When they agree to be bridesmaid for a friend or family member who's getting married, most people feel honoured to have been asked to play such an important role in one of the most momentous days of the bride's life.
So it would kind of dampen the sentiment if said bridesmaid proposal was followed up with a deal-breaking condition: you must lose weight before the wedding takes place.
But it turns out some brides actually do ask this of their bridal party, and they don't seem to have any shame about it, either. Like Ashley, a 30-year-old PR executive living in Brooklyn, who the New York Post reports has done exactly that ahead of her wedding.
Ashley is getting married this summer in New York, and in keeping with this worrying new trend, has requested her entire bridal party shed a few pounds before the big day. Her maid of honour, 29-year-old Sheena, has been tasked with losing 15 pounds by the time the wedding arrives. No mean feat; that's more than an entire stone in weight.
But for some reason, Sheena doesn't seem to have been completely insulted by the fact her best friend has only offered her such an integral role in the wedding along with the proviso that she change her body shape dramatically.
"Wedding photos are shared more now, so it’s important to look good," she told the NY Post.
And Ashley makes no bones about it; she wants dedication from her bridesmaids when it comes to the weight-losing cause. "I need everyone on board," she reportedly said - and that includes the one member of her bridal party who's recently given birth. "I want everyone to feel and look beautiful," she explained.
But then there's feeling beautiful by your own standards, and then there's looking beautiful by someone else's standards. Whose standards are we working with, here?
Don't you invite people to your wedding because you love and care about them, and you want to share your happy day with them? If that's the case, it shouldn't make a damned bit of difference how miniscule your bridesmaids' waists look in the official photographs.
The NY Post adds that Ashley herself has lost 33 pounds - or two and a bit stone - in the run up to her wedding. Which is fair game; most brides want to look the best they can on their wedding day and many achieve this by adhering to a strict health and fitness plan. It just feels kind of, well, shallow to extend this to your bridal party, too.
As well as the weight loss request, Ashley is apparently enforcing a whole host of other rules to perfect her maids' appearances. Like a blanket ban on swimsuits with straps during her hen do in a bid to avoid unsightly tan lines on the big day. Jesus Christ.
And the ridiculous thing is, Ashley's not the only one. It's a trend that seems to be becoming more and more popular, and you can read about more brides who want minimal numbers on their bridesmaids' scales in the full NY Post article here.
I mean, each to their own. All I can say is I'm surprised any of these brides have got a single bridesmaid left at this rate.
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