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Original poster

First Holy Communion dresses - aka little girls pretending to be brides - can I have your opinions please?

162 replies

2sugars · 01/02/2008 06:16

www.firstholycommunionday.co.uk/communiondresses/4517179846

Anna, April or Beatrix ((boak at names of dresses))

I really like April, but my mum thinks it's too grown up and looks like a ballgown. I think that's why I like it.

Any thoughts?

TIA

OP posts:
MaryAnnSingleton · 02/02/2008 18:52

oh, and a plastic statue of the Virgin Mary from a great aunt

Rolf · 02/02/2008 19:07

I love those Children's Salon dresses. I like cotton/linen, with sleeves.

At our church they are very keen to explain that the girls mustn't wear sleeveless dresses. I think someone waits at the back handing out cardigans to the offenders!

It's usually the non-regulars who wear the most outlandish dresses and go in for manicures, hairdressers etc for the 8 year old girls. These are often also the families who don't show for the preparation sessions beforehand.

My boys will make their FHC before my DD does. The boys wear school trousers and shoes with white shirts, red ties and red sashes which I think look hideous, especially as it's so difficult to get those items in natural fibres so they all crackle with static.

charmkin · 02/02/2008 19:13

oo my dd doign fc this year

am having dress made

omg what a can of worms, am now having panic

charmkin · 02/02/2008 19:13

oo my dd doign fc this year

am having dress made

omg what a can of worms, am now having panic

Neverenough · 02/02/2008 19:31

Well, 2sugars, thank you for the post-DD3 doing FC in may and had planned for her to wear the same lovely white dress her two sisters wore....but she is v tall for her age so must try it on her now just in case!
I think long or short is a personal preference. I like short with white shoes and pretty white socks and a little garland of flowers in her hair.

seeker · 02/02/2008 21:28

I've just remembered a bottle of holy water from Lourdes shaped like the Virgin Mary with the crown as a screw top.....!

RosaLuxOnTheBrightSideOfLife · 02/02/2008 21:32

I had one of those too, Seeker.

Unfitmother · 02/02/2008 21:33

I've got loads of those!

Fireflyfairy2 · 02/02/2008 21:39

Us too seeker.

I rememebr getting a silver cross chain with white stuff on it. A prayer book with a kneeling girl on it & a pair of plastic pink rosary beads.

Mammy made us sip holy water from the screw top bottle when we had hiccups

Also...we always had a holy water font at the front door... mammy always used to tell people to "bless themselves" when they left the house... little did she know we always filled it with tap water & not the holy water that she carried religiously home from Knock!!

Twiglett · 02/02/2008 21:40

does it have to be white? my niece had a gorgeous pink one IIRC and looked so lovely compared to the bride style

this is a little girl's white dress IMHO

Twiglett · 02/02/2008 21:42

dh says she didn't so ignore me

seeker · 02/02/2008 21:44

You know - I'm glad I'm not a catholic any more, and that my dc's aren't catholic - but I am irrationally sd about the bizarre memories that amuse me that they won't have- screw top virgin marys, luminous rosary beads, the list is endless!

nooka · 02/02/2008 22:02

If I was choosing for dd I would go for Beatrix - I think it's the most little girly. But then dd is seven, so that might be influencing me (I though FHC was last year juniors - am I totally wrong about that?). When I had my first holy communion my mother made me have one of the school's "spares" which I think were for families too poor to buy their own. I suspect this was a secret protest about having to bring us up as Catholics.

Reading up the thread I suspect that others have the same feeling as my mother! All I can say is that I was very sad to have to wear a cast off not very nice dress when everyone else was dressed in special clothes. It does add to the occasion to be dressed up, and that's what FHC is surely? A social as well as a religious event.

On Frog's link I like Anastasia best. I would go for the style that suits your dd best - some things look great in pictures but not when being worn - for example I look nice in winter white (soft slightly cream), but terrible in pure white so that sort of thing would influence me.

squidgymum · 03/02/2008 12:17

Hi everyone, I found this thread on google whilst doing a search for communion dresses. Anyone looking for a plainish dress that is cheaper than those mentioned, Adams are selling a communion dress for £33 and a white shrug for £8. I've not seen it in real life though so dont know what the quality is like.

adams.co.uk/shop/product/products_id/7180.html

adams.co.uk/shop/product/pr oducts_id/7194.html

Theres no way I can either afford to pay or would want to pay £70 plus for a dress, if anyone finds anything cheaper, please let us know. There are some AU Ebay sellers with very cheap dresses, not sure which option I'm going for yet.

chipmonkey · 03/02/2008 14:35

Firefly, did the holy water cure the hiccups?

Original poster
2sugars · 03/02/2008 16:58

nooka, we don't separate juniors from infants/seniors in dds' school, they're all just prepared at the same time. DD1 was 7, coming up for 8 (August b'day) while dd2 is the oldest in her class (8, 9 in October).

What strikes me is how the fashions seem to change not only from an era, but from where you are in the country. I had mine in central London, where there was a mix of long/short dresses, and 18 months ago, when dd1 had hers, there was still the same mix.

I've not known about the cash thing !! Will keep dd in the dark about that one, but I suspect it's an Irish thing, and good luck to them too! I too had one of those 'Our Lady -filled with Holy-Water-things - they must have been a product of the 70s. Mum did a lovely thing with dd1 - she gave her a necklace she'd had on her FCD. Given she's now 76, that means more to me than anything I could buy.

What I'd really like to say - and I'll be honest - this thread has hurt me a lot - is a big thank you to the MNers who've decided I wasn't the mum from Hell.[

OP posts:
Eliza2 · 03/02/2008 17:09

NOw I'm starting to feel weepy because my daughter won't be there with the others at FHC. Because of the unresolved problem with the classes (they changed them, without warning, from Sundays to Weds. at 5pm--hopeless for us).

So she'll probably be making her FHC aged 10 or 11 without her friends.

And we had a dress: the bridesmaid's dress from her granddad's wedding in December: a simple A-line ivory silk dress which I was going to make sleeves for. It probably won't fit next year or the year after.

I thought I was over feeling grumpy about this. But I'm not.

You'll have to tell me all about your girls and how they got on so we don't feel completely left out.

Eliza2 · 03/02/2008 17:10

And April is just lovely, 2sugars. She'll look a peach.

juuule · 03/02/2008 17:55

Eliza that's really not on that they've left her out because of not being able to go to the classes. Couldn't they have sent the stuff home with her for her to do and then take the completed stuff to show? Isn't there another school near you that is also doing the classes on a different day? Or something along those lines?
Are they making their communion around Easter? Is there nothing they can do before then?

Eliza2 · 03/02/2008 18:04

juule--I looked at some other parishes but we're in a rural area and it would simply be too far to go (and she wouldn't know anyone). I'm trying to pluck up courage to ask if we could do the work at home but I'm not confident that will be acceptable. I'm kind of hoping that her continued non-presence on Weds. nights will make them more reasonable (I originally asked if we could leave the classes 15 minutes early so we could still make the other commitments we have on Weds. but wasn't allowed).

juuule · 03/02/2008 18:14

I can't understand why they wouldn't let you leave 15mins early? What reason did they give. Surely you could finish at home whatever they were doing and get it looked over the next week. They sound very unreasonable to me. Hope you have some better news after you've discussed it with them again.

Eliza2 · 03/02/2008 18:22

I'm glad you don't think I am being precious about this! I honestly tried to come up with what seemed like a compromise (it would actually have involved me driving miles cross-country and my son doing his homework in the car!) Sometimes I think the priests just don't have a clue what the family/work balance is like for many families.

sallystrawberry · 03/02/2008 18:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
2sugars · 03/02/2008 18:38

Sally, it's got to be the answer to all my prayers ....

OP posts:
Heathcliffscathy · 03/02/2008 18:48

oh oh childhood memories of catholic plastic fantastic tat:

LUMINOUS virgin marys that glowed in the dark, screw top ones which lourdes water in. heinous plastic bead rosaries, pope pics on everything....the memories.

my mum made me wear a monkish very simple sort of sack:

sort of like this on the left but without the (absolutely hideous) sash.

i hated it.

my younger sister got a specially made (by my granny) tiered lacey confection. absolutely rank in retrospect, but i was envious at the time.

it is a horrible thing to see little girls in mini-bride gear.

however, little girls want to be like everyone else don't they?

the sacrament does get completely lost in amongst all the gubbins to my mind....and agree that children are too young at this age to understand what on earth they are signing up for.

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