The Luckiest: My Wedding Dress

When our photographer Corey arrived, Mom Octopus and MOH/Sister Lauren shuffled me off into the bedroom where my wedding dress was waiting. I opted to get dressed with just the two of them helping, and I'm glad I did. It felt nice to have a quiet moment to share with just my mom and my sister.

(All photos in this post courtesy of Corey Ann Photography.)

I dove into the dress head first.....




After I was all settled in, we had to move over to the dresser so I had something to grip while they laced the back. Corsets are serious business.



Mom Octopus closed the panel, and started the semi-slow process of weaving the laces through.





Hang on tight: it's lace-yankin' time. I told Mom Octopus & Lauren to strap me into that thing like I was Scarlett O'Hara or an old-timey Victorian lady, and they did not let me down.



OOOOF!



Once my dress was all done up, Mom Octopus gently put my necklace on for me.



MOH/Sister Lauren smoothed my hair one more time, while Mom Octopus clasped my pearl bracelet. It takes a village.



And......ta da! I love how my face in this picture says exactly what I was thinking: "um, can you believe this? I'm a bride! For real! Hahahaha!"



Mom Octopus liked what she saw.



And, in a big reveal, so did my bridesmaids. (Still one of my absolute favorite photos from the whole day, by the way.)



No time for preening, though. As soon as I finished getting dressed, the moment had arrived. It was time to go to Heinz Chapel.

Previously, in the Octopus wedding...


We did errands all the live-long day.
We ran late, we got stressed, and we argued.
We rehearsed and had dinner, and had a great time doing it. 
We got fancy with hair and makeup. 

Unearthing Wedding Artifacts

Let me set the scene for you: Grammy Octopus's 80th birthday is in a few weeks. Having seen the MyPublisher photobooks I have created for special occasions in the past couple of years, Mom Octopus had a great idea--to create a MyPublisher album commemorating my grammy's life! However, after a great deal of wailing and teeth gnashing when the MyPublisher drag-and-drop system proved to be more than she could handle, Mom Octopus overnighted the CD of scanned photos to me with a note: "Thank you for helping me. Now I won't have to kill anyone or smash the computer. Love, Mom."

So, now creating the photobook for Grammy Octopus's birthday party is my job. I settled down with some Say Yes to the Dress in the background, popped in the photo CD, and OMFG!!!!!!!! MOM OCTOPUS!!!!!!! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME HOW FRIGGIN' AMAZING THESE PHOTOS ARE?!?

If my grandmother understood how computers work, she would be an amazing blogger. She's photographed every single major life event since ever, basically, and documented all of them with detailed captions. So, hive, I am very pleased to present to you.....

Octo-Weddings In History

Grammy & Poppa Octopus, engaged in 1951, celebrating at a party. Grammy Octopus killin' it in a polka dot tulle dress and red lipstick:



AAAACK! I cannot believe the grandparents I know today would engage in saucy behavior like this! (Although, apparently, she couldn't either--the caption reads, 'Really! Engaged, too.')



Grammy Octopus, a bride in 1951:





My grandfather's 1950s haircut in this photo kills me. Also my grandmother's porcelain-doll makeup.



Moving on to Mom and Dad Octopus's 1981 (I think?) wedding:



They had their wedding reception in a state park and grilled hamburgers for dinner. Also, see the wreath of flowers in my mom's hair? When she walked up the aisle and reached the altar, my dad told her she looked like a smiling flower bowl. This is the story I have heard repeated the most about my parents' wedding. My dad hates that story. Sorry I just told the whole Internet, Dad!

Aunt Cindy & Uncle Jimmy's sometime-in-the-80s wedding, posing away in my grandfather's antique Model-T:



After almost-sixty years of marriage, here are Grammy and Poppa Octopus today, walking up the aisle at my wedding:



Looking at this series of pictures is really amazing to me!



Kind of amazing how a family can go from this.....


GAAHHH!!! I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!


Do not stare directly at my dad's tiny denim shorts or you will turn to stone. Seriously, WTF, Dad.

....to this......



....in just a couple of decades.

(Pro photos from my wedding by Corey Ann Photography.)

Do you have any favorite old family wedding photos?

PS.





(Sorry. Couldn't help myself. They're too awesome.)

The Luckiest: Lots and Lots of Primping

Hey, remember this post? All about how terribly I sleep the night before a big event, and how much I was hoping to avoid that the night before our wedding? Uh, yeah. Old habits die hard, I guess. I fell asleep pretty easily around 12:30 AM, but I burst wide awake at 4:30 AM. I knew as soon as I woke up that I was awake for the day--my mind was racing with excitement and nerves, and although I laid in the bed and tried to rest and relax enough to fall back asleep, I knew it wasn't really gonna happen. Around 6:30 or 7, I did manage to calm down enough to sleep for another thirty minutes or so, but that was it.

When I decided to get up for the morning, around 8 AM, I got my first happy thrill of the day. Pittsburgh is absolutely notorious for its unpredictable weather, which is very often gray, gloomy, windy, and rainy. I hadn't even let myself think about what our wedding day weather might be like (and, in the planning stages, never once considered the possibility of an outdoor ceremony or reception!) because I knew the chances of a truly gorgeous day in Pittsburgh were not that high.

So when I got up that morning and tentatively drew back the blinds in my room, I actually gasped out loud. Even as early as 8 AM, it was obvious that we were going to have absolutely perfect weather. The skies were bright blue and cloudless, with lots of gorgeous, crisp sunshine. I was so excited about the fact that, if nothing else, we would have no weather-related stresses or headaches!

I emerged from my bedroom into the living room of our suite, where Bridesmaids Katie, Leigha, and Lauren were also getting up and around. We all marveled at the beautiful day a little more, and soon, Bridesmaids Erica, Clara, and Hannah arrived at our suite too. We sat down and enjoyed a breakfast of bagels, fruit, coffee, mimosas, and episodes of Teen Mom.

A little while later, our hairstylist Brooke and makeup artist Julie arrived, and it was time to get down to business. We set up a bridal party assembly line, with the girls taking turns in the hair and makeup chairs.


Bridesmaid Clara is probably wondering, "HAS AMBER NO SHAME?!"


Look at that pretty MOH!


HOW CUTE is Bridesmaid Erica's makeup? Julie looked at Erica's brown hair and eyes and declared that she had to give her "the full Snow White."

Something that surprised me was how nervous I felt all morning. I am not normally afraid to be the center of attention (cue my sister cackling away from wherever she's reading this and calling it the understatement of the century), but the anticipation of what was to come gave me low-grade butterflies from 8 AM onward. The mimosas Bridesmaid Leigha diligently kept in my hand all morning helped keep them at bay, and so did all the excited chatting with my bridesmaids, but the jittery, keyed-up feeling never fully went away.


Nervous and excited all at once. Also, check out that killer bruise on my leg! I am such a klutz that I walked straight into the coffee table in the middle of the room a few days earlier.


Grandma Octopus stopped by to check in on the proceedings, but mostly to help herself to our mimosa stash.

One by one, the girls (and an errant Groomsman/Brother Adam, who was found wandering the halls with a head full of cowlicks, and was promptly dragged into the suite for a mimosa and a hairstyle intervention) finished up their primping routines, until there was only one girl left: moi.







I think out of all the vendors we used for our entire wedding day, Julie (the makeup artist) may have been my absolute favorite. I gave her free reign to do whatever she thought would look best with each maid's hair color and complexion, and she killed it. And when she was all done with MY makeup? Not gonna lie: I felt absolutely gorgeous. Julie is great at not overloading your face with makeup, and when I headed off to the bathroom to check out the final results, I actually chuckled and thought to myself, "wow, I look awesome."



So we were all made up and styled, and the girls were putting their dresses and accessories on as well. Julie and Brooke packed up, wished us luck, and took off, and our photographer Corey was scheduled to arrive shortly afterward. The plan was for her to photograph me getting dressed in my wedding gown, and then to head out for some all-girls pre-ceremony portraits.

But, bad luck: Corey called and let us know that, due to traffic from road construction, her arrival to the hotel was going to be delayed. It wasn't a big deal, because we had plenty of time before we actually needed to leave for the ceremony, and I wanted the "bride getting dressed" shots more than a few extra rounds of portraits with the bridesmaids. So, there was nothing to do but wait.

This was when my nerves kicked into high gear. I hadn't left the hotel suite at all that day, and my six bridesmaids, my mom, my grandma, my aunt, the hairstylist and makeup artist, and my brother had all been filtering in and out all morning. It was starting to feel pretty cooped up and crowded in there, and the suspense and waiting was making me really anxious. I tried pacing around for a little while, then decided to chill out by myself in one of the suite bedrooms to try to calm down a bit. MOH/Sister Lauren popped in to see how I was doing, and when I confessed how nervous I was, she said, "stop telling yourself you're nervous! That's going to make it worse! Flip the script. You're not getting more and more nervous, you're getting more and more excited." For whatever reason, this was totally what I needed to hear, and definitely relaxed me as we waited for Corey.

Then! Yay! Corey arrived! The construction held her up by about forty-five minutes, but ultimately, it didn't change much of anything. As soon as it was time to stop waiting and start getting a move on our schedule, I felt much better, and my anxiety truly started to transform into intense excitement. So, Mom Octopus, MOH/Sister Lauren, Corey and I hurried up and shut ourselves in one of the bedrooms, because it was time to get bridal.

Previously, in the Octopus wedding...

We did errands all the live-long day.
We ran late, we got stressed, and we argued.
We rehearsed and had dinner, and had a great time doing it.

The Luckiest: Rehearsing, Rehearsal-Dinnering, & Partying

Okay, so the pictures I managed to scrape together for our rehearsal are so crappy they're kind of not worth bothering to post. I hope you don't mind if I hustle straight through this post. We all wanna get to the good stuff anyway, right? ;)

If you remember, when I left off, we were about to leave for our rehearsal and I was approaching meltdown-levels of frazzled. Fortunately, my bridesmaids whisked me away into a car pretty quickly, where I indulged in about ten-minutes of no-holds-barred, loud-volume ranting, and my bridesmaids nodded and told me I was totally right about everything. By the time we arrived at Heinz Chapel, I had gotten my frustrations out of my system, and was fully ready to move on and enjoy our rehearsal. Phew!

Heinz Chapel is a bit of a wedding factory--they host five wedding ceremonies per day--which does have some downsides. Among them are the very tight, very strict time restrictions and the rules and regulations about music, decor, and photography. However, one of the great upsides of holding your ceremony there is that the wedding coordination staff SERIOUSLY knows what they're doing.

You know how a lot of brides say that their rehearsal was confusing, and a lot like herding cats, and left them feeling less confident than before about how the ceremony would unfold? Not the case at the Octopus rehearsal. Once we were in Wendy's capable hands, she gave us a clear and concise description of the ceremony proceedings, and whisked us through an easy, focused, and reassuring run-through. Boom! Done! Moving on!

After our rehearsal wrapped up, we headed off to the location of our rehearsal dinner: Bridesmaid Clara's parents' house! Our rehearsal dinner was catered by Bistro to Go, and the buffet-style food was FANTASTIC.

Rather than a formal, seated affair, our dinner was more low-key, with tables situated here and there throughout the house and outside courtyard. It allowed for a lot of movement and mingling, and I loved it. It felt so fun, intimate, and relaxed, and it was a really nice precursor to all the big fuss that would follow the next day.

When we all headed back to the hotel after the rehearsal dinner ended, the mood in the air was most definitely festive. By that point, most of my family and many of our family friends had arrived, and they were prepared to celebrate and mingle. People began congregating in my parents' hotel room, and the next thing I knew, they were hosting a full-fledged hotel room party like it was their prom night or something.

Mr. Octo and I were having a great time socializing at my parents' impromptu party, but by the time midnight rolled around, we knew we had to pack it in and try to relax, settle down, and sleep. We were spending the night apart and weren't having a first look, so it was really weird to say goodnight to him knowing that the next time we saw each other would be when I was walking down the aisle.

After kissing my groom goodnight, I headed into the suite I was sharing with Bridesmaids Katie, Lauren, and Leigha. I took a long, hot shower. I drank some Sleepytime Plus tea. I settled into bed and thought relaxing thoughts. It was 12:30 AM, and the preparations for our wedding day would be kicking off in nine hours.

Previously, in the Octopus wedding...

We did errands all the live-long day.
We ran late, we got stressed, and we argued.

The Luckiest: Friday.

I woke up Friday morning feeling giddy and full of anticipation. I wish there were more synonyms for "surreal," so I wouldn't have to keep saying it over and over, but that's how it felt. Mr. Octo and I were engaged for sixteen months, and for a long, long time, it felt like I was just planning into the void, "playing wedding," thinking about something that would never actually happen. But it was Friday. We were ACTUALLY rehearsing that night, and having an ACTUAL rehearsal dinner, in preparation for our ACTUAL wedding. Surreal.

After having breakfast with my parents and strategizing our agenda for the day, Mr. Octo and I headed off together to pick up the cake for the rehearsal dinner. Did I say the cake? I meant THE CAKE. We opted to serve an extremely well-known Pittsburgh dessert: a sheet-sized burnt almond torte from Prantl's. (This means nothing to anyone but Pittsburgh gals, I'm sure, but everyone who knows the majesty of that cake is drooling. I guarantee it.)


OMG SOOOO GOOOOD!!!! (Source.)

Anyway, in driving back to the hotel, we passed through Oakland, the neighborhood where the University of Pittsburgh (and Heinz Chapel) is located. It was a gorgeous, sunny day, all the college students were out and about walking to class and strolling around campus and whatnot, and it was the first time I'd seen Heinz Chapel since arriving in Pittsburgh. I felt a huge thrill. Pitt! Heinz Chapel! WE ARE GOING TO BE IN THERE TOMORROW! WEDDING WEDDING WEDDING WEDDING!!!! AAAAHHHH!!

After we dropped the cake off at Bridesmaid Clara's parents' house (the site of our rehearsal dinner), I met my bridesmaids for our nail appointment. It was really great to have the quiet time to sit down with all of them and chat, although unfortunately, the nail salon blew. Seriously, worst manicure EVAH--all of our nails were chipped by Saturday morning, and the polish had completely cracked and popped off my nails by Sunday afternoon.

They were also somewhat unprepared for our large group (even though I had both made a reservation weeks ago and confirmed it only a few days prior), and worked fairly slowly, so we left the salon a good thirty minutes later than planned. The timeline was getting pretty cramped--we all still had to shower and get ready for the rehearsal, and the none of the bridal party gifts (which were being handed out at the rehearsal dinner) had been wrapped, either.

Unfortunately, between the nail appointment and the rehearsal, we had the only truly sour moment of the whole weekend. When my bridesmaids and I returned to the hotel, the air was practically crackling with frazzled energy. It was no one's fault, but some of our rehearsal attendees were confused about where to go, and when, and how to get there, and lots of people were running late, and there were still a bunch of things to do, and you CANNOT be late to Heinz Chapel because they run a crazy-tight ship, and and and......

Here's the thing. Mr. Octo has many, many lovely qualities, talents, and skills. Remaining cool under pressure, however, is not one of them. He often wilts in high-stress situations. I waltzed into our hotel room to discover a fiance who was feeling very overwhelmed, very frazzled, and very much on the verge of losing his shit. He was really not his usual self, and because of that, he made some EXTRAORDINARILY ill-advised remarks suggesting that I had not done enough to prepare for the wedding weekend, and had I done a better job planning, the disorganization and stress that was freaking him out so badly would not be occurring.

And then I instantaneously transformed into this:


(Source.)

After I finished scorching all the earth within a fifty-mile radius, Mr. Octo snapped right back to his senses and apologized repeatedly and sincerely. We called a truce, and resumed racing around the hotel room, trying to make up for lost time. It was totally one of those fights that has nothing to do with reality and everything to do with emotions running high and rational sense running low. It was an unpleasant but quick little storm cloud, and we had to move on immediately, a real forgive-and-forget moment.

Still, our nerves were pretty shot, and we were running maybe fifteen minutes late for a rehearsal that was not, under any circumstances, supposed to start late. We headed down to the hotel lobby, expecting that we'd quickly hop into the car and head straight to Heinz Chapel. Instead of the smooth roll-out we were expecting, though, we were met by an absolute tidal wave of people. Our entire bridal party, and their various spouses and significant others, and our grandparents, and our siblings, and Mr. Octo's nieces, and our ceremony readers, and their families, and some hangers-on who were just excited to see us, were ALL waiting in one really huge group in the lobby, and many of them hadn't seen us yet, and they ALL wanted to greet us right then and there.

Under any other circumstances, I would have been thrilled to see each and every person in that forty-person mob. However, I was already jangly from our lateness and from the brief dust-up with Mr. Octo, and walking off the elevator to one giant, collective, "HIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!" just totally shredded my last reserves of mellowness. And, you guys, my well of calm runs deep. I plastered a giant, frantic smile on my face, gave hugs and said some pleasantries that I hope were actually pleasant, and indicated to my sister that she needed to get me into a car immediately. She read the situation and hustled me out quickly and gracefully, which is why she was the best MOH ever. By the time we were actually on our way to Heinz Chapel, this was pretty much me:


(Source.)


(Source.)


(Source.)

Has wedding stress caused you and your fiance to have any out-of-character squabbles?

Previously, in the Octopus wedding.....

We did errands all the live-long day.

The Luckiest: Thursday.

Well, here we go, hive. It's Octo-recap time!

Except, here's the thing. I was a terrible blogger and took zero pictures of the days leading up to the wedding, including the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. I still want to write about them, though! I've done my best to scrounge up some rehearsal photos, but not much otherwise. So, these first few posts will have almost no pictures. Can you bear with me? I promise to keep it short and sweet!

Thursday was the first real day of our wedding weekend. Mr. Octo and I were in Pittsburgh, my parents were in Pittsburgh, FIL Octo was in Pittsburgh, and our family and friends were starting to pour in as well. I have heard many times from many brides before me that once guests start rolling into town in preparation for the wedding, things get really exciting and fun. Sooooo true: I felt so bubbly and excited as more and more and more of my favorite people kept arriving. The positive energy was just palpable.

That didn't mean we spent the day lounging and basking in the joyfully buzzing atmosphere, though. We had errands, errands, errands, errands. Mr. Octo and I actually split up for most of the day, and I ran around from big box store to big box store with the Parents Octopus, while Mr. Octo finished up his groomsman-gift shopping with his dad. (Yes, he did indeed procrastinate in an epic way on this task.) It was busy, but not stressful--I never felt that we wouldn't get everything finished.

After, seriously, hours and hours of task-accomplishing and errand-running with my parents, we all headed back to the hotel, where MOH/Sister Lauren, Bridesmaid Leigha, Bridesmaid Katie, and a bunch of my aunts and uncles had arrived over the course of the day. I was SO happy to see them, and it felt more than a little surreal that our wedding weekend was seriously, really, truly here, and in the process of unfolding in front of my face.

That night, Mr. Octo, my parents, and the bridesmaids who were already there all got together in our hotel room for a good old-fashioned OOT-bag-stuffing session. We set up an assembly line, and all the bags were done within an hour. For a nightcap, Bridesmaids Katie, Leigha, Lauren stuck around and watched Jersey Shore with Mr. Octo and I. FUN TIMES!

In retrospect, our actual wedding did go by as quickly as everyone told me it would. The whole wedding weekend? Not so much. I don't feel sad about the way our wedding flew by, because I spent so much quality time with my closest family members and friends in the days leading up to and after it. When I think back on that whole series of days, it practically has a golden aura around it in my memory, it was such an exciting, fun, and special time. Man, I loved our wedding. I can already tell that writing these recaps is going to be fun.

Did you get a lot of quality time with your people during your wedding weekend?

Then and Now: Octo's Turn!

Describing myself in high school. Oh boy. Heeeeere goes.

Then

Well, in high school, I was in the marching band, the drama club, the chorus, and the show choir, and I took AP classes. I mean, I assume you can draw your own conclusions about my social status from that.


Ninth grade semi-formal.

Really, though, although I was most definitely not made in the traditional "popular girl" mode, I was a happy kid, and I had a lot of friends. My high school was not a mean place, and overall, I enjoyed my time there. I was pretty independent and confident, and I liked to spend a fair amount of time alone, reading, thinking, and writing in my diary.

While I loved my small, rural hometown and was happy growing up there, I was also certain that I was destined to go on to bigger and better things. As I got older, I fancied myself a bit of a bohemian soul, and I wrote a lot of mortifying poetry about my spirit being on fire and needing to feed my passion and so on. I believed that both the musical RENT and the book On the Road completely and accurately described me. To be clear: I was a rural, comfortably middle-class high schooler who spent most of her free time doing homework and going to the bowling alley and the 24-hour Denny's with the other kids in the cast of the school musical. RENT and On the Road in no way described me.


At the prom with future-Bridesmaid Clara

Anyway, while I loved and respected my parents, I was also pretty sure that they were kinda small-town, and that while the cozy, secure family life they'd built for us was nice, it was also really really REALLY boring, and could not possibly compare to the crazy, splashy, dance-like-nobody's-watching life I was going to have as a starving novelist in the East Village or whatever.


High school graduation and OMG my brother is a BABY! Now he is a big gangly giant!

Relationship-wise? Oh, I was in a weird one throughout most of high school. I spent a lot, a lot of time with a guy that I referred to as my "best friend" or, sometimes, vomit, "soul mate." We didn't have a physical relationship and weren't technically dating, but.....I dunno, it was just an unhealthy, odd situation. Even though we weren't physically involved with each other, we definitely were emotionally, and it was one of those intense teenage situations: "you're the only one who truly understands my SOUL," "we're going to be a part of each other's lives forever," blah blah. There was also a lot of dishonesty, mind games, manipulativeness...the works. My parents hated him, my friends hated him, my sister hated him. And they could not tell me anything. My response at the time was always, always, something along the lines of, "you just don't understand us/him!" Sigh.

Now

So, I went off to college and left my non-boyfriend behind. If you recall, Bridesmaid Clara and I went to elementary, middle, and high school together, and then we went to the same college. After about a month there, she told me, "I met this guy, and I think you're perfect for each other. You have to let me introduce you." So I met him.


Octopi, dating about three months, and CRAZY hungover.

He was so nice to me, all the time. He was straightforward, and kind, and funny, and generous. There was no drama, just having a lot of fun together. And, well, you pretty much know the rest of THAT story.


Eight years later. (Corey Ann Photography.)


Moral of the story: always let your lifelong best friend set you up on blind dates. (Corey Ann Photography.)

In some ways, I am still very much like my sixteen-year-old self. I still consider myself an independent, confident, happy person. I still like a solid amount of alone time, where I can read, think, and write. In some ways, I was actually not wrong about the big, exciting life I was sure was in store for me. I've had some pretty awesome adventures, both by myself and with Mr. Octo. I went abroad twice, once to Ireland and once on Semester at Sea. After college, Mr. Octo and I moved from Pittsburgh to Las Vegas, and from Las Vegas to (now) Boston, and traveled almost all over the country in the meantime. I feel like I have had more than my share of fun, exciting, and special experiences in the eight and a half years since I peaced out of high school.

On the other hand, it makes me laugh to think back on how much I scoffed at my parents' lifestyle for being dull and routine, because at this point in my life, my biggest wish in the world is to follow exactly in their footsteps. These days, I am just craving the "boring" stuff in life: a stable job, financial security, a house of my own to decorate and take care of. At sixteen, I was pretty sure that passion and dreams were all a person really needed to get by in life. Now? Uh, no. What I actually need is a 401k and good health insurance, you know what I'm saying?

Mostly, I look back at my high school years with a mixture of fondness and embarrassed eye-rolling. A lot of embarrassed eye-rolling. In fact, I was kind of vain in this post and did not include any of the MANY really, really, really tragic photos of me from high school. (Did I mention that I went through a prolonged awkward stage in which I didn't know much of anything about stylish clothes or how to dress my body type?) Anyway.

My life, and my path to marriage, has been very different than what I imagined when I was younger. It has also been exciting and fun. Kind of fabulous, really.

Has your life turned out differently than you imagined when you were in high school?

Secret Life of Bees: Octopus Edition

Aaahhh! I love this series! I was fully in the throes of my obsessive Weddingbee readership the first time this series ran, and I'm super excited to participate now as a bee! So, Octopus quirks and secrets, here goes....

I have a really weird hang-up about plates and cups. More specifically, I find it revolting to eat or drink things out of the "wrong" vessel. Like, sometimes Mr. Octo eats cereal or soup out of a large mug. I truly find this disgusting, because to my mind, cereal and soup go in bowls, PERIOD. I also can't drink coffee out of a clear glass mug, because it looks too much like a juice glass, and it's GROSS to drink coffee out of a juice glass.


(Photo source.)

Over the summer, Mr. Octo and I decided to try to save money by making iced lattes at home with our stovetop espresso maker rather than dropping over six dollars a day at Starbucks. Smart, right? Except there was a problem. I couldn't drink my iced latte out of a coffee mug, because coffee mugs are only for hot coffee (and they're too small to fit the ice cubes and the drink). I started drinking my iced latte out of a regular juice/water drinking glass....but it literally turned my stomach. I started getting so nauseous after drinking my latte out of the wrong glass that I had to give up. Back to Starbucks, where the iced coffee comes in a clear plastic cup, like it's supposed to.

Also I just realized as I wrote this that it sounds really, really obsessive-compulsive.

I hate suspense, fear, and being startled. I don't ride roller coasters, I've never set foot in a haunted house, and I neverrrrr watch horror movies. I can occasionally be talked into movies that would fall more under the "psychological thriller" category, but if there's excessive gore or scenes where a character walks through a dark space and you're waiting for something to pop out? Nah uh. Nope. This goes back a long way--when I was in high school, my friends wanted to have a horror movie marathon for Halloween. I made it through Psycho okay, but halfway through Friday the 13th, I ran upstairs, threw up, and had to have my mom come get me and bring me home.


(Photo source.)

I honestly don't get the appeal of being frightened. I mean, the adrenaline rush of roller coasters I do understand, although my hatred of the suspense during the "click-click-click" of the coaster rising outweighs whatever fun it might be. I do find the popularity of really gruesome, gory horror movies completely baffling, though. It would take an enormous bribe to get me to sit through those Saw movies.

I get the hiccups when drinking hot beverages. It happens probably 70% of the time. I don't know anyone else who experiences this. It is so friggin' annoying.

I had a belly button piercing from ages 14 to 18. I don't even remember what inspired me to want a belly button ring so badly in the first place; I've always dressed fairly modestly and never had any intention of wearing clothes that would show it off. I was an extremely well-behaved teenager, and I was aware of and a little self-conscious about the fact that I was kind of a goody-goody, so I think the idea of doing something just a little edgy was really appealing to me. (Although, in retrospect, getting a piercing that your mom knows about, approves of, and in fact holds your hand during, probably takes some of the edge off.) I was the first and youngest person I knew to have a belly button ring, and for a while, I just loved that I had this semi-secret body piercing. My friends all thought it was awesome, and it made me feel cool.

As high school went along and people got older, belly button piercings became more and more common, and the accompanying jewelry started to get more and more elaborate (I always wore a plain silver ring in mine). By the time I graduated, I was definitely starting to think I was over my piercing. I hesitated on taking it out permanently until I went to college, got on the school shuttle, and saw a girl wearing a short t-shirt. She had a huge, sparkly, dangly, detailed belly button ring in--I swear it looked like a Christmas tree ornament. What I had liked about my piercing was that, at the time I got it, no one else had one (in my small, rural hometown, at least). Now that they were so common and sometimes so flashy, the appeal was gone for me. I got off the shuttle, went straight to my dorm room, removed the ring, and haven't thought about it much since.


(Photo source.)

Anyone else out there with neurotic, obsessive hang-ups and/or fears and/or secret piercings?

The Greatest Thing Ever, Seriously, Period.

Today, when I got the mail, I found the usual pile of junk. I also found a thick envelope from my aunt, from whom I had not been expecting anything. Guess what? When I tore it open, I found The Greatest Thing Ever.

My aunt, Margie, is the mom of my ten-year-old cousin C (whose full name I'm not using because I think it might be weird to identify a ten-year-old on the Internet). C is an awesome kid whose interests tend to run toward science, completely withdrawing into his own head to read for hours (VERY much like his cousin Octo here), figuring out math concepts, and sharing little-known facts. Based on his usual hobbies, likes, and dislikes, he would not have been my first guess as to which of our kid attendees was going to celebrate the wedding with the most abandon.

I was wrong, though. In fact, at one point during our wedding reception, Bridesmaid/Cousin Katie observed, "I think C is having an out-of-body experience. His soul has left his body and the spirit of Michael Jackson has taken its place." C spent the entire wedding reception dancing like a madman. I laughingly told Aunt Margie after the wedding that I had no idea that C was capable of such theatrics, and she laughed back that she hadn't either, and added that, after the wedding, C sat back and announced, "that was, like.........the greatest day EVER."

Well, apparently, the good times we all had at the wedding made an even bigger impression on C than I had thought. What was in the thick envelope? Oh, only my own personal copy of my cousin's illustrated personal narrative that he wrote for school this month....



The dedication page reads, "To Carrie & Ken (us), the brand new happy couple, and to my mom and grandma, for helping me figure out I could dance."

And now, without further ado, my cousin's personal account of his experience at our wedding.

***

The Wedding Reception

We were on our way to the wedding reception, about thirty minutes after the wedding ceremony, and when we got there, there was a working mini roller coaster on the roof of the building.

"That's so cool!" I said. First I played with my cousins for a while, then I went inside to disguise myself in the large crowd. Then, my mom found me and handed me my table number, Table 14.

When we got to the tables, I found my table was all the children at the reception. Once we finished our food, me and all the other children played freeze tag, and two of the girls I was playing with played HARD-CORE, I literally got jumped on by them. When we finished I was sweating like crazy. Then I watched the pendulum, something that swings back and forth turning slightly, one or two inches every 15 minutes, proving that the earth is turning, and everyone loved that.

Then dessert came, I didn't have any for a while, but when I decided to get a cupcake, the rack of cupcakes was gone, replaced by a bunch of.....dancers. Oh no! I thought. I was always so sensitive about my dancing. I always freaked out when I did it in public; I was so worried everyone would laugh at me.

"No, I don't want to be scared about it anymore!" I said, and all of a sudden I went in. At first, I didn't really do much, I just stood there. Then I did the first thing I could think of.....acting crazy. If I was running, I would have gone a really long way. I kept doing crazy dance moves until my throat felt as dry as a desert, and I got very tired. My dad got me a drink and I calmed down, and I was ready to dance a bit more.


(Corey Ann Photography.)

I was on the dance floor for about ten minutes, then....

"You spin my head right round right round." YES! I always thought it was a pretty good song. So while they were playing that song, I was spinning around like crazy and that was a lot of fun. But then the song changed and everyone formed a circle. Oh no! I hate these even more! I thought. Some people went in right away, and my brain felt like mush. They're all so good, I thought. Then, before I knew it, I went in.


Cousin C in the middle of the circle. This may be the exact moment that his Michael Jackson spirit possession began. (Corey Ann Photography.)

I could hear my heart pumping in my ears, bump, bump, bump, the suspense building up, then, I danced like I had never danced before. I did a somersault, I did the wave, I moved my feet around like crazy, then, tap, tap, SLLIIIPPP, and down I went! But right as I was about to hit the floor, I caught myself, and turned the fall into another dance move. The crowd cheered loudly and I came out of the circle.

"Wow, that was exhilarating!" I said once the circle broke apart.


Please spot Cousin C slightly in the background, fully possessed at this point. Note: the two little girls in the direct foreground are, in fact, the HARD-CORE players of freeze tag. (Corey Ann Photography.)

After all that, some slow dances came on, and I slow danced with my grandma and my sister a bit. My grandma loved that. Then, my sister and dad left, but my mom and me stayed because I wanted to dance a bit more. At 11:03 PM, the reception ended and I was really tired. When we got back to the hotel at about 11:35, and when I finally closed my eyes to fall asleep, I fell right into a long, deep slumber.

About the Author

I am ten years old and in fifth grade. My favorite sports are skiing, soccer, and baseball.

What inspired me to write this story was all the fun I had at the best wedding reception ever! Also because it was the day I figured out I could dance! Now that is a day I am going to remember!

In the future I hope to become a chemist or engineer and to have great, reliable friends that I can trust. But most of all I wish that World Pollution would end for good. Reduce, reuse, recycle.

***

Greatest Thing Ever, am I right? Hilarious. Adorable.

Seriously though, I'm honestly really touched that attending our wedding was such a fun and memorable experience for my cousin. I haven't been to a wedding where children were invited since I was a kid myself, so I wasn't quite sure how having so many young guests would play out. Now, though, I'm so, so glad that the kids were all there, especially since the experience was so special and fun for them.

(Side note: Mr. Octo's sister polled her two young daughters about their favorite aspects of the wedding. Their answers, in order: me, my wedding dress, my veil, my bridal bouquet, and dancing at the reception. Their uncle did not make the cut. Ha!)

(Side note 2: the same little girls wore matching dresses to the wedding. Upon seeing my bridesmaids, the big sister exclaimed to the little sister, "oh, look! Those girls are wearing matching dresses too!" A-DORABLE.)

Will you have kids at your wedding? Anyone else have any cute kids-at-weddings stories to share?