Bride demands her bridesmaids lose weight and have cosmetic surgery for her big day…and she’s not the only one
Thanks to social media, looking picture-perfect is the latest pressure on bridesmaids
WITH only eight weeks to go before the big day, Sheena Malik is shedding weight for the wedding.
It’s not her wedding, but that doesn’t mean she’s slacking off.
Sheena, 29, has kept up a rigid workout schedule and strict diet before her main gal Ashley Barton’s wedding on New York’s Upper East Side this summer.
The maid of honour’s hope is to lose 7kg (just over 1st) before the big day.
The physician from Southern California says: “Wedding photos are shared more now, so it’s important to look good.”
Thanks to social media, looking picture-perfect is the latest pressure on bridal parties.
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Getting in shape, losing weight, attending wellness programs and having cosmetic procedures alongside brides to be are often encouraged — if not downright demanded — by the brides themselves.
“I need everyone on board,” says Ashley Barton, a 30-year-old PR executive who lives in Brooklyn, New York.
“I want my guests to invest in their appearances, feel pretty, go buy the dress of their dreams and feel confident in themselves.
“I want everyone to feel and look beautiful.”
Ashely has suggested that all her bridesmaids get fit, as well as use hair extensions.
Even one bridesmaid who just gave birth could stand to drop a few kilos, laughs Ashely, who’s lost 15kg (2st 5lb) so far in her race to the altar.
Even at her hen party, bridesmaids were forbidden to wear swimsuits with straps, lest they have unsightly tan lines for the wedding.
Norman Rowe, a plastic surgeon in New York, says: “It’s the bride’s day, and she wants not only the day to be perfect, the weather to be perfect, the dress to be perfect — she wants her bridal party to be perfect because it’s a reflection of her.”
He says he’s been surprised to see an increasing number of brides come in with their maids of honour, and even entire bridal parties, to get filler or Botox.
Sheena and Ashley have both scheduled a Botox treatment with Norman a week before Ashley’s July wedding.
The bride is also encouraging another bridesmaid to have her earlobe cosmetically fixed to wear the chandelier earrings she’s picked out for the entire wedding party.
She added: “I can’t have her in studs.”
Bride-to-be Whitney Tingle, 31-year-old co-founder of meal-delivery company Sakara Life, is encouraging her bridal party to lose weight before her June wedding in Tel Aviv by purchasing Sakara Life’s dietetic, “clean eating” meal plans.
The company’s five-day meal plan starts at £316 — though Whitney is offering them 15 per cent off vouchers.
Whitney says: “They’re going to be standing up there with me, so they want to look good and feel good too.”
As her wedding draws nearer, Whitney and her bridesmaids will all be dieting with Sakara — a favourite among Victoria’s Secret Angels — and exercising together.
Her bridesmaids willingly signed up for the diet, she says, which they’ll use in the weeks before the wedding.
Whitney is also coordinating group yoga sessions and organising an outdoor dance party to make the workouts fun.
She added: “The day after the wedding we’re doing a beach day and then going to the Dead Sea.
“We’re going to be in swimsuits, so they’re all motivated.”
Boutique gyms are catching on to the trend, with New York studios including Y7 Studio, Pure Barre, Physique 57, SoulCycle and others hyping private sessions for hen parties.
In addition to offering an eight-week bridal fitness plan, cardio dance studio 305 Fitness boasts bridal-shower fitness classes, and boxing gym Shadowbox offers a catered session with customised gloves and shirts.
Audrey Eisenberg threw a bridal shower for her sister Dana Duber at 305 Fitness before Dana’s wedding last October.
It was just a small part of their overall fitness journey, they say.
Both the bride and the maid of honour dieted, trained for a 16km run and took spin and boot camp classes together. Audrey says she was motivated by the impending photos.
“I had a dress that was very form-fitting and I wanted to feel my absolute best,” says the 24-year-old special education teacher, who lives in Manhattan.
Hen parties are even trading debauchery for getaways full of juice cleanses, early morning hikes, meditation and yoga.
Sue Fleming, a personal trainer who usually works with brides, but lately has taken on whole bridal parties, says: “I’ve seen a big increase in workouts involving the entire bridal party.”
On a recent Saturday in the Hamptons, Sue led a group of bridesmaids through two hours of exercises to help them get wedding fit.
Bridesmaid Ashley Lagas, 29, says signing up for the gruelling workout was a mutual decision between herself and bride-to-be Rachel Lenhoff — one that definitely left them feeling sore for days after.
Ashely says: “We based our weekend around the boot camp, but we also ended up doing yoga by the water the next day.
“We just wanted to be really active the whole weekend.”
But the added burden of satisfying such high expectations can be too much for some.
Maid of honour Mandy, a 28-year-old medical biller from Texas — who declined to give her last name to avoid family fallout — says her sister has demanded she get a spray tan before her wedding, grow her hair out, and avoid dying it anything other than blonde.
Sarcastically, she said: “I’m pretty sure if I weren’t already attempting to get in shape, she’d probably make comments about that too.
“I guess she wants everyone to look picture-perfect, otherwise they might distract from her looking fabulous.”
This article originally appeared on the .
We have previously revealed how one bride wrote an email to her bridesmaids telling them to put on weight so she looks slimmer in the photos and many others have also made ridiculous requests.