Right now, there is an ever-increasing pressure to “upgrade” our faces and bodies before getting married. Pre-wedding beauty expectations have escalated from a full head of foils and a manicure… to injectables, fillers, Botox, hair extensions and even extreme weight loss drugs (GLP1s). The loud, cruel, falsehood that a wedding requires you to look like “the best version of yourself” can be harmful to your experience and your enjoyment of getting married… not to mention what it can do to your mental and physical health in the long run. To me, it sounds more like an idea from the 1950s than the 2020s.

A month or so before my wedding in 2021, an elderly female relative asked me if I was planning on losing any weight before the big day. Now, I’m not going to share what my weight was at that time because… a) I’m not actually sure what it was, b) I don’t think sharing what my weight proves anything, because I don’t believe anybody “should” lose weight for their wedding, and c) how much I weigh is literally nobody’s business but my own. So, in response to this relative’s question, my answer, plainly and shortly, was, “No.”

I could have taken offence. I could have gone on a rant. I could even have taken it to heart and become paranoid, feeling like maybe I ‘should’ be watching what I was eating and doing a little more exercise. But I did none of these things.

Instead, in that moment, I felt keenly and profoundly aware of the decades between us, and the chasm between our experiences of life as women. This relative was speaking to me from a time when, as a bride (as a woman!) it was non-negotiable to do anything other than fit the mould and squeeze in tight.

She had had zero freedom with the way she presented herself to the world, perhaps made to feel that her beauty was the only thing that mattered, like so many women before her and after. So, in that moment, instead of feeling insulted or affronted, I just felt sad for her.

In recent years, there has been a marvelous movement of body positivity, or body neutrality, that has encouraged people to accept and even celebrate their bodies, in all their shapes and sizes. This has spilled into the wedding industry, largely thanks to our very own editor Kat Williams, sparking a glorious revolution of weddings, in which couples embrace their uniqueness, their differences, and their own beauty. Every issue of this magazine preaches, from its first page to last, that YOUR wedding is about YOU… not some fictional version of yourself you are forcing yourself to be for a day because that’s how you’ve been told you ‘should’ look.

So… now, in 2026, as that strength and rebellion comes under attack once again, thanks to the MASSIVE surge in weight loss drugs, Botox, filler, or whatever it is that the world is telling you is ‘wrong’ with you, so that you go and spend money ‘fixing’ it. We are telling you the exact same thing: You do not have to change yourself in order to be happy at your wedding. You don’t have to be anyone but yourself in order to be beautiful.

Literally yesterday, on the news page on my phone, there was an article whose headline was, “Do You Have Central-Heating Face? Here’s How to Fix It.”

“CENTRAL-HEATING FACE”? WHAT THE ACTUAL HELLY? Skin gets a little drier in the winter. If you’re troubled by that and it impacts your day, use a little more moisturiser. Done. “CENTRAL-HEATING FACE” IS NOT. A. THING. Like so many other things this capitalist patriarchy thinks up to encourage our negative self-perception and make us spend money ‘fixing’ ourselves.

The person you are marrying loves YOU. If they are worth marrying, they probably like your body… but it is not the reason they love you! The sound of your laugh when you’re really, really laughing. The way you make them feel safe when they’re having a hard day. How good you are with their kid from a previous relationship. How silly you are when you’re excited about something. The way you let them know you are there, and will be there, no matter what. THAT IS WHAT THEY LOVE. THAT IS WHY THEY ARE MARRYING YOU.

On your wedding day YOU are going to take their breath away. YOU. The real-life, flesh and blood, kind, funny, special soul that is YOU. Not the weight you lost, or the lip you filled, or the lack of wrinkles they see when you smile as you walk down the aisle towards them. They don’t CARE. They love YOU.

The truth of the matter is you do not have to change a thing about yourself in order to have a beautiful wedding day.

We are lucky enough to be alive in a time where so many of us have the freedom NOT to change for our weddings. Unlike my elderly relative’s experience, we as a generation have given ourselves permission to be ourselves, and isn’t that something worth celebrating???

Sure, get your hair done if you want to. Paint your nails if that makes you happy. But don’t be made to feel like ANYTHING is wrong with you and ought to be fixed before your big day. Don’t do ANYTHING to your body that you don’t really want to. You would never tell your best friend to do such a thing, so don’t you DARE tell it to yourself. You will be beautiful on your wedding day. Because you are YOU. And YOU are a mother-fucking drop dead gorgeous.