You’re a bride-to-be planning your dream wedding while also juggling a fast-paced and potentially stressful career.

…you are experiencing high levels of stress AND other unwanted symptoms like anxiousness, fatigue, mood imbalance, digestive disturbance or skin breakouts.

…you want to feel amazing by your wedding day but feel overwhelmed with how to get there.

Does this sound like you? If so, you’re in the right place! 

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Imagine this…

Your dream wedding in all its glory, with you at the center – feeling completely confident and glowing WITHOUT any stress or anxiety.

You feel resilient, calm, & relaxed, and can see the bigger picture of the day.

You’ll start the next phase of your life feeling amazing from the INSIDE OUT, allowing you to thrive in all areas (career, family, etc.) and…

…you’ll look back on all the amazing memories you made, knowing that you got the very most out of one of the most special days of your life! 

Now, doesn’t that feel good?

I want to share with you 3 important things you need to know about getting on the path to becoming a blissful bride!

 

Secret #1: Get the stress cycle to work with you, not against you

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Most brides think that they should be reducing or eliminating stressors in their lives in an effort to find perfect “balance”.

The reality is that building resiliency to stress through getting your stress cycle to work with you is much more transformational, as it allows you to move freely through the ebb and flow of life. This approach is also much more realistic because your wedding experience (and life!) is full of stressors that are outside of your control.

 

So what is the stress cycle? A basic version goes something like this…

1. Stressor (ex. Comparing yourself to another bride on social media)

2. Fight or flight system engages (sympathetic nervous system)

3. One of the stress hormones, cortisol, is released

4. What comes next is likely that the stressor is removed or finishes (ex. You put away your phone and go back to work)

5. Now just because the stressor is gone doesn’t mean your body is in a rest state yet, you need a cue or signal of some kind that you are SAFE from the threat, aka stressor (we’ll talk more about that in a minute)

6. Rest / digest system engages (parasympathetic nervous system)

7. Rest state

That’s the complete cycle.

 

I want to emphasize something important here:

Reduction of the stressor doesn’t mean you’ve addressed the stress itself.

We often get stuck in an incomplete stress cycle because we don’t get that cue/signal that we are safe from the stressor – which is likely because we are stuck in constant stress-activating situations (which is very common during wedding planning because we are exposed to WAY more stressors than usual). 

When we’re stuck in an incomplete stress cycle, we can experience symptoms like anxiousness, fatigue, moodiness, irritability, low immunity, brain fog, skin breakouts, digestive disturbance (bloating, gas, etc.), and abdominal weight gain.  

In order to get “unstuck” and for our body’s stress cycle to work WITH us, we must be able to…

Rid our bodies of that “stress juice” (aka cortisol).

Flushing cortisol from our systems following a stressful event gives our body that SIGNAL we need in order to move fully into a rest state. This is an act of building our resiliency to stress.  

At least once per day, you must engage in an activity that will flush cortisol from your system, i.e. COMPLETE the stress response cycle for you.

Overall message:

 You don’t need to put pressure on yourself to reduce the stressors in your life…

 You can instead build your resiliency by getting the stress cycle to work with you.

 

 

Secret #2: “Wedding planning stress” doesn’t go away after your wedding day

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Most women think that wedding planning stress is temporary and melts away once the wedding day arrives.

The reality is that stress manifests into other symptoms like anxiety, fatigue or mood imbalance that will stay with you on the big day and beyond.

Stress lasts for days after an event.  Studies show overtime, this is linked to chronic conditions.

One study found that lingering stress from a single event was associated with an increase in chronic conditions and functional limitations nearly 10 years later. 

 

You likely haven’t been told that “wedding planning stress” is a REAL and serious issue impacting brides across the world…and is therefore something that should be up there with your top wedding planning priorities (along with items like finding the perfect venue or dress).

 

 

A 2017 survey by Zola found that 96% of brides called wedding planning stressful, and 40% of them used terms “very” and “extremely” to describe the stress. It also found that 86% of brides experienced on average at least three or more stress-induced symptoms (i.e. manifestations of stress) such as anxiousness, mood swings, short temper and skin breakouts.

It is essential that you address your wedding planning stress before it manifests into long-term symptoms that will negatively impact your wedding day, marriage, and life! 

 

 

Secret #3: The hidden risks behind popular approaches to getting ”wedding day ready”

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Most women think that focusing on their external appearance is the key to getting wedding day ready.

The reality is that it’s a holistic approach which leads to transformation (from the INSIDE OUT).

The popular approaches to getting “wedding day ready” focus only on external appearances and are full of potential health risks. Namely, crash dieting and extreme workouts are not sustainable for the long term and will leave you feeling WORSE OFF on your wedding day.

One example of brides going to the extreme to get “wedding ready” is from a NY Times article. It featured two women who were preparing for their wedding by doing an diet called “KEN” (ketogenic enteral nutrition). This involves a feeding tube which provides only 800 calories per day for 10 days. Extreme low-calorie diets like this are associated with side effects like kidney stones, dehydration, headaches, loss of muscle mass, hormonal imbalance, and quick weight REGAIN because your metabolism slows way down in an effort to protect you.

This is, of course, an extreme example and I hope none of you are considering it! It unfortunately highlights how crash dieting is gaining new ground in the bridal world, whilst in the mainstream health and wellness space it is well known as unhealthy, ineffective and simply outdated.

Thankfully, there is a better way! The approach I take with my bridal clients is holistic and focuses on how you actually FEEL on the inside (the stress you’re experience, your mental/emotional wellness). In my experience and based on results from my clients, I know without a doubt that a bride who feels good on the INSIDE is a bride who truly GLOWS on the outside.

Photography by Nicole Field Photography

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