O....M.....G.

Hive, Mom Octopus and I had a super-successful and productive trip to Pittsburgh this weekend, and I'm feeling more and more and more confident that this wedding of ours will pretty much come together. I have LOTS of exciting stuff to tell you, but first....

Mr. Octopus, scram. You can't read this one!

I tried on my wedding dress for the first time since Bridesmaid Clara's seamstress mom went to work on the alterations. It was also the first time I had my all my accessories, including my veil and my jewelry, on hand. It's not quite perfect yet. We shortened the straps a little too much, so I thought the fit in the bust looked a bit sports-bra-esque. I can't get over the feeling of not having any sort of bra on, either, regardless of how structured the corset is, so now Bridesmaid Clara's mom is sewing bra cups in. Oh, and after months of yammering on and on about how corset-backed dresses are the best because they're so adjustable and forgiving? Yeah, I felt like I was in an iron lung once they laced me into that thing. Looks like my "no amount of grad school weight gain could screw the fit up!" stance was a little misinformed.

But guess what else? None of those issues really mattered, because once I put the dress on, and I put my jewelry on, and I put my veil on, I could not believe it. I was a bride.





This is the face of a person who is really, really, really pumped about seeing her whole wedding get-up for the first time:



And finally, I would like to show you the picture that makes my heart scream a little. Have you found a wedding-related thing that just makes you irrationally cuckoo bananas with glee? Here is mine:



!!!!!!! VEIL !!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU VEIL!!!!!!!!!!! 108 inches of sheer, swishy, floaty, raw-edge VEIL! Veil veil veil. I LOVE YOU! Veil.

Dear Everyone,

We're all getting married to someone we love! We're all brides! We all get to feel like this and talk about it to each other! Isn't it awesome?! Aren't you SO excited?!

Love,
Octopus