Hey ya’ll,
Happy October, can we believe it’s already October? And at that a week and a half in, I know I can’t! I can’t believe Jonathan and I just made it to one month of marriage on October 1st! Time is flying by. I’ve been super busy being a student teacher and being in school full time. Let’s just say thank God this program is only 9 months because I’m not sure I could take it any longer! 😑
Anyway, I’ve been wanting to write this post for a while now but I haven’t had a minute to sit down and do it. I still don’t really have time but I’m doing it anyway because to me this is important to share.
First of all let me say that T1D should not get in the way of anything you are trying to plan for your big day. Whether your a man or a woman, this piece of your life and who you are shouldn’t affect anything you have imagined for how this day will go. As I’ve said before and as I truly believe, Diabetes is a part of me (us) but it doesn’t define me or limit me in any way!
1. Don’t Let Diabetes Make Your Decisions
For me, this was the most important thing to remember. I didn’t want to limit myself for anything on one of the biggest days of my life because of my diabetes. Most importantly for me that meant not letting it determine which dress I was going to get. There are so many options when it comes to your wedding dress and having an insulin pump. One option that I know many people chose to do is to have their seamstress sew in some sort of pocket to their dress (if the style allows for it). Another option can be to get a Spibelt to wear under your dress to stash your pump in and maybe even a few pieces of candy. (I have one that I used for walks/runs and I absolutely love it! They even make one with a little hole in it to put your pump tubing through! Linked above) Again, a lot of this depends on the style of the dress you go with, but for me both of these would have been options I could have utilized. However, by the time I got married I was wearing an OmniPod rather than my old Tandem pump I had when I was trying dresses on. I was able to very easily wear my pump on my leg since there’s no tubing and it was out of the way but still allowed me to have the convenience of a pump rather than taking shots! The point I’m trying to make here is that there are tons of options for things that can help hold your pump or hide it or whatever you need to do, so don’t let this dictate what dress you want! You could always do multiple daily injections (MDI) for your big day if need be!
Peep the Dex in the pic below…which leads me to my next tip…
2. Wear Your Gadgets (If You Want To)!
One thing I really struggled with when planning my wedding was whether or not I wanted to wear my insulin pump or do MDI, and whether or not I wanted to wear my Dexcom CGM (continuous glucose monitor) or not. I’ll be honest, the reason I was unsure if I wanted to wear these devices was because I didn’t know if I wanted them to be in all my photos from the wedding. I knew that we were going to be taking tons of pics this day and so I couldn’t decide, did I really want to have these things on my body sticking out in every photo? Then it hit me….YES! I realized that these devices make my life 100X easier (in my personal opinion), so why would I want to make a very special day like my wedding day hard on myself? I also realized that these gadgets are part of what makes me, me. #GIRLSWITHGADGETS I put a Simpatch on over my Dex to blend it in with my skin a bit more and also make sure that baby wasn’t going anywhere. Order some from Amazon, they’re great! In the end I felt like If someone can’t accept this part of who I am then I probably don’t want them in my life anyway and therefor probably did not invite them to my wedding. 🤣 If you decide that you don’t want to wear your devices just because you simply don’t want to, then by all means don’t (and of course take the necessary steps to still manage yourself safely i.e. MDI)! Do whatever is going to make you most comfortable and happy!
3. Assign a Designated “Blood Sugar Watcher”
This was honestly probably one of the best things I did on my wedding day. If you wear a CGM, either the Dexcom or the Medtronic one, then listen up. I decided to have my aunt hold onto my phone for me (which is my Dexcom receiver because I don’t use the actual receiver) while I walked down the aisle. I told her just to keep an eye on what my blood sugars were so that if I was going low or high she could come over and give me some candy or bring over my PDM to dial up some insulin. Luckily, I didn’t have to worry about having a high or a low during my ceremony but knowing in the back of my mind that my aunt was watching over my numbers put me completely at ease. Thank you Auntie Di! Once we got to the reception I took my phone back and was able to check it easily when I needed to.
4. Don’t Beat Yourself Up Over Numbers
This day is a day that you’ll never get back again. It’s a day that you will only have once in your lifetime (hopefully, anyway 😜). You don’t want to look back on this day and realize that all you did was worry about your blood sugars. Of course I’m not advocating for completely ditching taking care of yourself and saying that this day is your day off. No, us type ones know that a day off is never a possibility. However, what I am suggesting is that you DON’T BEAT YOURSELF UP! It’s likely that you will have some highs and lows throughout the day; stress, cakes, dancing, drinking, etc these will all have an effect on your numbers! And that’s okay! See above. I was at 260 while getting ready and drinking champagne, but I didn’t let that take away from the fact that I was about to commit to spending the rest of my life with my best friend!
5. Keep your sh*t together!
This could be taken in more ways than one lol but what I really mean is to have some sort of bag or purse or something that you keep your supplies in. My personal favorite are these bags here by Shop Casualty Girl from Society6. They do also make ones that don’t have profanities on them 🤣 I just love this one personally. But really, making sure all my stuff was together was definitely a life saver. I just kept this little bag on our sweetheart table or under my chair and that way if I needed my PDM to bolus or anything like that, it was right in arms reach!
6. Above All Else, Enjoy Your Day!
As I’ve mentioned about 17 times in this post already, this day is YOUR day and it’s a very special day! In the end what you want to remember is the person you are spending your life with, the celebrations with your closest friends and family, and the memories that you created together. Worry about your diabetes enough to stay safe, but not so much that it puts a damper on your day. I had the best day of my life (so far) on September 1, 2018. I wouldn’t change a thing and I truly believe that having the mindset I did and taking the steps that I did helped take a weight off of my shoulders that Saturday. As a type one diabetic it can be so easy to look at these big moments in our life and wish we didn’t have to deal with diabetes on those days. Wish we could have a break just for a moment. Wish we were someone that didn’t have diabetes. But for me, I’ve come to realize that diabetes helped shape the woman I am today and you know what, I wouldn’t want to not be the person I am for one moment, one day, or lifetime.
The last thing I want to say is that if you are struggling or need help with managing diabetes and some big event in your life don’t ever hesitate to reach out to me! I’m always happy to help!
XoXo
Emily
P.S. all photo credit goes to our amazing photographer Cody James Barry, check him out!
the beauty in type one 