Weddingbee Blog

Hey, hive. Anyone familiar with no-shave November? Well, as much as Mr. A would have loved to participate this year, his new-found position as a security officer pretty much made that decision for him. You see, after probably seven years of having a beard (his school system actually allowed full beards in their dress code and he was able grow one starting in ninth grade!), Mr. A had to shave that adorable baby face of his for work.

Now I know what you’re thinking: So what? No big deal, Miss A! And you would be right, of course. The fact that Mr. A is now a clean-shaven dude of the working world really isn’t a big deal at all, in retrospect. But for Mr. A, shaving his face was a HUGE DEAL. He doesn’t feel like himself without facial hair, and to be honest, after being with him for three years and only knowing him with facial hair, the change was definitely something I had to get used to, too. When he first did it, I’ll just be honest: he looked WEIRD. Maybe because his skin was crazy white underneath that beard, or maybe because it looked like a child’s head had been Frankensteined on a grown man’s body after the hair came off. Whatever the case, I would constantly find myself staring at him while we were watching TV or in the car together. It just didn’t look like “him” without the beard. For comparison, here’s a side-by-side photo:

On the left, Mr. A getting ready for the annual charity ball / On the right, Mr. A and I this weekend at a USO 1940s benefit dance

He was mostly worried that he wouldn’t look like himself in our wedding photos, and I totally get that. I would equate it to me having to chop all my hair off for a job and then be short-haired for the wedding, in which case I definitely wouldn’t feel like I was “me” at my absolute best. But I think now that he’s been clean shaven for a while, he’s gotten used to the beardless dude staring back at him in the mirror. I know I have! And really, Mr. A looks pretty adorable whether he’s rocking the beard or not. The only slight wedding-related inconvenience I’ve run into with the whole non-beard situation is this:

Noooooooooooo!!!

For his own peace of mind, we’ve discussed the possibility of him asking for permission at work to start growing a beard a week before the wedding (he gets pretty substantial growth in that amount of time). But if that plan fails, I have no doubt it will still look like Mr. A up there at the altar on our wedding day. And to be completely honest, he’s perfect to me whether he has facial hair or not. It just might take a little convincing for Mr. A to believe it!

Did you or your significant other have to alter your physical appearance in some way prior to the wedding? (And SUPER-IMPORTANT QUESTION: Should I paint over the beard on the peg people version of Mr. A for our cake topper or leave it as is for posterity’s sake?)