Octo-Tip for Stress Reduction

I mentioned before that our wedding day was, overall, easy and low-stress. A lot of the things that contributed to the day proceeding so well were entirely out of my control. The perfect, delicious, dreamy weather was a stroke of pure luck (ESPECIALLY in Pittsburgh). I researched our vendors very carefully, but I knew it was pretty much out of my hands if they ultimately executed things correctly or not. There were a lot of things that just kind of ended up going our way, you know?

However, Mr. Octo and I talked about one of the things that WAS within our grasp that made our wedding day so great, and here is what we both recommend: think really carefully about who you choose to be in your bridal party. If it's at all possible, don't choose people just because you feel obligated to, or for old time's sake, or because you got excited and asked before you really thought about it, or whatever. You spend a LOT of time with the bridal party during the wedding weekend, and if they're bringing drama, or stress, or negativity, or apathy to the table, I am pretty sure you'll feel it, and it will impact your experience.

But on the other hand, if your bridal party is so unbelievably supportive, responsible, helpful, and easy-going that you're totally blown away by their sheer awesomeness, you'll feel that too. During our wedding weekend, our friends were champs. They were so, so, so great to us. The people we surrounded ourselves with improved our entire wedding experience. I believe that very much.

Here's one of my very, very, very favorite photos from our wedding day, showing the moment when I finished putting my dress on with Mom Octopus & MOH/Sister Lauren and showed my bridesmaids the result:


(Photo by Corey Ann Photography.)

I loooooooove this picture because the way the girls are looking at me totally represents how they treated me all day, and reminds me of how thankful I felt. They were SO sweet, SO supportive, and SO happy. All day, I felt like they were all trying their very best to keep the mood positive, calm me down, take care of anything I might need, and head off any situations that might bother me. One of my favorite memories of the wedding is from right before the ceremony. We were all holed up in the tiny little dressing room of Heinz Chapel, and I had just finished freshening up my lip gloss and putting my veil on, and I was standing and looking at myself in the mirror, taking in the fact that the moment was here and I was a bride. My friends all stood around me, saying things like, "you look perfect!" and "this is going to be amazing!" and "you look like you just stepped off the cover of a magazine." I had been very nervous up until then, and all their positivity made me feel excited and confident and just supported.

I could regale you with stories of how fabbity fab the Octo-Maids were all day long, but I'm sure you're catching my snap by now. Anyway, that's my advice: be thoughtful about who you choose to be with you during your wedding. Pick people who will boost you up, not bring you down. It's worth it times a million.

Are you excited about spending time with the people you picked for your bridal party?