He asked to Marry YOU!

 

 I normally write about Southern traditions, but today’s blog is about something very non-traditional; dramatically changing your appearance for the day of your wedding.  The desire to lose weight before walking down the aisle is a topic for discussion that occurs often between myself and the Brides who hire me to plan their weddings.  I have always been concerned about the number of young women who become obsessed with making dramatic changes in their appearance in an attempt  to look “perfect” as they walk down the aisle.  I’ve never been prone to write about it before until now,  you see I just finished reading an article on the internet that was entitled “The K-E Diet: Brides-to-Be Using Feeding Tubes to Rapidly Shed Pounds”  It seems that there is a Doctor in Florida who is selling a diet that boast a 20 pound weight loss in just ten days.  He accomplishes this weight loss by inserting a feeding tube down your nose that runs into your stomach.  The Doctor asserts that pounds are shed through a process called ketosis.  He goes on to call it a hunger free way of dieting. The advertising is geared to lure women into believing that the human body is capable of losing twenty pounds without any discomfort and danger in a very short period of time.  It sounded too good to be true and after checking with a few physician friends of mine, I can assure you, it is. While it is true that the body will lose weight through the process of ketosis, to say that it is a hunger free way of doing it or that it is safe to drop twenty pounds of body weight in ten days is simply not true. A quick look on Google for the side effects of being in a ketonic state tells a much different story.  Renal failure and Cardiac Arrhythemias, are just a few of side effects that can occur from being in a ketonic state for more than a few days. 

While it is no secret that many brides feel they must lose weight before they walk down the aisle.   If you want to lose weight, lose it for good.  You cannot starve yourself or put yourself into a state of ketosis and expect the weight loss to be permanent.  Your metabolism just doesn’t work that way.   Any weight loss that is going to stick has to be achieved through behavior modification.  In other words you have to eat less and move more. The equation used for all weight loss is calories in vs. calories out.  To lose weight and keep it off you must modify what you eat through portion control.  Moving more burns more calories. The weight stays off because you have changed your behavior concerning food and movement. If you don’t modify your eating habits and increase your movement you won’t achieve lasting weight loss.

However, you should consider one important thing before you make any dramatic changes to the way you look on your wedding day.  It is very possible that if you change the way your look before you walk down the aisle, you are going to freak out your fiancée.  I can assure you, this is a true statement.  Do not forget that your fiancée fell in love with YOU, all of YOU.  He loves YOU so much that he talked to your Dad.  He saved for a ring.  He conjured up the courage to ask YOU to marry him.  So if you are planning on any big changes, be sure you realize that it not HIM you are changing for.  A drastic change in the way you look (and twenty pounds is a drastic change!)  for your wedding day  is guaranteed  to FREAK HIM OUT.  The simple truth is that your fiancée loves the way you look, in fact, he loves everything about you. He can’t wait to see YOU walking down that aisle towards him on the day of your wedding. It is as great a comfort for him to see YOU  as it is for you to see HIM. I’m not saying you shouldn’t look your best on your wedding day.  Of course you want him to remember the way you looked on this day five, ten even twenty years from now, just in mind that you want it to be a pleasant memory. 

My advice for this here is simple. Never buy a dress that is too small.  Don’t turn your skin orange. Keep your makeup simple. The glow of your love for the man at the end of the aisle is the most beautiful thing you will wear on your wedding day.

About Janie Glade: Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana and a graduate of Loyola University New Orleans, Janie started her career in special event planning at the age of 23 in the sales office of the Omni Royal Orleans Hotel. In 1998 Janie started “An Event to Remember” and began planning special events across the United States on a full time basis.

After Hurricane Katrina, Janie opened “Weddings by Janie Glade”. In August of 2011 she expanded her Wedding Planning services to include a partnership with her daughter Marylyn Rigby and opened Old.New.Blue, a Wedding Necessities Boutique and Gift Shop on Magazine Street in Uptown.

Old.New.Blue: 6117 Magazine Street, New Orleans

Twitter: @OldNewBlue

 

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