Maintaining Balance

Maintaining balance in your wedding planning process is crucial to your physical health, emotional well-being and to how you interact with your fiance and the people you care about. It is easy, especially in Western culture, to get caught up in the myriad of details and material goods that go along with planning a wedding. If you feel that it is starting to take over your life however, then there are some things to keep in mind in order to maintain some boundaries:

Perfection Doesn’t Exist
There is no such thing as perfect. If any of your vendors are promising you a perfect wedding day, take that as a red-flag and look elsewhere. Perfection is unattainable and something will always go wrong on the wedding day. Realizing that up front will make you a lot happier and will make your interaction with the people around you much more pleasant.

Marriage is a Transition
Even for couples who have lived together, marriage brings with it several changes, especially on the emotional and subconscious levels. Having doubts, getting cold feet, dreaming wedding-related nightmares and suddenly thinking of your exes much more than you usually do are all par for the course in being a bride. These emotions do not necessarily make you unfit for marriage or mean that you have chosen the wrong mate. So breathe easy if you aren’t feeling excited about your wedding 24/7. You’re normal.

Feed Your Body
While it is admirable to want to be in the best physical shape for your wedding, make sure that you are going about that process in a healthy way. Hire a personal trainer, join a bridal health bootcamp or purchase an exercise DVD that you’ll actually use. Just please don’t try to fit into your dress by starving yourself, taking sketchy pills or laxatives, or anything else that puts you at risk. You do not want to be that bride who winds up in the emergency room the morning of her wedding because of poor diet and health choices. Trust me, this happens and it is not worth it.

Feed Your Spirit
Almost everyone has something that helps them calm down, center their thoughts and feelings, and basically maintain emotional and spiritual balance in their lives. Whatever your routine, don’t give it up while planning your wedding. If you usually start your day with yoga, a run through your neighborhood, coffee and the crossword puzzle, or prayer and a devotional study, then keep on doing those things while you are engaged. If you can schedule your wedding day to include your normal elements on that day too, even better. Do what you can to stay balanced and create healthy emotional outlets during a time when stress levels run high.