Do you need to be wedding dress ready?

You get the ring, you set the date and then you find the dress. The one you are going to say YES to spending the rest of your life with your soul mate. The one thing that should make you feel incredible and princess like when you wear it. HOWEVER for a lot of brides to be this isn’t the case. They feel the stress to look a certain way for their wedding, maybe they feel they have to lose weight to be able to wear their dream dress and walk down the aisle. Well ladies I am here to say this shouldn’t be the case and if you are a bride to be I hope this helps you realise that you are more than a dress and it’s time to ditch the wedding diet culture.

So many magazines telling you the perfect wedding diet and telling you to shred to be wed. People asking you how you a prepping for your wedding, what diet are you on, have you thought about doing so and so. Believe me I know I got all of these and unfortunately they won’t be stopping anytime soon. There is this pressure for everything to be perfect including you. Don’t get me wrong I am all for you aiming to look and feel your best on your big day I know that was in the forefront of my mind but don’t mistake your best being a smaller version of yourself. Taking steps to look after yourself a bit more is 100% fine and if it kick-starts a fitness/healthier eating routine I’m all for that but please don’t fall into the trap that you have to go on a diet and excessive exercise routine to drop X amount of weight/dress sizes to be the perfect bride. You are already the perfect bride in the eyes of the one who loves you.

The first thing I will say is when you are looking for the dress please allow your body to do the talking – dress for you, your body and what works for you the best. What shapes and styles do you feel the most comfortable in, what will have you strutting down that aisle on the big day. Even though I tried on a load of styles I always knew the type I wanted and when I found mine it was everything I wanted in a dress and even at the first try I felt incredible. Be open minded and allow yourself time to get a feel for the dress.

I would like to take a moment to thank the incredible team at Emma Louise Bridal, Bolton where I got my dress. They were lovely through the whole process and never once made me feel uncomfortable and in fact didn’t put any pressure on when it came to sizing etc. From the moment I walked in looking to the day I took my dress away they were perfect and I would highly recommend.

I absolutely loved my dress it suited me and my body, I felt like a princess wearing it and no way uncomfortable. I didn’t have that moment you see in films where they find the one, instead a had a feeling that needed to grow. The second time I tried it on it was a definite yes. On the actual day I still had the same thoughts of feeling amazing and loving it, but the most over riding feeling that morning was wanting to see my husband to be and marry him. The dress was a secondary thought, believe me all you will be focusing on is the actual day. You are surrounded by the people you love about to celebrate one of the best days of your life. And once the pictures have been taken the dress becomes forgotten about. By the end of the night I had hitched mine up so I could dance and ripped holes in the armpits by dancing too hard haha but totally worth it.

The wedding prep I did to feel ready was nothing extreme. The last thing I wanted to do was add more stress to an already stressful time. Instead I just made sure I was feeling my healthiest both physically and mentally because for me that’s when I feel my best. I made sure I exercised to feel good using that hour to just focus on me. The week leading up to the wedding I stripped it right back to light exercise to help enter into a state of calm (it kind of worked 😉 ) Just like my training plan my diet was no extreme. I ate as normal but the closer we got to the big day I just made sure I was staying away from the foods that caused my IBS to flare up, drinking plenty of water and thinking about getting those vitamins in so my skin was on point 🙂

And on the point of IBS flare ups mine are also triggered by stress so as much as I could I aimed to keep as de-stressed as possible which meant time outs, decent sleep and self care days.

The main thing I am trying to say is it is your wedding day, the day you will remember for the rest of your life and the day you get to marry the love of your life. You do not need to change who you are in order to do that nor do you need to feel stressed an uncomfortable. Being wedding dress ready in my opinion is finding your dream dress for your body that makes you feel incredible. Nothing else matters.