Bridal pictures

Psyche!!!! No pictures for you! Well, not yet at least.

However, this past Tuesday we did my bridal pictures. Doing pictures of just the bride serves a couple of useful purposes. First, it reduces the total amount of time spent taking pictures on the day of the wedding. This is important because it means Eric and I will get to the reception, and by default, the food, faster. Second, it gives the bride an opportunity to do a full-dress dry run. Taking the pictures helped me get used to putting on and taking off the dress. I got to know how the dress worked, how the crinoline and bustier worked, and most importantly, how the dress worked on my body. I was actually afraid of the dress until this past Tuesday. Handling it with kid gloves, etc. However, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that as a heavy silk/satin gown, it can really take a beating!

Believe you me, it was tested on several levels. My photographer, Chad, is a very talented artist. He took us (and by "us" I mean Holly and myself. Holly did my hair for me and helped me in and out of the dress, in and out of different locations, and was a generally supportive human being!), all over the place for these pictures. We were in front of an old church, in a wheat field, at his studio, and on the street in the little town of LaGrange, NC.

While we were shooting in the wheat field, I was standing there in the middle of the wheat, actually enjoying myself and the breeze, as he took shot after shot. At the end of the shoot, Holly and I began the task of gathering up my dress to avoid having it drag on the ground. When we get the dress up, I look down and what do I see? A spider the size of Texas is running up my dress between the layers of tulle. Well...

Anyone who knows me, knows that one of my two fears on this planet is spiders (the other is water). Apparently neither Holly nor Chad (the photographer) liked spiders either because the next thing I know Holly drops her end of the dress and is a quarter mile down the road, I am in an absolute panic yelling at Chad who was the only one of the three of us with a penis to get the fucking spider off my dress while jumping up and down in heels in the middle of this wheat field.

I finally jump up and down enough for the spider to lose it's grip on the tulle and fall out onto the sheet I was standing on to protect the dress. Chad and I were trying to kill it as it is attempting to jump back up onto my dress. Chad finally shows this spider an untimely death and I am jumping through this wheat field with my dress practically over my head trying to make it back to the car.

I have since seen the pictures, and they are absolutely amazing. But make no mistake...I was about 1 more minute from dropping trou right there in the wheat field and turning my dress over to the spider. I would have had no problem just buying another dress if I had to.