Let's Hear It For The Curvy Brides - Slayage On A Plus-size Level

Curvy brides are a tad difficult to find these days. I’m not sure if it’s that wedding pages and vendors don’t celebrate them as much, or plus-size women are rare. Considering the fact that I get to see a lot of curvy women daily, I will go with the former. Whenever we picture a bride, the image that pops into our head is this tall skinny perfect woman with a tiny waist and curves in the right places. I don’t think we can be blamed for this impression. This is the dream we have been sold by wedding gown designers and the like. They give us the same impression that a bride has to be a certain kind of perfect. The women who model wedding gowns are tall, slim and willowy. That really is not the everyday woman.

I also blame Disney for selling us this dream right from childhood. All Disney princesses have been so skinny and perfect with their barely there waists. We didn’t see a chubby Cinderella walk down the aisle to meet her Prince Charming. Rather, it was her step-sisters that were dumpy and labeled ugly. Barbie dolls as well. Why is Barbie so stick-thin anyway? I mean, what real woman looks like that? I definitely think we need to do better. Women should glory in their curves.

Cinderella and Barbie helped us create the image of the ideal bride:

I am a fan of the Efik tradition of the fattening room. Women about to get married are sent to the “fattening room” as a form of marriage preparation. They are fed a lot of food and massaged and just live the baby girl life for a period. This is in contrast to what most of us do. When we have a big event, we start trying to lose weight to fit into our clothes. Brides are known to purchase dresses that are sizes smaller and work towards fitting into them, because they want to look a certain way. I’m not saying we should let ourselves go and get fat, but we should learn to embrace our bodies. Curvy brides just look as good as the next. I guess at the end of the day, what I am saying there is no ideal bride. The ideal bride should just be the best version of yourself.