Wedding stress: who needs it
Listen to this articleThese days, weddings are insane. The other day I read an article about how brides starve themselves to fit into their wedding dresses, which sometimes they buy a size too small as an “incentive” to lose weight before the big day. There are hundreds of websites only devoted to wedding planning. A television network even created an entire reality show around how nuts brides get planning their wedding.
I’ve been in a total of three weddings. The first being my parents’ wedding when I was two, which I don’t remember. In the other two, I was the maid of honor. Luckily, my friends weren’t bridezillas so it was more of a fun experience than a bother. But it was still a really crazy and expensive undertaking. You have to pay for the dress and your hair, plus presents for the bachelorette party, the bridal shower, and the actual wedding. Not to mention planning two out of three of those events. Plus, if your friend wants help with other stuff like save-the-dates, or making favors, or anything else they may throw your way unexpectedly, you might be looking at the bill for that as well.
My youngest sister was recently asked to be a bridesmaid in her friend’s wedding. This being her first time participating in a wedding, she was over the moon excited. I thought she was lucky because she wasn’t chosen to be the maid of honor. That was before her friend, who IS the maid-of-honor, started telling her the pre-wedding plans. A bachelorette party in Vegas? What 22-year-old finishing college can afford that? I’m 30 years old, working full-time, and I can’t afford that.
I’m sure every woman probably starts planning her wedding with the best intentions to be laid-back only to have things go wrong, get stressed out and turn into a bridezilla without realizing it. Being in a serious relationship myself, I can’t help but wonder what type of bride I might be when the time comes. I like to think that our wedding will be casual and relaxed, that I won’t care about what color the napkins are and if they match the tablecloths, but who knows? Any little thing could set off a stressed-out bride.
The most important thing to remember, regardless if you are the bride or a bridesmaid, is that a wedding is supposed to be fun. And if you can’t make that work, there’s always multiple glasses of champagne.
Emily Campbell is a perpetually single, 20-something girl-around-town who loves Shakespeare, old movies, Natty Boh, and of course, long walks on the beach. A sales manager by day and freelance writer by night, she was recently forced into a life of involuntary celibacy when her last relationship fizzled out over a text message. She’s tired of settling for second – or tenth – best, and she’s ready to find Mr. Right. Or, Mr. Nearly Right. No one’s perfect…which she has learned the hard (but hilarious) way.