BeckyRomero.com

At my older brother Bobby’s wedding back in the summer of 2004, I was a bridesmaid. I was just shy of 19 then.

Our family had gotten through a rough patch in the previous few years, with my mom finally divorcing my worthless stepdad. So I was greatly looking forward for a time of celebration and fun for a change! My now sister-in-law, Kris, is a beautiful and wonderful person and as I write this in 2013, they have two adorable, loving children.

Bobby, who is about two years older than me had somehow managed to get along with our stepdad who was a guest at the wedding, along with most of his family that lived locally, which consisted of a couple of brothers, a sister and their extended families. I got along decently with most of them but during the contentious divorce I am sure that my reputation took a beating from my stepdad. There was of course many of my mom’s side of the family present, Kris’ large extended family, family friends and friends of the bride and groom. All told about two hundred guests, perhaps slightly more.

Anyway, OK. So about my dress. There was a problem with fitting the bridesmaids’ dresses and the bridal shop needed to make some last week alterations. They were also late coming back – they delivered them literally in a rush on the morning of the wedding. But somehow the dresses or the alterations they did got mixed up or something, because mine didn’t quite fit in the front any longer (the only initial problem with mine had been a seam that needing stitching). It was now a little too loose in front and therefore too revealing. It also wasn’t quite as snug as it should have been at my waist but there was nothing that could be done the morning of the wedding. As my brother would later tease me about: the show must go on!

Since our dresses were also backless, I was going to try wearing a Natural Bra, a brand I hadn’t worn before. (What happened, by the way, was entirely my fault. Nothing wrong with that product itself.)

With no time to really spare in the rush before the wedding while getting dressed, I used some of the adhesives from the Natural Bra package and applied them to the front of my bra as well and not just on my breasts, the theory being to give it a little more support to help hold my dress in place on the bra since it was too loose. It seemed to work and looked fine.

Except during the bouquet toss. Maybe it was all the dancing and perspiration by that point. But in an event when I jumped UP to try to catch the bouquet the top of my dress decided to fall DOWN. The Natural Bra held. The problem was it held to the dress instead of to my breasts!

I was standing in the middle of the dance floor, and unfortunately for my modesty no one was immediately in front of me and anyone standing in front of Kris, along with guests to either my right or left ended up with a pretty clear view of everything.

Since we were facing away from most of the guest tables in the moments after it happened I initially thought hopefully that perhaps not too many people noticed. But unfortunately for me several dozen guests had wanted to take photos of the toss and they included my new sister-in-law Kris’ young teenage male cousins, some of my stepdad’s relatives and, as I would later find out, the videographer – who basically were all standing behind or alongside Kris and facing me and all the other single female guests who had assembled on the dance floor.

Someone told me later I should have never have did what I did and that I should have only applied the adhesives to the breast-side of the bra. Of course had the dress been properly fitted that would have made total sense to me at the time. But it also meant I had fewer adhesives on the inside of the bra, too, which was a fatal error on my part.

Altogether it was about a ten second flash or so before, being totally mortified, I pulled up the top of my dress and ran off blushing to the ladies’ room. Some people told me afterwards not to worry about it, that as it all happened so fast ”probably” no one really noticed. But believe me. In ten seconds you’ll notice any attractive teenage girl standing topless in the middle of a dance floor! And while certainly everyone was initially watching the bride, those eyes soon gravitated to the direction of where the bouquet was tossed.

On top of that, Kris had initially teased everyone with a fake over the shoulder toss, causing some of us to jump up, including me. When I did that’s when the whole front of my dress came down off my breasts and fell down to my waist. I did not realize what happened but was aware of some laughter and giggles, my mind at the time I suppose assuming for those additional seconds as I stood there awaiting the real toss that it was directed at Kris’ teasingly fake toss.

Needless to say, the jumping up and down also had my bare boobs freely bouncing and jiggling about until another bridesmaid who standing next to me frantically tapped me on the shoulder after she noticed what happened.

I was horrified when I first saw how the video showed my breasts not only being initially exposed but then remaining exposed as I stood there after Kris’ fake toss and then jumped and reached up again a few seconds or so later when Kris made the real toss. In fact, my dress came dangerously close to slipping off altogether as after the real toss my garter belt was clearly visible as well as the top of my panties.

After Kris’ toss I was actually now standing on the bottom few inches of my dress and, if not for the frantic tap on my shoulder, had I taken a step or two my movement and weight on the fabric would have surely pulled it down the rest of the way, leaving me standing there in stockings, a garter belt, thong panties and heels.

Kris got the video guy to blur my toplessness after she and Bobby got their video copy before additional copies were made for about three dozen family members and guests. But it was too late to stop people from seeing the initial copies that went out to not only my rotten ex-stepdad, but also to his two brothers, sister and their families; Kris’ parents and grandparents; Kris’ three aunts, two uncles and their families; and to my grandparents on my mom’s side.

My ex-stepdad and his family later had quite the field day with my exposure and embarrassment.

And because I have finally spoken out in the past year or so about the humiliating spankings my stepdad gave me when I was a teenager, I have learned through mutual acquaintances that my stepdad’s sister-in-law is now using her copy of the DVD to make me a laughingstock to their extended families, neighbors and friends.

I originally published this story about my embarrassing incident on The Experience Project, July 14, 2010.