An engagement is an important milestone, but also a sign of a journey. Most brides-to-be know that once they receive a proposal, the real marathon of planning a wedding begins.
One of the main concerns on the mind of every future bride is how she will look walking down the aisle. For most women, their wedding is one of the most anticipated days of their lives, and they want to look and feel their best before it happens.
Most weddings take over a year to plan, so you have plenty of time to look and feel your best. Here is a balanced plan that can help you achieve your goals in harmony with your body.
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Find A Regular Exercise Routine
One of the most important things you can do for your well-being on the day of your wedding is to develop a regular exercise routine. Exercising often can help you look better by toning your muscles and making you the best version of yourself.
However, you don’t want to create a drastic exercise plan that will consume your life and make you look drastically different. Prioritize forms of exercise that promote body awareness and overall well-being over dramatic changes to your appearance and routine. Your exercise routine should work with the rest of your wedding preparations, not conflict with them.
A solid exercise routine can also have other benefits on your wedding day. Weddings are as exhausting as they are fun. Brides often get up early to get their hair and makeup done and then have to stay up late to see all the guests home, with hours of photographing, dancing, and ceremony in between. An exercise routine helps you gradually build endurance.
Exercise is also a great way to blow off steam when the wedding planning process becomes too stressful. Taking time away from your wedding planning binder to take care of yourself and relieve stress will help you feel more positive about the wedding as it is coming up.
Work on Your Posture
In preparation for your wedding, one important thing that you can do for your body is to work on your posture. Improving your posture will make it easier to stand all day without feeling strain on your back and neck.
Better posture also looks better in pictures. You don’t want to get your photos back and realize that you’re slouching in all of them. A bride with good posture looks like a confident, happy bride, no matter what she’s wearing or how she looks.
One way you can improve your posture is by making a conscious effort to avoid slouching throughout the day. Periodically check in with your body as you are sitting at your desk or walking around, and make sure that you straighten up.
Different forms of exercise can also improve your posture. Exercises such as pilates and barre strengthen the muscles of your core and back, making it easier to stand up straight. These workouts prioritize good form while working out, getting you into the habit of checking your posture.
Improving your posture is something that will serve you long after your wedding by helping you look better and reducing your back pain.
Prioritize Gut Health
In the run-up to your wedding, think about your gut health as you plan your meals. Foods that are good for your gut health are probiotics such as yogurt and kimchi, vegetables, and essential fatty acids such as fish oil.
Long-term benefits of a healthy gut include less bloating, less inflammation, and clearer skin. By prioritizing your gut health for a few months before your wedding, you will look healthy and glowing on the actual day.
Working on your gut health can also help you deal with unpleasant symptoms on the day of the wedding itself. For many people, nerves manifest themselves in a nervous gut. Many brides report spending their wedding with stomachaches or running to the toilet whenever they get nervous. By building your gut resilience ahead of time, you can minimize these unpleasant symptoms on the actual day.
Prioritizing gut health means avoiding anything that wreaks havoc on your digestive system, such as juice cleanses and crash diets. Many couples turn to these “solutions” in the hopes of losing weight quickly for the wedding, then wind up feeling sluggish and unhealthy the entire day. Most of these alleged quick fixes don’t work anyway. Glowing thanks to your overall wellbeing will make you look better than losing a few pounds quickly.
Have Realistic Expectations for Your Body
Many brides go into planning for their wedding expecting a complete transformation. They expect to drastically lose or gain weight, completely change their body shape, and look like a different person on their wedding day.
These expectations are just set-ups for disaster. The journey to such a drastic transformation may have negative consequences on your appearance instead of positive ones, making you look tired and withdrawn. Such a drastic transformation will consume your life when you should be enjoying your time as a bride-to-be.
Drastic transformations rarely work, so instead of feeling happy on your wedding day, you will feel disappointed that you didn’t meet your unrealistic goals. Even if you do achieve your goal of looking completely different for your wedding, it’s worth asking if that’s what you really want. Do you want to look back on your wedding photos and not recognize the person in the white dress?
When creating a plan for your wedding, instead of dreaming about drastic transformations, you should aim to be a better you. You want to be a little more energetic, fit, and glowing, not a completely different person. These goals are actually achievable with minimal disruption to your routine.
Working with realistic expectations for your body makes the process of fulfilling your plan enjoyable rather than a slog. It also means you’ll enjoy the benefits of your journey after your wedding, rather than focusing all of your efforts on one day.
Increase Your Hydration
Three simple things will help you look and feel a lot better for your wedding day—hydration, hydration, and more hydration.
Drinking more water is one thing that most people should be doing for their health. Hydration is crucial for overall well-being. It fuels your body and gives you more energy. If you’re starting on a new exercise routine in preparation for your wedding, then hydration is going to be particularly important as you prepare your body for more exertion than normal.
Hydration can also help you look better on the day of your wedding by improving your skin and gut health. Water flushes out toxins that are in your body that can cause health problems, making you look better and feel more alert.
Drinking more water does a lot for your overall wellbeing, but it isn’t a miracle cure. It will take a few weeks before you see the full benefits of hydration. The habit takes months to build. Start working on your hydration in the months leading up to your wedding.
Develop a Skincare Routine
If you don’t have a skincare routine, the lead-up to your wedding is the best time to develop one. A skincare routine that you work on for months will yield better results than using a few products in the days before your wedding and hoping for the best. Applying your skincare in the morning and at night is also a simple way to decompress after a long day of work and wedding planning.
If you’re unsure of where to start with skincare, talk to a professional dermatologist. Mention that your goal is looking better for your wedding, and the dermatologist can help you settle on a routine with that goal in mind.
Professional advice can also help you know when to schedule procedures, such as facials with your wedding in mind. Many brides make the mistake of scheduling intense dermatology procedures right before the wedding, making their skin sensitive and irritated on their big day.
Work on Your Mental Well-being
As much as weddings are a great day for the couple involved, they can also be very stressful. Wedding planning is a logistical endeavor that often falls on the bride’s shoulders. Weddings can also bring up old wounds, such as difficult family relationships.
Developing a plan to prioritize your mental well-being before and during your wedding can help you feel better throughout the big day. Your mental well-being is also connected to your physical appearance. Stress can lead to breakouts, stomach problems, and an overall dull appearance.
Practices such as meditation, yoga, and gentle exercise can help manage stress. Work on these practices in the lead-up to your wedding. Grab a few quiet moments on your wedding day when you need them to decompress with these techniques.
Looking and Feeling Great on Your Wedding Day
Feeling your best on your wedding day can also help you look your best.
In the lead-up to your wedding, healthy choices such as regular exercise that works with your body, gut-healthy foods, and a regular skincare routine will make you look your best self. These choices will also give you confidence, helping you look and feel good.
