Your Wedding Isn’t Your “Day To Be A Princess”

I’ll admit it – I love weddings. I have perused more than one wedding blog. I have a good idea of what kind of wedding dress I would eventually like to wear. I have an opinion on table settings and flowers and outdoor vs. indoor ceremonies. When I was a bridesmaid in both of my sisters’ weddings, I was a willing participant in the planning – I’ve looked at more Save-The-Date magnet mock-ups than I would really like to admit. One day, I hope to plan and throw my own wedding.

Weddings are beautiful. They’re a wonderful celebration of love and friendship and family. They’re also a hell of an excuse to throw a totally baller party. What they aren’t, though, is an excuse to “be a princess for a day.” You know that type of bride – the person who is obsessed with her fantasy, insists every part of her wedding is about her (and only her) and who is willing to do anything to achieve the ~*~vision ~*~ she’s been Pinterest-ing since before she even met her fiancé.

The idea that a woman’s wedding day is only about the bride is ridiculous. If you view your wedding as the one day in your life that you can live out your ultimate fantasy of being the princess that gets her knight in shining armor, the day you get to insist your friends and family bend to your will and go out of their way to satisfy your demands, you’re going to be a nightmare of a bride.

Because your wedding day isn’t your day to be a princess. It’s a day to make a commitment to a person that you are wildly in love with and want to be with for the rest of your life. It’s a day for you and your significant other to proclaim your love for each other. It’s a day for your family and friends to shower you with love and good fortune. It’s a day for everyone to get dressed up, eat good food and get a little tipsy. It’s a day that marks the beginning of your life as a married person. It’s a day with a built-in excuse to spend a lot of money and wear a dress you feel beautiful in and eat cake.

Not only should your husband, family and friends play as big of a role in the day as you do, but you’re also going to have a lot of Big Days in your life. Your wedding is just one of them. Sure, they’re are worth renting a fancy venue, but weddings are not worth terrorizing your guests into adhering to a ridiculous dress code or forcing everyone in your wedding party to perform a choreographed dance just so you can get a YouTube-worthy video out of it.

Weddings are great. Wearing a big white dress is fun. Flowers, music, throwing the bouquet, cutting the cake, having a first dance – they’re all awesome. Your wedding is an opportunity to throw a stellar party and include all the details you dreamed of as a little girl, but it should also be so much more than that. It should be about more than just being a princess. It’s about your commitment to another person and the celebration of your love.