After months, sometimes years of planning, excited anticipation, endless decision making, and exorbitant amounts of money spent on your wedding; it is over in a moment. Then what? Many brides can experience an emotional letdown, which can cause them to feel depressed. As a newlywed, this is the last thing a bride expects to feel, yet it happens more than commonly thought.

     Any bride who had planned a small, medium or large wedding knows how much time, effort, and money goes into each element of making her big day perfect. Whether $20,000 or $100,000 was spent, creating a bride’s special day took on a life of its own. Suddenly, there were vendors, to-do lists, and choices she never thought she would face. Such as, do you prefer David Austin award-winning English Roses or just the garden variety kind? Do you want these roses in a blush, cream, or champagne color? How many would you like per centerpiece, bridal bouquet, and bridesmaids bouquets? Do you want greenery with that or are the flowers on their own enough. The road of detail-oriented decision making is unbelievable.

     Now, after her special day turns out to be as magical as she dreamed it could be, she is filled with and surrounded by such great love, and is feeling madly in love with her new husband; why would she wake up feeling a void?

     In our American culture, a woman has one time in her life where she is “the queen for a day” and that is on her wedding day. All the focus is set on her, her dress, her hair and her make-up. She is showered with vast amounts of praise of how beautiful she is and is treated with extra special care since she is “The Bride!” It is a wonderful blissful experience. The only problem is when it is over.  The reality of real life as just another woman can feel very disorienting. What happen to being the center of everyone’s admiration? The constant photographs being taken and will she ever look that beautiful in her life again? How about the way her groom looked when he first saw her coming down the aisle; will that type of moment occur again?

      If this is what you are experiencing, please know that it is normal. The good news for brides experiencing this is that it is usually temporary and will pass on its own naturally, usually within a few weeks.  The more you focus on how grateful you are to have had such a perfect day and look forward to life as a married woman walking side-by-side with your loving husband, the easier it will be to get through it. From this day forward you are no longer a bride, you are a married woman who is blessed with the opportunity to build a life with the man you love. Each day you can allow yourself to enjoy the adventure of living life as one, honoring, cherishing, and loving each other all along the way.

*If you are unable to move past this and it becomes an actual depression, please seek mental-health professional help as soon as possible.