I Can't Feel My Face

Although wedding planning is extremely stressful and overwhelming, there are perks and exciting things that come with it, too. One of those being... taking engagement photos!

I had been looking forward to our engagement shoot for months. We planned to wait until March when the weather started warming up (this was being planned in January). I had my outfits picked out and locations nailed down.

We opted to shoot on Saturday, March 16th. The first location was scheduled to be at Little 5 Points, but, forgetting about St. Patrick's Day that Sunday, Little 5 was not an option. So, we went ahead to Atlantic Station. Atlantic Station was also crazy busy with early St. Patty's celebrations but luckily, the crowds/festivals didn't really affect our shooting and we got some great shots. Making great progress, we decide to stop and grab a bite to eat before heading to our final location, Piedmont Park. In order to catch the perfect lighting and to avoid any more Atlanta traffic, we sat and had Willie's right outside of the park. I should say Chazz and our photographer had Willie's, I drank my dinner, in the form of a margarita (it was worth the calories).



We eat, chat, talk wedding/life stuff and move on to finish our pictures before the sun sets completely. Our photographer has us move to this rock ledge so she can get the sky line behind us. She has us sit (which was little difficult up there in a dress and heels when you haven't been able to wear heels in two months due to a broken foot) on the ledge to get a couple sweet shots of us. As we're sitting there, I'm thinking to myself, "ow, these rocks are really uncomfortable and hurting." I readjust a few times because sitting on rocks in a dress isn't comfortable. Finally, we get to take some pictures standing. As I stand up and straighten my dress, I notice ants on my legs! Trying to avoid a scene (and probably with the help of that margarita) I am calmly brushing the ants off of me. OK, it was actually a little frantic as I panic to get them off. I lift my dress up slightly and ask Chazz if he sees any. His response, "babe, watch your dress out here- stop hiking it up!" to which I responded, with a glare, "Chazz, I have been sitting in ants, I do not care about lifting my dress up!" 



The shot that caused the ant bites







Luckily, we were done at the rock ledge and we could change into our casual outfit (skinny jeans for me). I didn't really feel a lot of bites at that moment, again, I think due to that margarita. We walk down to the dock to take pictures at the lake when I say to Chazz, "I can't feel my top lip." I'm a little worried because I am allergic to bee stings and although I have had reactions in the past, never to ants and no part of my face ever went numb. Chazz kind of brushes it off so I figure I'm being paranoid. We're smiling, kissing, holding hands, ya know, all the stuff you do when you take pictures that portray your love for one another, when my bottom lip went numb. I say to both Chazz and the photographer, "OK, I can't feel my bottom lip now. Should I be worried?" No one makes a big deal about it, I think I'm still being a hypochondriac. Then I feel my inner ear burning, and I feel relief if I scratch it (oh God, I'm Hitch right now! -was what I was thinking). Still, no one notices anything weird about me so I try to ignore it. Then my eyes started feeling itchy, I thought it was those dang false eyelashes until our photographer asks, "Are you OK? Your eyes are really red." Then I feel itchy on my arm. I show Chazz where I'm itching and say, "am I breaking out in hives?" He looks at me and says, "no, you're fine. You have one little bump on your neck, it looks like a bug bite (oh, like an ANT BITE?)."

Trying to stay calm and trust those around me we set up our next shot. I'm smiling although I can't feel my face, lips specifically, and am now unsure about continuing this. Suddenly, Chazz pulls my face toward his and says, "oh babe, I think you're breaking out." Unable to see myself, I already know what's happening. I'm breaking out in hives, only I'm unaware my face is swelling. I take a snapshot of myself to see the damage and PANIC. It's unreal. I'm snapping at Chazz, needing to get out of there ASAP before someone sees me or before I like, die. Chazz thinks it's appropriate to call me Hitch at that point. It wasn't. It was too soon.




In the car at CVS

 Chazz is trying to remain calm in my state of panic, but his calmness is making my panic worse, because he's clearly not taking this serious. We GPS the closest pharmacy and he runs in to find Benadryl and Calamine Lotion while I'm stripping down to my underwear and scratching frantically in the car. We get home, I rush to the shower to make sure the ants and their venom are gone. The shower was terrible, as it had to be cold and the Benadryl  hadn't kicked in. Finally, it kicks in and I go right to sleep (I am extremely sensitive to Benadryl, add that to the list). My face is back to normal in about 24 hours and even with about 40 ant bites per leg, the ER was avoided.

So, the bad news is that, along with bees, I'm allergic and I should probably have an EpiPen on me like my dad used to carry. The good news, our pictures weren't completely ruined and Chazz still loves me literally, at my worst.



I'm a pretty princess