Weddings + Food
“How To Lose 20 lbs Before Your Wedding”
“Lose 30 lbs For Your Wedding and Keep It Off!”
“Get Rid Of Your Love Handles Before Your Wedding”
These are actual blog/article titles on the internet.
Part of me thought I was strong enough to not let this societal norm creep into my thoughts… WELL, I was wrong. It’s a loud topic that sneaks into the minds of nearly all women and men when wedding planning.
The morning of the start of my wedding dress search I thought to myself.. “should I skip breakfast?”
MIND YOU I seriously have not skipped breakfast since December of last year. I made it a strict goal this year to not skip breakfast and here I was considering it because of a wedding fitting. Agh. I ended up ignoring the thought and ate. I was very glad that I did.
While trying on dresses, no one told me my sizing because they use those big metal clamps to make the dress fit your body, no matter how big or small the dress is. I was overwhelmed with happiness with each dress I put on, as every soon-to-be bride should be. But this all came to a halt when the woman sized me at the end.
She told me my sizing and I asked “what happens if I gain or lose weight before my wedding next September?” She looked at me with a confused face and told me that they leave a small bit of room for error. To me, that isn’t enough. Truly, what happens if I do gain weight? Do I have to buy another dress? This started to stress me out. I thought “THIS is why women diet. THIS is why.”
Who the hell knows what size I will be in a year.
What scared me is knowing that I have a wedding dress that was sized for my August 2022 body for a wedding in September of 2023. Obviously I am aware that it’s ridiculous of me to ask them to accommodate that, but it upset me nonetheless. Wedding dresses need to be sized and ordered nearly a year out so they have enough time to make all the adjustments. This brought out some disordered thinking.
I actually called the dress shop later that week to ask if it’s possible to order a larger size just incase, and they said absolutely. I was just curious what they would do to accommodate this fear. I feel like I have finally hit a “set weight” that my body likes to be at. Since January I have been eating the same as I am eating now and I haven’t had huge fluctuations like I have in the past with restricting and dieting. For those who are still navigating weight fluctuations and overcoming your ED, this may not be a place you’ve arrived at and that’s OKAY.
You don’t need to diet to fit in a dress. The most important thing is to find what weight your body wants to be at because that is sustainable long term, this may take some time. Keto diets and no-sugar diets are not sustainable… This is when you’ll experience drastic weight fluctuations. Especially during wedding planning, trust your body, love your body where it’s at, and understand that you don’t have to be a certain size to enjoy your big day.