Wedding Advice: Tips for Pre-Wedding Self Care

 

Tips to Practice for Self-Care During the Pre-Wedding Process 

Self-care is always important, but it’s even more so when you’re getting married. Use these tips to find out ways to practice self-care during the wedding planning process. Celebrating your and your partner’s love, surrounded by your closest friends and family, is the fun part of the wedding. But the planning that you must do to get there isn’t always easy or relaxing! From trying on dresses to viewing venues and everything in between, taking care of all the details needed for the perfect wedding can take its toll. It’s all too easy to get caught up in the whirlwind and forget that you need to take care of yourself, too. 

That’s why it’s so important to practice self-care and to pay attention to your mental, emotional, and physical health along the way. Doing so will ensure that you can fully enjoy your big day without being burned out. 

You should prioritize and reframe self-care as an essential part of the wedding planning process. Here’s how: 

Set Boundaries 

Making your entire world about your wedding may initially sound wonderful, but it’ll catch up with you. It’s important that you know your limits and communicate them to the people around you. 

You can set boundaries by creating specific times when the wedding planning gets put on hold, and you focus on other things that bring you joy and relaxation, whether those are your hobbies and interests, or just taking a break from wedding-related conversations. 

You could also set boundaries by delegating some of the tasks in the planning process. A wedding planner is a good way to do this. My recommendations for preferred planners are here. They can take over some of the more tedious tasks, which will mean less work for you and more time to enjoy your engagement. It’s also OK to ask your partner, family, and friends to help you with planning. 

 

 

Practice Stress-Reducing Techniques 

Stress-reducing techniques like meditation, yoga, and exercise are important aspects of self-care. Practicing meditation, for example, can help you to feel more level-headed and calmer during the wedding planning process, as moments of deep introspection tend to clear perspectives. Exercising also releases endorphins, which can leave you feeling happy, healthy, and relaxed. 

Take a Scented Time Out

Scientists are increasingly able to prove what we’ve known for ages: aromatherapy really works! It stimulates our noses’ scent receptors and these send messages to our brains. Specifically, the limbic system that governs our behavioral and emotional responses. 

Popular options to relieve anxiety and stress include chamomile, clary sage, lavender, orange, and sandalwood essential oils. 

To indulge in a little pre-wedding self-care you can add essential oils to your bath or shower or buy scented candles that feature these amazing, relaxing smells. You could even get your partner to massage you with them to get to the areas you can’t reach alone. 

Write Yourself Into a Better State of Mind

Journaling is a highly recommended activity at any stage of our lives, but it can be particularly useful in the wedding planning phase. It will help you to organize your thoughts as your big day approaches, where you need to stay on track most of all. 

All of us need some kind of outlet to stay sane, and brides-to-be particularly so. Weddings are emotional events, and there’s stress involved no matter how positive our feelings are. Journaling your thoughts and feelings can let you process all your emotions, and who knows? Some of what you write down may even make it into your vows. 

Your journal will probably turn into a treasured keepsake, too. Our engagements are such romantic chapters of our lives and by journaling, you can relive the time whenever you open the book. 

Eat Well And Drink Lots Of Water

Wedding planning can be draining, and an easy way of boosting your energy levels is to stay hydrated. Drinking lots of water also helps with clearing your skin and managing weight. 

If remembering to drink enough water is a challenge, you could eat fresh fruits like watermelon and cantaloupe as they have very high-water contents and are loaded with all the good vitamins and minerals that’ll get you to glow! 

Before leaving the house for any big planning, consider starting your day with a bowl of oatmeal or whole wheat toast. These foods boost serotonin levels, which also improve your entire mood. 

Furthermore, running between dress fittings and vendor viewings can mean that you don’t have as much time to eat properly. Make sure that you keep a bag of walnuts, almonds, or pistachios handy. These nuts are loaded with omega-3 fatty acids that can level out your stress hormones. 

 

Make Room For Quality Time 

Planning your wedding often involves your friends and family, but the busyness of it all means that there’s not as much time for connecting with one another. Make sure that you spend time with them outside of all the wedding-related activities—whether that looks like a coffee date, a movie night, or a stroll in the park for 15 minutes.

Making enough quality time with those you love the most will ensure that your relationship with them remains strong. It’ll also give you a much-needed break from all the wedding talk.  

Indulge Yourself 

There’s no finer time to give in to your guilty pleasures than during your wedding planning process—except for maybe when you’re indulging each other on your honeymoon! For now, so much of your day is taken up by booking caterers and arranging seating charts, so it’s completely fine if you enjoy an indulgent glass of wine, a luxuriant bubble bath, or any other sublime self-pleasure that helps you to relax and unwind.

Take a moment to think of what you’d always like to do for yourself but never feel you deserve. Then go out and get it. It’s important that you feel special during this process and remind yourself that you deserve to be taken care of too—by you! 

Get Your Beauty Sleep 

Just about everyone knows the phrase, but it often gets ignored with late-night planning sessions. Stress that’s related to the wedding can also keep you up at night. 

Sleep is so important to your health and well-being. It’s foundational to maintaining energy levels, reducing stress, and proper digestion. So, make sure that you get your eight hours in. This will leave you feeling and looking your best on your wedding day. 

If you struggle with falling asleep, try some meditation techniques or a natural sleeping aid to help you to snooze. 

Focus On Your Engagement

Try not to view your engagement as just one other stepping stone in the wedding planning process. Look at it as the start of your journey with your partner and treat it as the beautiful thing that it is. Celebrate it with a photo shoot, set up regular date nights, or indulge in a romantic getaway that celebrates everything that you love about each other.

Some couples even go to premarital counseling, where they talk about other stresses related to getting married, like how to work with finances together or to compromise on values. You’ll be able to learn valuable communication techniques that you can use during the wedding planning process as well as long after the wedding. 

Focusing on your engagement and your partner will remind you that you’re a team and that you’re working through this process together. 

 

Final Thoughts on the Tips

While there is, no one-size fits all approach to self-care, putting it off until after your wedding day will ultimately leave you with more exhausting memories of the process than exciting ones. 

Remember that your wedding is about you and your partner and that your planning process should involve self-care. Look after yourself so that you can get married as the best version of you!

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Written by Katie Colon

All photos shared in this blog are shot by Miranda Suess, Suess Moments photography.