Asheville Mountain Air

I had my bridal portrait this weekend, and it was wonderful for 3 (three) reasons:

1. I had it in Asheville at a mountain lake, and it was a beautiful day.
2. I spent the whole day with my sister Amanda.
3. It forced me to get over of my WEDDING DRESS FEAR.

Up until yesterday I have been pretty much terrified of my wedding dress.  I pull it out of the tiny closet into which it is crammed at the moment, and this is my inner monologue: “Oh my gosh is it touching the ground?  I have it flopped over my arm right now, is that crushing the delicate details?  Is it getting wrinkled?  If I pull it over my head will I get lotion or sweat or dirt on it and stain the fabric?  If I step into it, what if I step on it and A SEQUIN FELL OFF!!! MAYDAY MAYDAY!  A SEQUIN FELL OFF!!”

Pathetic.

My dress had me tamed, but I have turned the tables, friends, and the tamer is now the tamee.  Or tamed.  Or whatever.  I put that thing on, put my long-suffering sister through buttoning about a thousand buttons on the back, hitched it up to my knees, and promptly waded through some tall grass and mud to stand by a fetching willow.  By the end of the day, I had climbed a tree in my dress, flopped all over a faux stone bench in my dress, rubbed it up against a cement column, entwined it and myself in some ivy (and lost some leaves down the cleavage, awesome), climbed up a waterfall and nearly plopped my veil and train in the water before same long-suffering sister rescued it, and did any number of other very mountain-climby type things, shedding sequins every step of the way.  It was great.  Now I can move in the thing, I’m not terrified to sit down and thereby remove all beading and detail from the butt (leaving me with, as my sister called it, “shiny butt”), and I’m not afraid to bend over (though I now know my limitations in that area).  I can lift my arms, twist my torso, and I have got the perfect technique for how to hold it up off the ground to walk around.  My WEDDING DRESS FEAR has turned into WEDDING DRESS EXPERTISE, and I will feel like a pro on my big day.

So, ladies, the lesson here is – if you aren’t planning on getting a bridal portrait, I recommend liberating your dress from the confines of its vinyl plastic garment bag, slapping it on, and traipsing through a park or mall or similar.  You will get lots of attention, get lots of practice, and also get to wear it more than once!

PS – We had a fantastic engagement party as well this weekend, where I got to meet a lot of wonderful people from my darlin’s hometown.  Thanks, mom and dad and mominlaw and dadinlaw!  We loved it!