There are often times when I have to really stop myself from throttling my thirty something audience when I do relationship workshops to help them redefine the fairy tale happy ending they are all desperate to find.  The urgency always comes from worrying about what other people think because being left on the shelf childless and on the heap, is a sad picture leaving these women miserable and desperate.

I had such a thirty something not long ago who told me she was desperate to find the Prince and get him down the aisle on the best day of her life, she just wanted the fairy tale wedding. She went on to tell me with her mother she had already prepared everything from picking out the church, the reception venue, the flowers, invites and the bridesmaids dresses, even admitting to buying herself the perfect big white meringue dress, after falling in love with it.

Buying yourself a wedding dress before you have met the groom never mind him popping the question and actually been asked to be married, is what I can only describe as tragic and planning a fantasy event, terrible unwise council from a mother who should know better. Any Mums out there desperate for "Mother Of The Bride" glory or to relive their own big day vicariously through their girls, think by giving her daughter some truthful advice about the realities of married life in the first place instead all the mental anguish she would be spared.

Photo by: Celia Michon Unsplash