Bride Survival Guide: How to Get Mentally Wedding F.I.T

Every bride naturally wants to look physically fit on her wedding day (just search ‘wedding diet’ on Pinterest), but what about being mentally fit for your wedding day?

Between the budget woes, bickering relatives, or negative self-talk, the emotional stain is taxing on any bride–to say the least.

Why does all this anxiety comes out of simply trying to celebrate your new life with your soulmate? Better yet, how’s a bride to find the resilience to keep her peace of mind?

Fitness instructor (and WeddingMix bride-to-be!) Kali, gives some straight-up eloquent wisdom on how every bride can use their focus, imagination, and trust to overcome the mental stress of wedding planning and truly enjoy her big day!

Kali is getting married this Valentine’s Day!

Don’t overwhelm yourself wedding details and trying to please EVERYONE (Hey, who am I to talk? Mine is only a few weeks away and I’m doing tailspins) but you know what they say: those who can’t do…teach, right?

A person can be “FIT” in many ways. Normally we think of physical fitness, but it’s more than that. I’m speaking as a fitness instructor myself, and how to achieve a physically fit physique has taught me a lot about strength, in all its capacities.

Are you strong enough not to crumble under all the wedding day pressure? To face the fact that you can’t keep everyone happy or that you may have to settle for other ideas if the finances just aren’t available to cut it? What if really important family members can’t make it, or worse yet, what if feuding family members can? The list goes on and on.

For me, it has come down to these three things: FOCUS, IMAGINATION AND TRUST. At the end of the day these things are free (bonus!) and at the end of the day, they are all you really need to plan a spectacular wedding day.

FOCUS

This one is tough for me, I’m a multi-tasker at heart, but this whole wedding process has taught me that sometimes it’s important to focus on ONE thing at a time. My first major area of focus was deciding who would be in my Bridal Party, and then it spiraled from there, I had to focus on finding a venue, doing my research, asking around, taking advice, and learning when to leave advice at the door. Then my focus had to become more and more zoomed in to the details of the actual day: the time schedule, the seating plan, etc… I began by trying to do multiple tasks like this at the same time and realized I wasn’t any further ahead as each one was simultaneously left undone. It’s thoroughly annoying to have to go back and tie up loose ends later. Write down your to-do list, pick one task and STICK to it. Focus on it until it’s complete, trust me, you’ll be glad you did.

IMAGINATION

As we continue to “grow-up” we continue to lose this. Our imaginations. When I was a little girl I imagined myself in a twirly white dress, with lipstick and heels, “wowing” the crowd. As I’ve gotten older and my wedding day has gotten closer, I’ve caught myself saying:

“Oh no, am I small enough?”

“Is my skin pretty enough?”

“I need to lose more weight!”

“Gain more muscle.”

“Put DOWN that cookie.”

Huh? What happened to my childlike sense of beauty? No worries, no inhibitions. In my imagination I was flawless, spectacular, and I was going to strut down that aisle no matter what. So recently, I’ve been trying to find that, my imagination. I used it to conjure up my dream dress (which I will be wearing soon!) also to put together my wedding colors and decorations. I used my imagination to find cost effective ways to do all that I desire for my big day (see my previous post).

I also used it while perusing sites like Pinterest, Facebook, Wedding blogs, wedding magazines, etc…I kept dreaming. Instead of stressing myself out, the process became fun! I even imagined having a fake wedding cake FULL of cookies, that my groom and I will exchange instead of cutting the cake (I am actually working on this, seeing if I can make it happen). You just never know where your imagination will take you. Make your wedding different, make it unique. Don’t conform and ditch the negative self-talk right now!

TRUST

This one is HUGE. With only a few weeks to go, people keep asking me questions about this and that. My response has continually been “I’m trusting that it will all work out.” Seriously, that’s all you can do. All the energy, time, money, and effort you put into planning your wedding day, has to be backed up by “trust.” Trust also implies letting go, passing off duties to other people. Trusting the weather to cooperate. Trusting the loved ones you’ve included in your big day to help you shine. A friend recently told me that as long as I end up married to the love of my life, that’s all the really matters. Everyone will celebrate with us, regardless if a minor (or perhaps major) detail gets missed. Let go, and get excited!

Are you WeddingFIT?