It has happened that I am the official photographer of the guys getting ready and Mariah stays with the ladies. Why is this? Because Mariah is more girlie than I am and a large group of unruly men crammed into a hotel room drinking beer doesn’t  intimidate me. Even though Mariah and I are not married to each other, we are both hetero and are both female, it appears that she is the girl and I am the guy  in our relationship. I do the burly lifting, changing of flat tires, and fixing of crisis moments. When I was little I liked making mud pies, and although I liked dolls and dressing up, it never would have occurred to me to want to be a princess! I may not have been a tomboy per say, but I have always felt more guy-ish when it comes to fashion and activities. I hate wearing heels and fitted clothes and I love target shooting and ATV’s.  I don’t have any siblings, but I did have 2 boy cousins who I saw often. My cousin Kenny was only 10 months older than me, so we played together all the time. I would love it when we went to his house so that I could play with his Hot Wheels track, Lincoln Logs, GI Joe and train set, those were SO AWESOME!!! (BTW Being mom to a 7 year old boy is working out great for me). The low point of this apparent non-girlie situation was in third grade when a friend was playing at my house and saw my first grade photo and asked if that was my brother! Horrified and not wanting to tell her it was me, I said, “Yes, that’s my brother Michael”. (I didn’t have a brother, but my name was going to be Michael if I was a boy). I have added some photos to help illustrate the above comments, cause I’m not kidding!

But the fact is I AM a girl, and nothing has made that more apparent  than my time spent with the guys getting ready before the wedding. Men and women are barely in the same species! Since I am somewhat of a fly on the wall skulking around with my camera, I hear all kinds of things that I think are not usually said in mixed company. I truly had no idea that men could be THAT crude, so it’s been an education to say the least. Every now and then someone will declare “Dude, there is a lady in the room!” and I thank you for that! But I realize that it’s just “guy talk” and I judge you not  (and hold all things I hear in strict confidence) because for that short amount of time, I’m just one of the guys.

So for my guys that I will be photographing this season, here are a few helpful ideas  that I have learned in my experience and wanted to pass along to you …

1. Check out the Under Armour T Shirts that wick away the sweat and block odor, you’re  welcome!

2. Learn to tie a Bow Tie BEFORE the wedding day! YouTube has lots of how to videos.

3. Try your suit on before you leave the store! Make sure it fits, is the right color, and is not stained. (eww, but true).

4. Have a sewing kit on hand for buttons that might fall off , and no I won’t have time to sew it back on for you.

5. Get a stain stick and some white chalk for blood on the collar after any shaving snafus.

See you soon!

Trish