Wedding Nightmares

The recent arrival of Lifetimes show, Side Order of Life, shows a soon to be married woman riddled with bridal nightmares. She either wakes up screaming from her naked walk down the aisle or she is just in her panties. Her loving groom, played by Jason Priestly, is there to comfort her each time she awakes gasping for air.

Sound familiar? I am sure it does. I too had wedding nightmares of my own, all stress and anxiety induced. One in particular had me losing all my teeth before the wedding and me desperately trying to shove them back in my mouth only to find they had increased in size and no longer fit. I dreamed about the dress being wrong, ripped, too big or too small, the list goes on and on. I talked to our ‘Featured Bride’ Ashley and she too has been suffering from a case of wedding nightmares.

Vicky: So, you’ve been having anxiety-riddled wedding dreams? When did the dreams start?
Ashley: The dreams began about a month or two after I bought my wedding dress, so it was about 3 months into the engagement.

V: How often? Are they regularly occurring?
A: I would say about every 2 months I seem to have a wedding dream so yes, I guess they are regularly occurring.

V: Is there a theme or is it the same dream or always different?
A: Looking back at them the overall theme is that I’ve forgotten to do something, most of the time it is the dress doesn’t fit properly (too big) because I never got it altered. I’ve also had one where I’ve forgotten to order the cake, forgot my wrap, forgot to order the signature platter, and didn’t get my hair done things like that.

V: What do you think it stems from?
A: I think it stems from the fact that when I plan a party I like to have everything done early or at least organized enough that I know where everything is so and what needs to be done. With the wedding I can only do certain things at certain times (i.e. Fittings/Alterations - about 3 months out) so I’m afraid deep down that I’m not going to get something done on time.

V: Do you do anything afterwards like a self-pep talk to calm you down?
A: Oh yes! As soon as I wake up and realize what I’ve been dreaming about and how stressed I was in the dream I tell myself, “stop worrying about that, you have plenty of time to get that done”, or I say “well I can’t even order that until X date” or “fittings aren’t for several more months”. I realize very quickly its nothing I need to be worried about but obviously I am or I wouldn’t be having the same/similar dreams every other month. I always guessed I would have these dreams, just not so early into the planning. I figured the closer we got to the wedding that I would start having them but not this early. That is what really surprised me.
V: Have you told Brad (fiancé) about them?

A: Yes I told Brad about them but he just says not to worry.
V: Hard to do though I’m sure. Let us know if you have any more wedding nightmares and we’ll catch up with you again soon Ashley!

As for the rest of you out there still suffering from wedding nightmares maybe you can take comfort from some of these other brides and know you are not alone. We all have them; it’s like taking a big test, having a job interview or anything else in life. It will pass once the wedding is over and then you can just deal with the fact that people are now going to ask you about when you are having kids…