While some brides may want to lose a few kilos to fit into a wedding dress on their big day, others are shunning the pre-wedding diet and accepting themselves as they are
Forget tiring yourself out with intense workouts, following a draconian diet and enduring the ordeal of weekly weigh-ins before your wedding. A movement inspired by body positivity is now encouraging brides-to-be to accept their bodies as they are. Unlike the #sheddingforthewedding hashtag, which encourages brides to virtually starve themselves by following drastic diets, curvy women are rebelling and saying “no” to pre-wedding weight loss.
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On TikTok, women like Brynta Ponn film themselves eating junk food on the eve of the big day. In her video, she reassures her followers: “If you’re wondering if you need to starve yourself before your wedding, the answer is no.” The aim is to show women that weight loss doesn’t have to be an obligatory part of wedding prep, and that you can still enjoy yourself in the run-up to the big day.
Now, more and more content shows images of women with fuller figures showing off their wedding dresses with pride. The hashtag #plussizebride now has 53 million views.
Refusing to bow to social pressure
This wave of self-acceptance has gone viral thanks to Sydney Holmes, a young American woman who got married over a year ago. Like many other women, she felt the pressure to diet before her wedding when watching videos on TikTok. But she decided to say “no” to this pressure and stay the way she was.
Calling herself social media’s “favourite fat bride”, she went on to inspire other brides-to-be to follow suit. In one of her TikTok videos, she jokes: “It’s hard to believe I went on a weight loss journey before my wedding... Because I didn’t.” In the comments, fellow TikTokers praise Holmes, with one user posting: “That was my thought two years ago, now it’s three months until the wedding and I haven’t lost an oz. Good thing my fiancé loves me for me!”
Showing off her white dress, the young woman proves that it’s possible to feel beautiful as a curvy bride. “He fell in love with me in this body. He thought I looked absolutely beautiful on our wedding day. And I did—I looked hot,” the content creator told New York Post.