This week’s wedding planning advice post is taking a break from our usual wedding dress and wedding shopping tips and advice. We are discussing a topic related to overall wellness and confidence for brides leading up to your wedding day. Wedding planning is a stressful process with a lot of moving parts and details to consider and it can be an overwhelming time for many brides to be. We want to help all brides navigate this journey and feel their most confident and beautiful leading up to their wedding day so they can walk down the aisle feeling their best.
This week's advice is all about how to become more confident, change your mindset while accepting your body and loving yourself for your wedding day!
At Lovella, we see so many brides every week as they are coming into the store to try on wedding gowns. We hear from so many of them that they are nervous or have anxiety about certain things. Stressful periods of life can certainly bring out our anxiety. This is especially true if you do not like being the center of attention, and as a bride, you will be the main focus of your wedding day. We have all the tips and tricks to help you become more confident and change your mindset for the positive as you lead up to your wedding day so you can walk down the aisle feeling beautiful and confident.
Focus On Your Love
As bridal stylists, we can see brides in our bridal store while they are wedding dress shopping at a fairly vulnerable time. It can be very overwhelming to try on wedding dresses and there is often a lot of pressure to find “the one” dream wedding dress. We are often asked how brides can be more comfortable and confident in their wedding gown when they may be fighting with their nerves and anxiety.
As a bride, you are so happy to be marrying your person and are probably excited to be planning an amazing wedding celebration with your family and friends. Many people can forget how nerve-wracking a wedding day can be for the couple getting married. You may be so focused on planning such a big event for all your loved ones that it is easy to get caught up in what everyone else wants or thinks you should do. You don’t want to lose sight of what you and your partner want. Remember that your wedding day is about you and your partner and your love for one another.
We know it is easier said than done, but try to not lose that focus on what will make your wedding day special and meaningful to you as a couple. Don’t let others' input or opinions cause you to become insecure about your decisions when it comes to your wedding dress or any other part of your wedding day.
Positive Self Affirmations
With all the aspects that go into a wedding day, from choosing a location and catering options, to design elements like what color your wedding party will wear or what style of wedding dress you will wear, it is easy to become overwhelmed. You likely have a group of loved ones helping with your wedding planning, whether this is your parents, a beloved aunt, or your best friend, and they are bound to have their own opinions on how your wedding day should look or feel.
It can become easy to lose sight of what you want and to become insecure about your wants or even your own body based on all of the voices around you. Sometimes our loved ones mean well but can say things that really cut deep and are hurtful. They often don’t even realize they’ve caused hurt feelings, but once it’s been said, it is hard to undo.
Other times, it’s our own mindset and our own inner thoughts causing the damage. Negative thoughts can be influenced by something someone said to us once, or things we see on social media, and are hard to un-think. If you are constantly having negative things to say about yourself every time you look in the mirror, you’re going to be bringing down your self-confidence. In this case, it will help to practice positive self-talk and positive affirmations.
No Negative Self-Talk
Insecurity and negative self-talk is not going to do you any favors leading up to your wedding day. It’s going to affect your mood and your energy, and so we want to change the way you look and think of yourself every day and most especially on your wedding day.
If there is a certain part of your body that you are insecure about, we encourage you to embrace this. Every body is beautiful and every bride is going to look amazing on her wedding day. When you look in the mirror, change those negative thoughts. Think and even say out loud that you love your body, your freckles, your nose - whatever it may be that you don’t feel the most confident about. Repeat it as your new mantra, even if you don’t believe it at first. Thoughts are powerful, and eventually, your mind will believe what you are saying.
If you are not going to uplift yourself and say kind things to yourself, then who? It starts with you and then as your confidence exudes people will notice your new self image, but it all starts from within.
Love Yourself First
It is so important for us to love ourselves because in order to love others we must have love for ourselves first. You must love yourself first so that you have love to give and love to share. Love starts with yourself.
There is a quote from Buddha that we at Lovella, and our Wedding Fashion Expert, love: “What you think, you become.” It’s a simple concept, but one that can have a huge impact on our self-thoughts.
If there is a person or something that is bothering you during the wedding planning process, we encourage you to take that negative thought or phrase and turn it into a positive one. Even if you don’t believe it, even if it’s not a fact, turn it around and make it a positive thought and it will become fact.
Write it down, look at it every day, and read it out loud every day. Words are so powerful. Let your brain hear those words out loud rather than just think about them. Let those positive words and affirmations really sink in.
Be Kind
You may not necessarily have an immediate change. It's not a magic spell, it's a work in progress and you need to constantly remind yourself of the positive. You don’t have to completely ignore the negative thought. Acknowledge it, change it to a positive thought, and over time you and your brain will start to believe it.
If you're having a difficult time through the wedding planning process or things seem to be going wrong, instead of saying “I can't wait for this wedding to be over” or “I want this to be done, I'm so sick of this” try thinking of it in a positive. Take a deep breath and turn those frustrating thoughts into “I’m on this journey. This is a once-in-a-lifetime journey at this moment.” This specific moment is uniquely yours for the rest of your life and we want you to enjoy it, or at least accept the process and not rush through the important moments.
Advice From Past Brides: Don't Stress
We hear from many of our Lovella brides after their wedding day that they look back on the whole process and realize they stressed so many small details and wish they had just enjoyed it more. The small things will not turn out to be a big deal, so don’t waste your energy stressing about them.
In the end, the big picture is that you are marrying your person. You are planning an event to celebrate your love, so focus on that and be kind to yourselves. Be kind to the voice in your head when you look in the mirror and when you look at your body and criticize yourself. Let other people’s negative self-talk and criticisms bounce off of you and not invade your thoughts.
Remain positive and happy and enjoy your life and you are sure to feel confident on your wedding day. Remember to enjoy the process and the journey of life you are on- even after the wedding day!
Video: How to Improve Your Self-Confidence, Change Your Mindset, & Love Yourself for Your Wedding
If you are looking for more insight and advice on improving your self-confidence and loving yourself for your wedding day, be sure to check out this week's advice video with personal advice from our Wedding Fashion Expert.
More Helpful Advice
For even more helpful advice for feeling your best and most confident leading up to wedding day, be sure to check out our past posts:
- Wedding Weight Loss: Everything You Need To Know About Fitting Into Your Dress
- Tips For Managing Your Period & Cycle For Wedding Day
- How To Overcome The Most Common Bridal Insecurities
- Advice For When Wedding Planning Goes Wrong
About Lovella
If you're shopping for your perfect wedding dress, come visit us at Lovella Bridal in Glendale, CA. We carry wedding dresses in all sizes and styles, including plus-size bridal gowns and a full selection of veils and accessories. Lovella Bridal is the premier, luxury bridal wedding dress shopping boutique located in Los Angeles, California. Lovella features couture, feminine, modern and chic bridal gowns in all sizes from the best wedding dress designers. Schedule an appointment to find the wedding dress of your dreams at Lovella Bridal. We can't wait to help you!
About Wedding Fashion Expert
Our wedding dress shopping tips and advice are from Nayri, Lovella's own, in-house wedding fashion expert. Nayri is truly the expert when it comes to bridal fashion and wedding style. As the Wedding Fashion Expert, Nayri is the top bridal fashion stylist and the best-selling author of the book "I'm Getting Married And I Have Nothing To Wear," the ultimate guide to helping brides find their wedding day style and their perfect wedding dress. You can subscribe to her YouTube channel or listen to her podcast for more helpful and practical advice on wedding dress shopping.
