" Ready to Ditch the Bullshit and Make Your Wedding Planning Easy ?" That's what greets visitors on the Bridechilla Podcast website. Host and comedian Aleisha McCormack aims to help overwhelmed brides-to-be avoid becoming stress monsters and keep the big day personal, splendid, and within budget.
Wedding magazines and impeccable Pinterest boards, not to mention hundreds if not thousands of years of cultural expectations about marriage, can quickly weigh a person down after getting engaged. McCormack wants to remind the marrying set that while a wedding is important, it should be just one of the "best days of your life" — and that realization can take the wind out of a lot of stress.
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More than 25,000 unique listeners each week seem to agree with her. Bridechilla tackles issues like spotting scam vendors, realistically saving money, and booze guides. McCormack has also built a wedding-planning app, a 1,500-strong private Facebook community, and, of course, a store with cute merch. Even if you're not planning a wedding, she's great inspiration for starting your own business and keeping it rolling.
Bridechilla isn't the only outlet that's trying to help folks relax their expectations while still being smart about planning a wedding. Marketwatch recently featured discussions of the movement toward DIY and budget weddings since the recession. Samantha Jacob, a spokeswoman at the online thrifting store threadUP, spoke to Marketwatch about its new dedicated bridesmaid shop. "This shop is not for bridezillas who want everything to be absolutely perfect," she said. "It's for the bride that knows that sometimes imperfection is what can make a wedding really beautiful."
McCormack wants to be clear that Bridechilla not about shaming so-called "bridezillas," but helping the wedded-to-be gain control over the planning process by setting realistic expectations. One of your biggest money-savers when it comes to wedding planning may be a level head — and a reminder that you're not in this organizational avalanche alone.