How being a bridesmaid taught me to embrace my inner fancy bitch
When I got married two years ago, budget budget budget was the focus of the day. This meant forgoing a big expensive dress, keeping costs low on the honeymoon, having a lunch instead of a dinner wedding. Looking back on my wedding, I have no regrets and didn’t miss wedding planning afterwards. But then I got invited to be a bridesmaid for my little sister. Upon hearing that I could choose my own dress and shoes, something deep deep within me that had been suffocated since my own wedding has reared its head.
I thought I was friendless: how my wedding put social anxieties into perspective
I’ve always thought of myself as pretty unsociable. While my husband is Mr. Sociable. In fact, my initial vision for the wedding was a very small gathering — the two of us, our parents and brothers, a total of 11 people. Obviously this was never going to fit with my other half’s plans and we ended up having about 100 people there. This was the cause of enormous and paralyzing anxiety to me in the run-up to the wedding day.
Introvert wedding survival guide for shy or socially anxious couples
I’m in love with love and I love weddings. You’d think, then, that I would have been excited about the prospect of planning my wedding when I got engaged, but I wasn’t. You see, I’m an introvert, and I’m closer to the extreme end of the spectrum. So, the idea of not only going to a party, but of planning a party in honor of my fiancé (who is also an introvert, albeit more social than I am) and me made us both want to run away screaming. After much reflection, however (see definition above), I came to a few conclusions that I thought I’d share in the hopes of helping fellow introverts deal with the idea of a wedding in their honor…
Dear Bridal Industry, we need to talk about “looking pretty” on our wedding day
Dear Bridal Industry, I will not allow myself to become caught up in your ideals of what a bride “should” look like. I will not become sucked into your standards of beauty, ones that are different from my own. I will not let you dictate to me what pretty is, and isn’t.
Speaking of which, here are more things I refuse to do…