You Must Be Bridled by Your Bridal Regime

I read wedding blogs. Yes, I know. Don't laugh! Honestly, when you are planning a wedding and have no idea, Google is your best friend. And oh boy does your new bestie know lots of new places for you to find a million ideas, help you obsess about things you didn't know existed before, and of course, aid you in tremendous losses of time. (Insert endless cache of bridal blogs out there.)

Of course, one thing that keeps coming up as a blog topic is the "Bridal Regime." You know what I'm talking about. The I'm-changing-how-I-eat-and-wash-my-face-and-sleep-and-work-out-because-I'm-getting-married-in-X-amount-of-months regime.

This bride does not look as horrified as I feel knowing this really exists. Source.

And, sadly, I get it.

I get the desire to be the most beautiful that you can be on the day that you cross over into the great forever with the one person who makes you complete. I get the need to be gorgeous and perfect in the costly photos that you will show to your children and children's children (and anyone else who will be gracious enough to look). I completely understand that it is the one day in your life where you get to be a real princess and everyone loves you and (pretty genuinely) oohs and ahhs over how wonderful you look. I really feel it that you want to feel perfect. I do.

But...

I get sad when there are girls like me (read: Plus Sized or Full Figured or Husky or Whatever Other Supposedly "Feel Good" Euphemism people tend to use in order not to say fat) who are torturing themselves to fit an unrealistic stereotype of the "Perfect Bride." I mean, that person to whom you are engaged loved you when they asked you to marry them and you were not the stereotypical "perfect" then and they still loved you enough to want to do forever together.

(I will now step down from my soapbox.)

But this is about me. And yes, I'd love to be a size 4 on my wedding day. I know it will not happen. I'm trying to minimize the cost of wedding day flowers, so I just cannot afford that much lipo. Instead, I am using my wedding as a way to reinforce the lifestyle changes I engaged in last April because I want to be healthier, live longer, and enjoy life more... even after the wedding.

I'm eating more of these. Lots more. They are really, really yummy. Source.

I have to keep in mind that there's a lot more life after the wedding and it's called marriage. And looking perfect in my wedding dress does not guarantee marriage will be better than if I looked a little less perfect. My Bridal Regime is really just the beginning of a Lifestyle Regime.


On the flip side, there are plenty of brides who are completely comfortable with themselves and are changing not. a. thing. for their wedding days. I appreciate this immensely. So if you're one of those, have another cookie for me and keep loving you for you because that's just great.