By Megan Peters

Have you heard the phrase  “avoid heavier ever after”? Well I just did while searching for ideas on how to shape up for the big day. Now I’m not so sure I am really all that into the whole dieting for your wedding thing. However, what got me looking into it is my fear of having bad pictures.  So in light of this fear I have been browsing online and finding different things to get me past my crisis. Some things I found were different ways to become a fit bride, fat positive, and the negative adds like “avoid heavier ever after”.

On becoming a fit bride I don’t feel inspired to go crazy dieting by doing many of the suggestions I saw online or joining any sort of mainstream weight loss company.

Instead I am inspired by the discovery of blogs I can relate to as the person I am today. Such as these blogs bigfatdeal.com and bigfatblog.com which are written by larger women. These blogs have helped me realize something I knew deep down all along but thanks to mainstream media lost recently.  I lost myself and the image of the woman I want to be on my wedding day, the person my fiancé fell in love with.  Not an unhappy, dieting, exercising 24/7, stressed out woman. I don’t need to be smaller like the media says I should be on my wedding day.

Finding these blogs even though they are not centered on being a plus size bride they focus on weight in our culture both positive and negative, size discrimination, fat acceptance and more. I finally feel like there is even more people out there that I can relate to. I am not the only large woman out there and I am not alone after reading these blogs.

After reading upsetting articles like “Bride Dumps Fat Bridesmaid Who Will Ruin Pictures” on bigfatdeal.com, and “Reason Number 3,767 to Not Shop at Whole Foods” on bigfatblog.com these brought me back to the reality that I like my body for the most part and wouldn’t want to be treated any differently than others just because I am big.

How sad that the “fat” bridesmaid was basically dumped from the wedding due to her appearance. And that Whole Foods now offers health-based employee discount, a higher discount off their products if you have a low body mass index.  Don’t you think the not so healthy employees with higher BMI’s would benefit from buying more of their wholesome food? I think so. This action that Whole Foods took on employee discount is the exact kind of thing that makes woman like me feel pressured to fit into our thinner society. Sure I could practically starve myself, exercise like crazy, or get weight loss surgery to get a better discount at Whole Foods (if I was an employee) or to wear that perfect off the runway wedding dress. However, regardless of my size I should be accepted and thought of as a beautiful person and beautiful bride. The bride I am is plus size, happy, curvy, fat, and I intend to enjoy my life that way.

Therefore I plan to continue with my life being somewhat healthy doing yoga, occasional exercise videos, walking the dogs twice a day, eating right sometimes, and perhaps lose a few pounds because of it.  But I accept that it is okay to be a plus size bride and to just be yourself on your big day. After all you do want to look back at your wedding pictures and recognize you for you and not look back and think “oh god I killed myself for months to look that skinny and just gained it all back plus more.”  So here I am heading towards my very special heavier ever after and I am not avoiding it, I cant wait.