Getting Married While Pregnant
You’re engaged and pregnant too, congratulations this is an exciting time! Though it’s exciting news, it also brings up the question ‘should I get married while pregnant or wait’?
Here we cover the pros and cons when deciding to postpone the wedding due to becoming pregnant.
If you are choosing to stay on track with the wedding date, then we also provide you with everything you need to think about as a pregnant bride planning a wedding.
Jump to:
- Pros
- Cons
- Planning considerations
- Wedding dress
- Food and drinks
- Morning sickness
- Due date
- Postponement
- Final thoughts
Pros
- If you put the wedding planning off, there’s a risk you will keep putting it off once the baby is born. There is no best time to get married, at the end of the day, it’s what works for you.
- As you marry the love of your life, your little baby is right there with you.
- A baby bump is beautiful!
- There will be so much love on your wedding day.
- This gives you a good reason to hire a wedding planner and avoid a lot of stress.
- The baby will be born to married parents. This can be an important reason in certain faiths or in couples with old-fashioned values.
Cons
- Weight gain and a changing body mean your wedding gown options may not be as vast as if you weren’t pregnant (depending on how far along you will be when you get married.)
- Morning sickness or tiredness can be an issue.
- Weddings and babies are expensive. You may need to pull back on the big wedding of your dreams and go for a small wedding.
- At your wedding you can’t drink alcohol.
- Wedding planning is stressful which is not good for you or the baby.
- Standing for long periods of time, or dancing may be more difficult at the later stages of pregnancy.
- Honeymoon travel plans or a destination wedding may not be possible if you’re in the third trimester.
Planning considerations
Planning a wedding while pregnant has its challenges, but they’re not impossible to overcome. Here are some things to consider as a pregnant bride.
- What are you going to wear?
- Is the food at your reception pregnancy safe?
- How will you cope with any morning sickness?
- Will my health and baby’s health be safe?
Wedding dress
Don’t let this get in the way of your wedding plans. There are stunning maternity wedding dresses out there. Gorgeous loose-flowing dresses with soft materials that can stretch and move along with your bump. Loosely fitted gowns, with an empire waist, will ensure you’re at your most comfortable on the day.
Let your seamstress know you’re expecting and they can be prepared and make alterations to the dress as needed to ensure it’s not too tight on the wedding day. Ordering extra fabric to insert in the dress instead of zippers will ensure there’s extra growing room for the bride and baby.
Food and Drinks
Is the food at your reception pregnancy safe?
There’s plenty that you can eat while pregnant, so talk to your caters about creating a delicious menu of pregnancy-safe foods, or one that contains a special pregnancy-safe meal and avoids items such as cold cuts, sushi, or unpasteurized cheeses.
Timing the setting out of your food, in the case of a buffet spread can be important too. You don’t want the food set out too early so it’s sitting at a warm temperature for hours. In general, this isn’t a good thing but especially so when pregnant as you want foods that are fresh and if meat, fully cooked and hot.
If your wedding has a signature cocktail, you can create non-alcoholic cocktails for you and any other guests that aren’t drinking alcohol.
Morning sickness
If you’re in the early stages of your pregnancy at the time of your wedding, morning sickness might be something you’ll have to deal with on your wedding day. This is most common in the first trimester.
Take the weeks or days before your wedding to note down what foods or smells trigger your morning sickness the most so you can try to avoid them. Note down what foods and drinks you can stomach, and have them on you on the day. Regular small snacking can help keep morning sickness at bay.
Some moms-to-be swear by ginger tea for nausea or plain salted crackers. Others crave something a little more peculiar, like green olives and pickle juice. So, it’s really only you that will know what works best for your own cravings.
Due date
If the date of your wedding is set to happen at the end of your third trimester, there is the chance your baby could come sooner than expected – even on the wedding day! You’ll need to assess the risks here and decide if it’s worth bringing the wedding forward or postponing the wedding.
When heavily pregnant your idea of what a perfect wedding is may change too, and late-night dancing and long hours on your feet might not be what you want.
Remember too, if you’re having a wedding that requires air travel you won’t be able to fly after 36 weeks (and you probably wouldn’t want to be far away from your home anyway when that far along in your pregnancy).
Postponement
If you are looking at your options as a pregnant bride and feel that being pregnant on the day of your wedding is not right for you, then you could decide to postpone the wedding.
This occurs more frequently when the bride becomes pregnant after a wedding date has already been set.
If postponement is an option being considered then the earlier in the planning process the better. As the more contracts you have entered into with vendors, the more postponement fees you may have to pay.
If you can afford the postponement fees then the next thing to do is to call your wedding venue and make sure you can postpone to another date that works for you.
If you can’t rebook for a better wedding date, then you will have to decide between being pregnant at your wedding or finding a different venue. This can possibly impact the rest of your wedding planning and the other vendors that need to be booked.
Final thoughts
If you pregnant and engaged, then deciding on being pregnant on your wedding day or postponing may be a decision you are needing to make.
Here we have outlined the pros and cons of that decision as well as giving you a guide on what to think about if planning your wedding while pregnant.
If you choose to be pregnant on your wedding day or postpone the wedding the choice is yours. Whatever you choose, your wedding day will be special no matter what.
