Emotionally Engaged
617-935-3362
  • Free Consult
  • Unhappy Bride
  • Brides
    • Why???
    • What Brides Say
    • Could This Be You?
    • Post-Wedding
    • FAQs
    • Book
  • Grooms
  • Parents
  • Cold Feet
  • About
    • Media Appearances
  • Blog

"I was able to focus on the true meaning of my wedding day, not my anxiety."

10/1/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
A recent note from a bride:

Thank you so much for helping me work through the transition of single to married woman.

I acknowledge that Alex and I would not be where we are today if it wasn't for your support throughout the year and months before the wedding in May.

Going into my wedding day with such a clear and calm mind -- despite the normal exhaustion :) -- allowed me to be fully present and help me to focus on the true meaning of the day, rather than my anxiety.

I really cannot thank you enough for all that you've done (and continue to do) to prepare me for this marriage.

Thank you!!!
Jenny

0 Comments

"Three Months After Getting Engaged, I Started Feeling Uncertain..."

10/24/2018

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

I was overwhelmed. I constantly had a pit in my stomach. I cried often, and I almost called off my wedding.

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

Read More

A Groom's Report: 32-year-old Kyle works through cold feet

3/24/2017

 

"When I got engaged, I was sure I was making the right decision.

However, a few nagging thoughts escalated in the months between the engagement and the wedding.

Fixating on those thoughts eventually put me in a place where my anxiety and fear made me question my relationship.

I worried that I'd have to spend a little time every day in my marriage being sad. 
Picture

Read More

From "fetal position" to the happiest wedding day: One bride's very successful bridal counseling experience

10/21/2016

0 Comments

 
Here's the very successful story of Erin, a 27-year-old bride-to-be, who I helped get married this summer.
​
Do you see yourself in her story?

Before meeting with Allison, I felt terrified, isolated, and confused.

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

Scared that seeing Allison meant I had somehow failed at being a bride-to-be. 
​
Scared that I was making the wrong decision in choosing to marry my fiancé. 

Read More
0 Comments

Engaged, Scared and Anxious: How One Bride Overcame Her Engagement Anxiety

3/4/2016

0 Comments

 

Here's how one bride worked through her feelings of engagement anxiety

I can tell you how effective bridal counseling can be at dealing with cases of cold feet, engagement depression and engagement anxiety.

But it's far more effective to hear it straight from a bride.

​This blog was written by Ashley, author also of Dear Newly Engaged Me: Here's a Laundry List of Things I Wish I'd Known From the Start.  Read below about her journey from panicked to peaceful.
Picture
How one bride overcame her engagement anxiety

"Eight months before my wedding, I completely freaked out."

"Whenever anyone mentioned the wedding or my fiancé, my throat tightened. I'd get short of breath. My heart raced. I was scared.

Four months earlier, I happily said "yes!" to a wonderful man who understood me inside and out and was perfect on paper. ​

Before getting engaged, I loved my relationship.

I loved him, felt lucky to be with him, and that we had such a special and magical relationship.

Now, I was no longer attracted to my fiance. I was questioning the whole relationship.


Read More
0 Comments

Dear Newly Engaged Me:  Here's a laundry list of what I wish I'd known from the start:

2/11/2016

0 Comments

 
This bride worked with me for 6 months.
​She wrote this blog 3 months after her wedding.

Dear Newly Engaged Me:

First, slow down.  Enjoy getting engaged. Let it really sink in.  Float on Cloud 9 for a while. 

Do not listen to everyone who says you must run out and pick a venue a year in advance. It’s simply not true. 

Enjoy ring shopping

It’s the best part of the wedding-planning process, because you’re the only one involved. 

​Your opinion is the only one you’re hearing.  
It won't always be like that.

Everyone will have an opinion -- simply. everyone. Your boss, co-workers, cashiers at the grocery store, every sales person in the wedding industry.  Everyone seems to have opinions about everything.
Picture

Educate yourself about what's normal -- but not talked about

Your engagement will be a wild ride, emotionally.  

You will be exhausted, emotionally, early on. Be nice to yourself, take a step back, don’t think about the wedding for a while.  Take a break, you will need it. 

Read and re-read Allison’s book, Emotionally Engaged: A Bride's Guide to Surviving the "Happiest" Time of Your Life again and again and watch the Happy Bride's Secret Toolkit videos.  Educate yourself on what's normal for brides-to-be to feel, but not talked about.

Let go of any expectations you may have.  You won’t be able to anticipate what happens next.

Read More
0 Comments

Engagement Advice: Let's Talk About Your Ring!

1/5/2016

0 Comments

 
Is your ring perfect?  

​Lucky you! Consider yourself blessed.


Because I often hear from brides (and again, just last week, from a bride in my cottage):

"It's beautiful, but Just Not Me."

"I wish he'd asked me what I wanted."
"It's lovely, but it's not quite right, and that makes me feel terrible."
Let's talk about your engagement ring | Emotionally Engaged

When the ring isn't quite right, some brides are sent down a rabbit hole of anxiety:


Read More
0 Comments

Emotionally Engaged: A Groom's Experience

12/8/2015

0 Comments

 
After I work with clients, I like to get feedback about our time together. It not only helps me improve my craft, but I like to think it also helps to remind them of how far they have come.

Below are thoughts from a groom I recently worked with -- Nick, an engineer from Sacramento, California.  

​Yes, you read that correctly -- I work with grooms too!  I know guys don't always LOVE asking for help, but there's something to be said for a man that is willing to admit he can't do everything alone ... That's our kind of guy:  cue the applause! 
Picture

Before I contacted Allison, I felt overwhelmed.

Unable to deal with the the complexities of both my changing situations and the emotions that went along with them.

​My analytical brain was on overdrive, and I knew I wasn't in a good place. I knew I had found the woman I wanted to marry, but I was unsure of whether I could go through with it.

​How could I be absolutely sure I was doing the right thing?

Read More
0 Comments

Why "Perfect On Paper" Is Not Enough

10/26/2015

0 Comments

 
In the past year, I've counseled two clients -- a man and a woman -- who were both engaged to people who were "perfect on paper."

The 2 future spouses had only admirable qualities: 
  • They were kind.
  • They were good looking
  • They came from good families.
  • They were well educated.
  • They were driven, ambitious, successful.
  • They'd be good parents.
  • They''d be good life partners.

The futures looked bright

Both clients believed that they SHOULD want these perfect-on-paper people.  

They should want these marriages.  

That they'd be crazy to let go of someone who, for all intents and purposes, was perfect for them.

Picture

For months, they tried to talk themselves into these marriages


Read More
0 Comments

Dear Newly Engaged Me: My anxiety shifted when I realized these 3 things

3/10/2015

0 Comments

 
By bride-to-be L. 
I’ve been engaged for 6 months, and I have more than a year before the wedding. 

I must say: engagement didn’t come easy for me.

When my boyfriend asked me to marry him 3 months before we actually became engaged, I said what I felt in my heart and in my head at the time: “I don’t know.” 

Dear Newly Engaged Me
At that time, I was struggling with a lot of stress and anxiety about my place in life and my future.  I was living in a city where I didn’t want to live, at a job that didn’t feel right, and with a man that I knew I loved... but I was struggling with a lot of big questions.

Did I love him enough to be married to him forever?


Read More
0 Comments
<<Previous

    How to be a Happier
    ​Bride-to-Be

    Picture

    Free Consultation

    Blog Categories

    All
    Advice
    Anxiety
    Book To Blog
    Brides.com Blogs
    Brides: Feelings
    Brides: Sessions
    Brides: Success Stories
    Cold Feet
    Dear Newly Engaged Me
    Depression
    Emotionally Engaged
    Emotions
    Engagement
    Family
    Grief
    Help For Brides
    Holidays
    Love
    Mother
    Myths
    Psychology
    Real Emotions
    Relationships
    Sessions W Brides
    Wedding Day
    Wedding Planning
    Wedding Stress

    Archives

    May 2022
    April 2021
    April 2020
    March 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    December 2017
    March 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012

    RSS Feed

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Free Consult
Cold Feet
Contact

Helping brides & grooms feel happier, calmer and better prepared for marriage since 2002.
​