!" exclaimed Stacey.

"Please, hear me out and try it on would you?" asked Claudia.

Feeling annoyed, not so much at Claudia but more at her current predicament and sighed, saying "fine, but only because you're my bestie and you asked me to."

"Good. Get in there" said Claudia as she gestured toward the fitting rooms.

Stacey walked over to them, followed by Claudia holding the garment. Once there, Stacey turned around and took the dress from Claudia saying "I'll be right out" and shut the door behind her. Still feeling frustrated about needing a dress soon and feeling very insecure lately, Stacey reluctantly got undressed and put the the caftan over her head and pulled it down to cover her body. She looked in the mirror and while she still thought the material and the design, which as she looked closer, looked more like brush stroked comma shapes rather than polka dots was quite beautiful, she looked shapeless and huge with the material draped over her..and she hated it. Still, she opened the door to Claudia who was still standing there and said "are you happy? I look ridiculous."

Claudia brought both hands to her lips in a praying position and said excitedly, "No you don't. It's perfect!"

Stacey gave Claudia a puzzled look and asked, "um, Claudia..who in their right mind would wear a tent as a wedding dress?"

Claudia took Stacey by the shoulders and gently turned her back around to face the mirror, saying "Shhh. Now look, we pull these sleeves up a bit" as she pulled them up Stacey's arms to just past her elbow and said "and we can add a little ruffle to the edges" she added. "Theeeen..we pull this up and tighten it" and then reached around Stacey's waist to put a slight fold in the material, creating a line and pulling over the top of Stacey's stomach, creating an empire waist line. "Now you can show off your tummy and it looks BEAUTIFUL." In an instant, Claudia had turned a mumu into a perfect, flowy maternity wedding dress. The wedding dress that Stacey was so desperate to find and she was left speechless for a second before then saying to her friend, "Claudia! You're a genius!"

"Um, no, definitely not a genius" laughed Claudia, adding "but I AM an artist."

"Yes you are" proclaimed Stacey, adding "but how are you going to do it? You dont sew."

"No, but Melissa does" Claudia said, referring to her boss' wife who designs clothes.

"Who?" asked Stacey?

"My boss' wife, Stacey. She made my reunion dress, remember?" answered Claudia.

Stacey's mind flashed back to a few months when her and all her friends went to their high school reunion in Connecticut and to Claudia's amazing custom dress.

"Oh yeah" said Stacey, then realizing that she was going to get an awesome dress too, asked "she'll do that for ME?"

"If I ask her, sure" said Claudia. "Like I said, she pulled my dress together in two days. So it's settled? You actually found your dress?"

Stacey grinned and said "I think I did. Thank you so much."

As Stacey took off her future wedding dress and pulled back on her dark blue maternity jeans and white button up maternity blouse, she placed the dress back on the hanger and glimpsed at the price tag, which read $450. Stacey's throat tightened up as she thought to herself "$450? For a thin piece of fabric?!" and immediately went from feeling excited to being filled with utter disappointment, Stacey opened the dressing room door and said to Claudia "I can't get this. It's $450 dollars."

"Ouch" said Claudia, adding "but this is Malibu."

"You made this dress look beautiful but I can't justify spending that amount of money on chffon" said Stacey.

"Stace, it's not like Dave wouldn't pay for it" said Claudia.

Stacey replied and said "I know he would, but I need to contribute to this wedding too. I just..I can't get this dress."

"Are you sure?" asked Claudia.

"Unfortunately" said a devastated Stacey as she put the dress on the hook in the fitting room.

"Ok, well..I'm really sorry about this" said Claudia. "Hey, why don't we get some lunch or something?"

"Sure" said Stacey and she walked out the door with Claudia.