Avoid Adding Stress to Your Wedding Planning

The strain of planning the biggest celebration of one's life is stress enough. There is no need to add stress to the wedding planning process. Yet that is exactly what numerous brides do every year.

How?

They order their wedding dress one or two sizes too small in the expectation that they will loose weight in time for the wedding.

Unfortunately, it rarely works.

Why?

First, the stress of wedding planning. We all know that during times of stress many people do not tend to be successful loosing weight and some even gain weight.

Second, the parties. The engagement period is like the time between Thanksgiving and New Years. Especially the final four months are a time of concentrated celebration. And celebration means sweets and rich foods. And that is not even taking into account the fact that the bride will need to do some cake tasting along the way when she chooses her wedding cake!

Third, the discipline. Most of us have been at our present weight for a while. If a bride has not been able to loose weight before the wedding when their schedule was not nearly as demanding then it is not reasonable to believe that she will be able to be disciplined when her schedule is crazy is and she does not have the time to cook properly and workout regularly.

Finally, the risk. What happens when that custom made dress comes back and it does not fit? A wedding dress can usually be taken in, but rarely can it be taken out. If a bride assumes that she can loose weight and fails she might be scrambling in the final days before the wedding to find a dress that does fit - even if it is not the dress of her dreams.

All is Not Lost

So what should a bride do that has already ordered a dress on the assumption that she will loose weight?

• Don't give up. Weight loss can be achieved during the wedding planning process. It is just harder.
• Look into a weight loss plan that is specifically geared for the needs of women. Let's face it. Men and women have different bodies (thankfully!) so their weight loss needs are significantly different.
• Control the stress through good planning. That is to say, a bride should take the time to sit down and figure out exact what look she is trying to achieve and what she will need to accomplish that look. This approach will avoid the mistake of racing around wasting time gathering elements that a bride thinks she needs, but really just gets in the way of her goals. As they say, sometimes less is more.

The wedding planning period of a bride's life should be a wonderful experience. But with so much to do the best plan is to take time to plan and decide what is really most important to the couple regardless of whether we are talking about reception decor or the bride's weight loss.