Here's a roundup of success stories and journeys of brides and grooms I've worked with.

The common denominators among them?

• 25- 45 years old
• Consider themselves highly analytical or over-analytical
• Feel a lot of anxiety or sadness 
• Reflective (or willing to learn how to be self-reflective)
• Willing to roll up their sleeves and do some emotional work

Read about the turnarounds these brides and grooms achieved:

Jenna.  "Three months after getting engaged, I started feeling uncertain...."

Nick:  "My analytical brain was in over-drive...."

Erin:  "I was so scared that what I was feeling wasn't "normal."  

Ashley:  "Eight months before our wedding, I completely freaked out."

Alec, Jake, Gary, and more men:  "I think that men aren't expected to grapple with the emotional intensity that comes with marriage, and that expectation makes the anxiety of getting married even more isolating."

Rachel, Samantha, Jasmine, and more women:  "With my wedding just a few days away, I feel calm, content, and together."

My uncertainty compounded over a few months of rumination and eventually grew into dread and paralysis. 
​

I thought that the feelings I was experiencing could ONLY mean that the marriage was not supposed to happen.

Yippee for me! 

This time of year, traffic on this website jumps, and a whole new group of newly engaged brides-to-be are coming my way.  

Looking for explanations for why being engaged is so much more complicated than they ever anticipated.

Looking for answers to questions such as:

• Why am I excited one minute and a puddle of tears the next?
• Why don't I feel ONLY happy?
• Why is my Dad acting so weird (and cold)?
• Why is my Mom so on my case about setting a date? (We've been engaged for, like, 5 minutes!)
• Why am I thinking about my ex boyfriend?
• Why am I constantly asking myself, "Will we be happy in 5, 10, 15 years?"
• Why am I anxious, sad and confused..when I thought I'd only be happy?
• Why, if I bring this up to family and friends, do they get a horrified look on their face and tell me, "But this should be the happiest time of your life?"

Worried you'll have jitters on your wedding day?

Then read this piece in today's New York Times by Alyson Kreuger:  Got Wedding Jitters? Take a Hike (or Grab Your Blankie).

Great stories of how brides cope on their wedding days, and expert advice.

I'm thrilled to be included!

For all you newly engaged brides out there, my Dec 26 post on Brides.com:

Here's today's post from Brides.com:

Don’t text your engagement news or post it on Facebook. 

Instead, you and your fiancé meet with important family and friends to share your news.

Or at least make a phone call with both of you on the line.

Contrast how different you’ll feel by getting a lot of Facebook “likes,” “OMG!” and “Congrats” responses versus hearing friends’ excited screams at your announcement, feeling their happy hugs, accepting their heartfelt congratulations, drinking their celebratory Champagne, and sharing your joy. 

​The latter sure sounds like a lot more fun and will create a lasting lifelong memory, marking the beginning of your engagement. Now that, we “like”!