It’s not a myth. It really does exist.  It can be found in any bride and varies upon age, personality, experiences, hydration levels, diet and exercise.

I have worked very hard to keep mine in check.

However, it has crept up on more than one occasion to say the least.

The first melt down happened fairly early on while talking to my mother on the phone during my lunch hour while I ran to the post office.  I remember her telling me something about family members wanting to know the date of the wedding so they could make sure they would be able to make it and I went from zero to bitch in about two seconds and started screaming at the world in general,

“Why couldn’t these people just effing wait for the effing ‘Save The Date’ cards!”

I have to give my mother a lot of credit.  Instead of escalating herself and making the situation even worse, she calmly told me to breathe, that everything was going to be ok and that family just wanted to celebrate the big day with us.  She assured me that we weren’t behind in sending the cards out and that I was allowing that thought to fuel my crazy.

It worked.  I breathed.  I calmed down.  I ashamedly realized how ridiculous I was being.

Then it hit me – I was causing myself more stress by imposing outlandish expectations on others (my fiancée was printing our cards for FREE when he got a free moment) and even more so on myself (I wanted them in the mail and I wanted it done yesterday!)  In addition to that we had regular everyday stressors with work and home and then boom! We got hit with a sudden diagnosis for Drew to have back surgery.

Needless to say, the ‘Save The Date’ cards didn’t go out until weeks later; but they were still sent within the timeline parameters that conventional wedding planning guidelines suggest.

The earth didn’t stop spinning.  I didn’t die because the cards didn’t go out when “I” thought they should go out.  Nobody had an apoplectic fit and foamed at the mouth.

All is well that ends well.

So, my point to all of that – is – YOU and ONLY YOU can stay unfazed by wedding stress.  No matter what timeline you give yourself to plan your wedding, get organized and be realistic and know that things will go awry.  Deadlines will be breached, but in the end, you are still going to marry the love of your life and your day is still going to be a wonderful celebration of that.

Hope that’s helpful.

Hugs.

Kat