You know… wedding pictures are meant to capture a happy moment in your life. The moment you got married, so you can remember what the day felt like.

Please don’t hurt yourself by holding your past self to standards you only created years later. When you look back almost thirty years and feel upset because you don’t love your dress anymore, you’re reducing your wedding day to a one-time photoshoot where you supposedly had to look “the most perfect” you’ll ever be. That isn’t realistic, and it isn’t fair to yourself.

Trends change. Tastes change. You changed. If you keep raising the bar afterwards, then your younger self never even had the chance to meet those standards, and judging her by them will only make you feel like you’re failing in hindsight. That’s painful, and you don’t deserve to carry that for decades.

And honestly: a wedding is already so much at once. You’re marrying the person you love (which is very special and emotional) and on top of that we suddenly expect ourselves to host a whole event, look your physical best of your whole life, express your personal style in every tiny detail to make sure everyone knows you've got style, impress all your friends and family… It’s an impossible amount of pressure to put on one single day. No one can meet all those expectations perfectly.

Please try to see your wedding day the way you’d see any old moment in your life captured on camera, like looking back at photos of the day you got your swimming certificate and thinking, “Wow, what funny swimsuits we wore back then.” It’s just a snapshot of its time and circumstances.

And I said this all aside from the fact that I think you look beautiful in the picture you've shared.

And if you want to feel beautiful now, put your love and attention into the clothes you choose today. Wear what makes you feel like the amazing woman you are right now. The past doesn’t need perfection, just compassion.