Weddingbee Blog

When Mrs. Mouse proposed the idea of sharing our high school selves with the world, I hesitated. Do I go all out and share my embarrassing amazing photos of me on the drill team freshman year? Do I blur out the faces of the innocent from my dance photos? Do I talk about the best year of high school, which, despite the serial monogamist I am, was my senior year, when I was single and had the best group of friends a girl could ask for?

The answer, for all, is a deep, resounding YES! Get excited, hive, ’cause we’re about to hop and skip down memory lane!

Let’s just start with the worst. My freshman year, I was co-captain of the “drill” (read: dance) team and for the homecoming performance, we borrowed jerseys from the varsity football team, and ended the dance by doing a dog pile—with yours truly at the bottom. I was choreograph-dragged off by my fellow teammates and the yearbook photographer caught this little gem just prior to the dragging:

This experience is a prime example of the hierarchy placed on certain boys in the social order (beyond elementary school, where the boys who picked their nose were just gross and the ones who washed their hands were gorgeous). It was THE biggest deal which boy’s jersey you borrowed for the dance and, at the time, it was THE thing we girls talked about for weeks leading up to the performance in front of the whole school.

Today, eleven years later, I have NO clue whose jersey I ended up wearing. In the end, it didn’t matter—just as the social status of that boy whose jersey I donned has been lost over the last ten years, so has the social pressure and fear of choosing someone who is “cool.”

On another wedding note, What I DO remember about that experience is that I loved my hair that day—I had seen it the night before on an episode of Charmed worn by Alyssa Milano and I was excited to try it out. I actually trace my love of and desire for braids in my hair on my wedding day:

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I love Mr. Pencils. He is absolutely my favorite person in the whole world and my best friend. I could not have asked for a better partner in life. However, I gained something in high school that I think has made me an even better wife: a sense of perspective and value for a really great set of girlfriends.

From freshman year to junior year, I dated one guy. One person. For three years. Needless to say, I was silly and somewhat stupid and I let myself wrap my world around this one person. We spent so much time together that it was assumed what each spare moment of my day—lunch, after school, weekends—would be spent doing (spending time with him). Then, my senior year, he went off to college and we broke up.

And it was the best year of my life. I finally became the friend that my friends deserved. The friendships that had sustained me when I cried over this silly boy changed me into an independent, strong woman. Because of my senior year and this group of amazing girls, I became the woman that Mr. Pencils would someday want to marry, and I learned that what makes a partnership work is not only time spent together but time spent APART.

Mr. Pencils and I have separate areas of the house that are “ours.” We typically spend at least part of our weekends apart, with separate friends or just doing things on our own. I owe this sense of perspective to this group of women (I’ve blurred out the faces of all except Cara and Alison, whom you’ve seen photos in for the wedding).

These women showed me the value of friends that are simply there for you, at your lowest moments in high school, and at your highest moments, when you’re about to marry the love of your life:

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Can I just add one SILLY life lesson I DID learn in high school that greatly helped me on my wedding day?

For my senior prom, I borrowed a fun blue dress from a great friend, got my hair done up right and then promptly wore WAY too much make up. Need another view?

You can see gorgeous Cara, who was an amazing bridesmaid, and myself. Do you notice the major faux pas? Yes, that is a very pale face that in no way matches my skin tone and MAJOR eyebrowage happening- overly reddish brown eyebrows in fact. Why, oh why did I ever pick up an eyebrow pencil?

Thank goodness I did learn my lesson for the wedding day!

All actually good photos (and those with the watermark) copyright of B. Scott Photography