Make Sure You're Pretty

My face is breaking out. I am thirty years old and my face is breaking out. I know it’s from stress. I know it’s because I’m not eating a balanced diet (have I ever?). I know it’s just a sign of my current state – planning a wedding, buying a house, putting out eight records, working on a married budget, trying to make everyone happy, learning how to argue with my fiancé, deciding how the invitations should be worded, meeting with the caterer, shopping for homeowner’s insurance, canceling utilities and hooking up utilities, ordering suits for the groomsmen, getting Ryan’s pants altered for my brother’s wedding in 23 days, renting a car for my brother’s wedding, picking up my wedding dress and hoping there's enough money in the bank to pay for it, planning sales conference, GMA, needing to buy a refrigerator and hoping there’s enough money in the bank, hiring a moving truck and hoping there’s enough money in the bank, answering 100 work emails a day, not getting enough sleep…blah blah blah. Over Easter I had a giant red flaming zit on my chin. My mom saw it (as did the old blind people across the street) and said “WHAT are you going to DO if this happens for your WEDDING?????” [insert shock, horror and general discomfort including pointing and gasping] I looked at her blankly and said, “I guess I’ll just be ugly.” But secretly I thought – WHAT am I going to DO if this happens for my WEDDING?? The stress to be beautiful is getting to me. Everyone says that your wedding day is when you look your most beautiful. Meaning out of every long day of your long life – this is the one day when you’re supposed to look the absolute best ever. Well, what if I don’t measure up? Everyone expects me to look gorgeous and other-worldly, but what if I just look like me wearing a fancy dress? What if my hair doesn’t quite work out and I have a huge zit (or seven) and I don’t have toned arms or radiantly white straight teeth? I read my wedding to-do checklist as prescribed by theknot.com and now they are saying things like ‘be sure and exercise” and “drink lots of water” and “start getting facials and manicures”. This seems to scream at me MAKE SURE YOU’RE PRETTY as if the wedding will be a big waste of time and money otherwise.