In my best dress, fearless.

My mom and I have shared a vintage floral dress for years, passing it back and forth, but I have never been confident enough to wear it (I don’t like how my shoulders look in strapless dresses). I tried on a bunch of dresses a few weeks ago to decide what to wear to the track, and when I tried on the vintage dress, Brad said, “You HAVE to wear that to Shoulders’ wedding.”

When we went to Ohio for the wedding, I packed it along with a back-up dress. Recently, it has been really important to me that I wear clothes either my mom has seen me in or that belonged to her.

The day of the wedding, I tried the floral dress on (expecting to change into the back-up dress), but Brad made a big fuss of it, showering me with compliments. He told me to go show his Aunt Andrea, to get a second, womanly opinion (if I didn’t believe his). When I showed Andrea, she teared up. In that moment, I could imagine that my mom probably would have had the same reaction.

I went from feeling uncomfortable and insecure in the dress to confident and giddy.

While at the wedding, to everyone, Brad kept saying things like, “Don’t you love Lauren’s dress?” or, “Doesn’t Lauren look amazing?”

I told him he was being so sweet, to which he replied, "You deserve to feel beautiful in this dress." While I was absolutely basking, the guest on the other side leaned into Brad and said, “I wish my fiancé would hype me up like that.”

Honestly, I feel bad for every other woman on the planet, because somehow, through twisted fate or some shit, I landed the biggest hype-man of a partner.

Later, while we were taking photos, Brad told me to “Give my dress a twirl,” and I can’t remember the last time I felt that carefree. He made me feel like the only person in the room. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought it was our wedding.