i don’t feel like a bride.

I understand that feeling. We had to cancel the bridal shower. No bachelorette party. Running around, performing damage control to make the wedding even happen.
I hardly felt like a bride until last week, three weeks away from our big day, during my hair trial.
My advice is, enjoy every moment you can, whether it is your own hair and make-up trial, final dress fitting, or just even reciting your vows in the mirror. If you significant other is into it, ask to dance to the song you two picked for your first dance as a couple. I will admit to putting on my dress once, mostly to see if it still fits. 😂A friend of mine told me this little bit, that I intend to take to heart. On the day of your wedding, at the reception, take a moment to look around and enjoy the love around you. All the friends and family who took the time to come see you and your SO start the rest of your lives together as a married couple did so out of the love they have for you.I do hope you find the joy. I know how tough it is. Please, if you feel the need to reach out again, don't be afraid to do so. There are many fine folk here. DM me if you feel the need to.

I Understand Completely. All Of My Family And Friends Are Out Of State, I only Get To See Them When I Can Travel Home (Active Duty) So Ive Been Planning This Whole Wedding By Myself. FH Has Been Deployed For 8 Months So Hasnt Been Much Help Since Hes Been Home. No Bridal Shower, Bachelorette, Etc. For Me. I Dont Feel Like A Bride Either.

I know exactly what you mean. I’ve been a ball of anxiety and stress and haven’t really enjoyed being a bride and wedding planning at all. We are getting married in 18 days, and I feel like I should be over the moon, but all I keep thinking is we just need to get to the day and get past it. I know we will enjoy it when it gets here, but it just feels like I shouldn’t be thinking that way about my own wedding. We had a lot of people back out of coming, some for Covid reasons which we understand, and others for reasons that just make me feel like I’m not a priority to them, even though I was there for them when they had their big days. I hope you start to feel better, you certainly deserve to. Try and do things for you and focus on the wedding aspects that make you most excited. Good luck planning!

My FH said something to me this weekend which brought some perspective....

"2020 is a wash the only thing good happening (to us) is our upcoming wedding" this came in conversation as we were talking details and he reminded me that 2020 for the most part has been a complete &*%@ show and the best part of it going is our wedding planning. He was so right, despite everything we have this one amazing day to look forward to and if we can't find joy in that then what do we have?

You have 4 months to get the pep up, look forward to your day because if you don't you're going to end up regretting that you let this covid take over. You have control over your happiness, you have control over so much so take that control and run with it. The things we can't control will always be there whether Covid is present or not.

We can all relate! It is so disheartening that the time all of us happen to get engaged/married, the whole world comes crashing down! It's definitely hard to enjoy much, let alone be celebrated/go out for showers/parties. Right after we booked everything is when things started shutting down. Had we known this would happen this year, we would've never started planning and putting down deposits. Unfortunately, there's little we can change. Just look forward to happiness with your spouse and better days! Enjoy all the littles things.

I am so sorry you are feeling this way - I felt this way for a while because I am pretty much the last one to get married out of most of my friends and all of our family so I felt like people were kind of over it. But I think part of it I was so excited to plan a wedding and get married, but no one else really shared that excitement because it was still so far away (to them) and it wasn't on their minds all the time like it was mine. We didn't do any kind of engagement party, so it was the excitement of getting engaged, picking our wedding party and then everything died down for a while. I was 2-3 months out and started really getting in the thick of planning and had my bridal shower/bachelorette scheduled and FINALLY felt like a bride as I was doing the planning that involved other people (fittings, venue walk through, etc) and then COVID hit... and we pushed our wedding back 4 more months and I lost that feeling because everything was halted. My wedding is now about a month away and I just had my bridal shower and that was when I FINALLY felt it again. This year has totally stolen any kind of "normal" feeling of wedding planning/being a bride. Its just different then it has been for ANYONE else before this and most people don't get what it feels like.

I think it helps to just talk about your wedding around friends/family - find someone who doesn't mind talking about it and tell them your plans, what you are thinking about it, etc and you will find yourself getting more excited and feeling more like the bride... it also helps to work on tasks that make the wedding feel likes its closer - picking songs, programs (just because you work on them now doesn't mean you have to print them now), etc.

I also wanted you to know I think it is totally normal to feel this way AND don't compare yourself to others, especially others on social media accounts that are posting about brides - its not normal to be celebrated for month after month during your engagement (at least I don't think so, and that wasn't the case for me or many of my friends) and I bet most of those posts are when they are only a couple months out. I 100% think you will get there, but it will take some time! And you know what - good for you for buying your own makeup bag that says bride, it others are going to do it for you make yourself feel special!