Your wedding is going to be terrific.  You have spent many, many months ensuring that it will be.  There will be things that can go wrong, and they might, but it still will be YOUR day.  You will be the centre of attention, and much like they say about babies, there are only BEAUTIFUL brides!

One area where you might find LOTS of opinions in preparing for your wedding is the pressure to lose weight or make changes to your appearance to fit a model’s impossible ideal of what a bride should be. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t strive to achieve a healthy ideal, rather that you should avoid all those crashes and fads and regimes that people will try to talk you into.  At a recent Bridal Show, I heard those aerobics bunnies trying to bully the chubby girls into a high cost membership to a gym!  They didn’t sound overly concerned about health, more about selling and meeting quotas.  In a perfect world, we would all strive for health and an improved fitness level on a daily basis, but someone should take a moment to remind you that your fiance loves you exactly the way that you are.  He has chosen to spend the rest of his life with you.  At this stage, odds are that he has seen you without a stitch of makeup, in sweat pants and with that lovely few extra pounds of bloat that crop up from month to month.  He still loves you, he still wants to spend forever with you, so why would anyone stress themselves trying to become someone that they aren’t for just one day?

Dresses come in all kinds of flattering shapes, and in all kinds of sizes, so the perfect dress is out there for you, no matter if you are size 2 or size 22.  Struggling and stressing with a crash diet before your wedding to be one dress size smaller is not healthy for you.  That being said, eating chocolate bars to combat stress in the weeks before the grand occasion, instead of making healthy choices is also not the best route for you.  My suggestion is to take really good care of yourself in the months & weeks leading up to your big day.  It is very easy to get frazzled by budgets and by making families happy and by obsessing over every detail that needs to be attended to.  Here are a few things that you can bear in mind in the months leading up to your wedding day:

Eating well ~  You need to make sure that you are eating healthy, well-balanced meals.  Spaghetti-O’s over the sink at 10pm won’t quite cut it in the long run! 

Taking vitamins ~ To maintain energy (they even make special formulations for High Stress!) is also a very good idea.  The last thing that you need is to become run-down and get ill right before the biggest event of your life!

Relaxation and Meditation ~  These can be great stress busters.  Make sure that you take a little bit of time for yourself.  Make sure that you relax and regroup, rather than working at your job for 40 hours and your wedding plans for 50 hours every week!

Pamper Yourself ~ A long, hot soak in a bubbly tub is also a great way to over come pre-wedding jitters.  Put on the radio or a tape & sing at the top of your lungs. (Remember, what you lack in vocal talent, you can make up for with ENTHUSIASM!)
Have a facial, get a manicure or get a massage at a spa.  You don’t only have to have this treat on the day before your wedding, go in a few months before the big day and just have some fun!  Use it as a ‘trial run’, for the spiffing up you plan to do for the actual event.  “Really honey, I HAD to do this, it’s research!”
Get your hair done.  Again, this can be a ‘trial run’.  Get a trim to keep your hair healthy and get a deep conditioning treatment.  Don’t do anything drastic that you will regret. Don’t dye it blue if you haven’t ever done that before, don’t hack it all off in frustration because you were having a bad hair day & couldn’t find any of those clippy things on your way out the door.  Just be good to yourself.

Increase Fitness ~ Yoga, stretching and toning will also make you feel great.  If you’ve never done it before, I’m not talking the Madonna kind of Power Yoga with your leg twisted up over your neck, I mean simple stretches that will help your posture and your breathing.

Maintanence ~ Remember to maintain the lifestyle that you are accustomed to.  If running 3 miles and bench pressing 250 is part of your daily routine, then keep it up!  That is what will make you feel good.  If listening to music and reading a book is your daily routine, then leaping on a StairMaster in a frenzy while wrapped in Saran Wrap 2 weeks before your wedding day will probably cause you pain and do more harm than good in the long run!

When there is still so much planning to do, it is hard to take a moment and listen to that little voice inside of you.  Try to remember how lovely and special you are, no matter what.  You don’t have to try to become another person, you would never want your mate to make a transition like that, it would probably scare you, so why would you do that to him?  Be yourself and keep it all in perspective. 

Don’t crash & burn!  Glow and Sparkle and be the STAR that you are!