Weddingbee Blog

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The post-ceremony portraits were kind of a crazy blur. As soon as we finished our recessional down the aisle, the Heinz Chapel coordinators whisked us back downstairs with the rest of the bridal party. Have I mentioned Heinz Chapel has a policy or two? One of them is no receiving lines allowed (which I was actually thrilled about—receiving lines are not my jam). Anyway, we had to be sequestered away for about ten minutes as our guests cleared out of the Chapel, lest an impromptu receiving line form.

Then, we were whooshed back up to the altar for a round of family formals. I will not show you all of them, because there are LOTS!

Here’s a tip from my photographer to me to you: before the wedding, list all the portraits that you want to have taken. Start with portraits including elderly people and children, whose stamina for picture-taking will wane the fastest. Also, start with the largest groups and work your way down by pulling people out, rather than putting people in and trying to re-arrange. Finally, nominate a person who is a) not your photographer and b) not in the majority of the portraits to be the wrangler and shot-caller. Bridesmaid/Cousin Katie’s mom, my aunt Cathy, did this job for us, and nailed it. She had our shot list, announced the people who should be in each photograph, and as a result, our formal portraits were breezy, painless, and finished twenty minutes ahead of schedule.
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“Dearly beloved, we are assembled here in the presence of God and these witnesses to celebrate the joining of this man and this woman in the unity of marriage. There are no obligations on earth sweeter or tender than those you are about to assume. There are no vows more solemn than those you are about to make. There is no human institution more sacred than that of the home you are about to form. True marriage is the holiest of all earthly relationships. The state of matrimony is based this deep, invisible union of two souls who seek to find completion in one another. Do you understand this?”

“We do.”

After our short and sweet welcome and declaration of intent, Mr. Octo’s sister Kristine stepped up to deliver our first reading.

(All photos courtesy of Corey Ann Photography.)

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The pre-processional began with Groomsman/Brother Adam escorting Grandma Octopus up the aisle. This is another of my very, very favorite photos, because of how lovingly my brother is looking at our grandmother.

(All photos courtesy of Corey Ann Photography.)

Next up were Grammy & Poppa Octopus.
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As planned, my bridesmaids and I rolled up to Heinz Chapel chauffeured by Mom Octopus in her slammin’ Dodge Caravan. She pulled into the primo spot right behind the Chapel, and the parking attendant informed her, “oh, I’m sorry, ma’am, this spot is reserved for the bridal limousine.” Bridal limousine? You’re lookin’ at it, buddy. Bridal minivan or bust!

Oh, I’m sorry, what was that? You’d like some pre-ceremony chapel eye candy? Sure, I guess I can show you a little somethin’.

(All photos courtesy of Corey Ann Photography.)

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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.
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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…

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This is my favorite post, because, when I re-read it, it brings me right back to how happy and grateful I was feeling when I wrote it. Mr. Octopus was a truly amazing source of support during the year I spent in grad school, and this post I wrote for him came straight from my heart. Sometimes I let the little details and stresses of life get in the way of the big picture, but this post always helps me to focus on the big stuff: how much I love my husband.

~~~

Hive, I got myself a master’s degree today, and I’m pretty pumped about it. But this post is not about me. It’s about Mr. Octopus.

This year, I had the chance to pause my career and throw myself into an education that was incredibly challenging and immensely rewarding–a fulfillment of a dream, really–and I never, ever, ever could have done it without my fiance’s unconditional and fully-enthusiastic support.

I learned or re-confirmed a lot of things about my future husband in the past nine months. Mr. Octopus is the kind of man who:
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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 lay 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 7:00 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 8:00 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 8:00 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!
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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 worked, 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

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

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OK, 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!
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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.
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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)

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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.
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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.”
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