The Wedding Dress, the Mermaid Bag, and the Best Third Date We've Ever Witnessed

Forget dinner and a movie.

If you want a date night that actually makes you remember why you like each other, come in wearing a wedding dress.

Or tiny hot pink shorts. A shimmery mermaid bag. A gold beanie. Whatever a stranger with twenty dollars and twenty minutes at a used clothing store decided you deserved.

That's exactly what one of our favorite couples did.

The deal was simple: twenty minutes, twenty dollars, find an outfit for each other at the thrift store. Wear it to the studio. Neither of them knew what was coming.

She got him hot pink shorts, a mesh top to match, a little shimmery bag that said mermaid on it, and a gold beanie. When he walked out he looked like a disco mermaid who had absolutely no regrets.

When she went into the bathroom to change, we heard the scream from across the studio.

He had gotten her a wedding dress.

Full tulle. Every layer. Plus a button up sweater and a Pokemon hat because apparently he had a vision.

They painted in those outfits for their entire splatter session. The wedding dress ended up extraordinary, every layer of tulle catching color differently, a full rainbow soaked into something that was never supposed to be art and became it anyway.

While he was changing, she leaned over and whispered that they had a bet going that whichever outfit we thought was better, that person won. We didn't even hesitate. Obviously, we're siding with you, we told her. Ladies stick together. High fives. Done.

We ended up talking with those two for an hour after their session ended.

Neither of them wanted to leave.

We learned he'd gone into marine biology for his love of the ocean, only to discover after starting work that he got seasick and had to pivot to tech. We learned she crochets. Frankie does too, so the two of them immediately made plans.

It was their third date. He was head over heels. You could tell just watching him watch her.

A piece of their art.

That's what play does. It gets people out of their heads and into the actual moment. The wedding dress, the mermaid bag, the screaming from the bathroom - none of that happens at dinner. None of it happens in a movie theater either.

But it happens here all the time.

When you throw paint together, you're not performing a date. You're just two people being ridiculous in the best possible way, and that ridiculous moment becomes the story you tell for years.

The science has a name for it. Sure.

Novelty and play together spike oxytocin, the bonding hormone, and dopamine, the one that makes your brain light up with excitement.

But honestly you don't need the research. You just need to watch a girl in a wedding dress hurl paint at a canvas and a 6ft tall guy in hot pink shorts and a mesh top and laugh until she can't breathe.

Leave the reservations for another night.

Come make something you'll never forget.

Like we will never forget those two. Ever. 💜👣