Getting Married 7 Months Pregnant

My husband proposed to me WELL before our wedding and before I got pregnant. We booked our dream venue and were moving forward steadily with our wedding plans, dropping non-refundable deposits all over the place.

I will never forget the day I tried on my wedding dress. I kept telling the girl at the dress shop about how I was having the WORST and longest PMS of my life. I complained about how bloated I was and my boobs were huge and gross and she kept saying “Don’t worry hun! PMS goes away! You will be so skinny and beautiful on your wedding day.” I truly appreciated her reassurance and ordered my wedding dress knowing I would look amazing in it my wedding day just like she said.

Well, turns out girlfriend was dead wrong! After about another week and a half of this I decided to pee on a stick just to make myself feel better knowing it was terrible PMS and to my absolute shock, I WAS PREGNANT!!!! With the wedding just under 7 months away I naturally did what any normal over-hormonal, freaking out bride would do and started power-dialing people completely loosing my mind. I was in such literal shock that I don’t even remember the majority of what I said on the phone. All I do remember is that all my fiancée said “WOW” for about 20 minutes straight, and my best friend asked if I was in jail when I told her to guess my big news. Thanks guys. {sarcasm}

After sobbing uncontrollably for three days straight about how fat I was going to look and how my dream honeymoon now turned into my maternity leave, I was able to pull myself together long enough to have a serious conversation with my now hubby about what we were going to do. With how my work busy season runs (basically no time off in summer) and the number of deposits we had placed, we decided the show must go on with our plus-one crashing the party.

There were a few things that totally saved me and kept me sane through all this, hope these tips help you too.

1. You need a good tailor. End of story. No matter what type of dress you are trying to jam yourself into, your body is going to change countless times between when you purchase your dress and when your actual wedding day is. The dress shop I purchased from (Calla Bridal) gave me an amazing referral, and she met with me monthly up until the month of my wedding, then bi-weekly after to make sure we could make things work just right. With her help I was able to wear a very form-fitting dress instead of covering myself up in a mumu like I had expected I was would need.
2. Surround yourself with good people. Being pregnant and watching all your best friends go out and party together without you is hard enough. Watching your bridesmaids look perfect and skinny in their dresses while you feel like a beached whale on your special day is so much harder. But my friends and bridesmaids were amazing! They threw me the absolutely sweetest bridal shower at a local tea house, and it was so classy and so perfect for anyone, let alone a preggy bride. A group of my besties/bridesmaids took me out for a prenatal massage at a spa the week of the wedding so I could feel pampered. The night of our wedding my sister stayed with me, chatting and drinking tea in bed. The day of our wedding one of my girlfriend snuck up to our rehearsal room to wish me good luck and hand me a bottle of vinted non-alcoholic champagne so I had something special to toast with at the reception. Don’t get me wrong, my fiancé was so supportive, but let’s be real and admit there isn’t a man out there who can relate to the feelings of what a pregnant bride is experiencing… not even close. Without the support and love of these wonderful girls in my life, I would have been sad and lost, but they made me feel so special and we made many great memories!!

   

   

3. Know your limit and don’t push yourself past it. Every girl wants her wedding to be perfect. Every girl has thought out every tiny little detail of her wedding since she was little. But hey news flash, you are a host to ANOTHER PERSON who lives inside you right now. That’s friggin intense, and a serious lot of work on its own. In the grand scheme of things, your pregnancy is much more important than the decorations at your wedding. I made my own invites, centerpieces, table numbers, seating chart, etc. etc. etc. but then I started to run out of steam. I wanted to hand make chocolates as party favors for every guest. I wanted a big glam honeymoon. But in reality all I was up for was buying a box of macaroons at Whole Foods and a road trip to Cali. And you know what? That’s okay. No one remembers my stupid macaroons… they were all drinking wine and having fun! I can go on vacation anytime… I didn’t need some big lavish untimely honeymoon to wear me out and force me into labor in some foreign country. Don’t push yourself and remember it’s only 9 months and you still have a whole new amazing life to live as a family when your LO gets here.

   

   

   

So to any preggy bride-to-be who is reading this… I know this isn’t the wedding you dreamed of. However, if you keep yourself as calm and sane as possible through all of this, you will absolutely still look back at your wedding as one of the best days of your life! We embraced it and had fun with it (we did our wedding cake as a gender-reveal cake… super fun!!) and I know you can do the same. The life you have ahead of you as a new wife and mommy will be the most full and rewarding you have ever lived and I am so excited for you!!

Photo cred for wedding pictures: Ashley Mae Scott Photography