Weddings can be stressful for a countless number of reasons. Between a global pandemic, canceled flights, wedding invitation issues, and more, there’s a lot on a bride’s plate. This is exactly why I didn’t want to think about what was actually on my plate and opted for the Sakara Bridal Program instead.
You may have reservations about whether or not Sakara is worth the money or it’s actually legit; I hope my review on the bridal program helps make your decision an easier one.
If you’re familiar with Sakara’s signature meal delivery, the bride program is essentially an extended version of this. Upon committing to the bridal program, I signed up to receive 20 days of freshly prepared plant-based meals, all organic and delivered to my door.
Honestly, can you think of anything better than a wedding diet meal delivery right to your front door? I sure can’t.
When my first box arrived, I was excited to discover my meals included extra support tools in addition to the week’s meals.
As I’d come to discover, this first box essentially contained everything you need to care for yourself during one of the most stressful times of your life. I could feel my stress start to melt away, knowing that I didn’t have to think about how to nourish myself in the days leading up to one of the biggest days of my life.
Plus, you’ll also receive exclusive discounts to share with your friends, family, and bridal party. You’ll get the hook up from places such as Zola, Knot Standard, and Sakara. Oh! Your significant other will receive a complimentary custom Tuxedo Shirt.
It was mid-June 2018, and I was fresh off my five-day bachelorette party in Los Angeles. I was feeling all kinds of bloated, exhausted, and truthfully, a little bit nervous about our upcoming nuptials on August 4th.
To be clear, I wasn’t feeling the nerves due to the thought of marrying my fiance, more along the lines of, “How am I going to feel like my absolute best self – confident, glowing, and the perfect balance of sexy – in such a short amount of time?”
To be completely transparent, about four years ago, I was the type of person that would weigh herself every morning. The number on the scale would dictate how my entire day went, and sometimes, those little digits would create some negative self-talk on my end.
Thankfully, I caught myself in this pattern and quickly ditched my scale and opted for an intuitive way of eating – one that nourishes my body, supports me when I indulge consciously and makes me feel incredible. I have Sakara to thank for my re-frame around the idea of choosing food that fuels us but not being afraid to embrace all the things I love.
For a lot of brides-to-be, the reality of the situation is that as soon as we’re engaged, the wedding industry starts to tell us that our bodies need to be thinner and tanner, and our teeth need to become an impossible shade of white.
On top of everything already swirling through our brains, this added pressure can be a lot to handle and navigate healthily and constructively.
So, here I was. Stuck in the middle of feeling like crap post-bachelorette, working diligently to stay true to my beliefs around food, and also trying to avoid the scrambled-egg diet one of my friends made up the week before her wedding.
What’s a girl to do?
That’s where the four-week-long Sakara Bride Program came in and saved the day. Well, the entire month, really.
To be clear, my intentions with starting the Sakara Bride program were not diet-related. I didn’t want to lose weight; instead, I wanted to tone up and feel less inflamed from the copious amounts of Casamigos consumed on my bachelorette weekend.
I actually had my final dress fitting back in February for our wedding in August as I thought that I wouldn’t be dropping extreme amounts of weight or changing my body in any significant way. Keep reading to find out what happened.
When it came to my “pre-wedding plan,” I wanted to nourish myself without restriction (again, I had no intentions to go on that weird egg diet) and without the external pressure to become the “perfect bride.” I just wanted to feel like myself, but a joyful and glowing version of me – radiant skin, on-point digestion, and boundless energy included.
And to be completely transparent, I didn’t want to have to think about what to eat or how I was going to prepare it. Knowing that Sakara’s meals essentially deliver a personal chef and a nutritionist all in one box, I didn’t hesitate to dig in. Read more about Sakara’s pillars of nutrition here.
After the first seven days, I had a significant takeaway – this program took away a lot of stress I didn’t even realize I was carrying around food.
The time it takes to figure out what to eat and then shop, prep, eat, and clean up was a lot more of a commitment than I remembered. Sakara was saving me at least an hour a day by having my meals ready to go in the fridge.
With everything prepped and ready to eat, I had more time to focus on myself (hello, self-care!) and the other tasks I needed to cross off my to-do list before our pending nuptials.
Also, I’m not going to lie, my first thought upon waking up was solely focused on noshing on a delicious breakfast waiting for me in the fridge.
My favorite bridal meals this week were:
By this point, I’m am so excited because I still have two more weeks left of the program, and I’m practically giddy with the thought of more Sakara meals coming my way.
I also had some major and unexpected takeaways during this time. Before the Sakara program, I wasn’t eating enough, especially when it came to the leafy greens department.
What I thought was an adequate amount of food wasn’t providing enough nourishment, leaving me with late-night sugar cravings. Thanks to Sakara, those sugar cravings were no longer a part of my life.
Instead, the fresh fruit and natural sweeteners like maple syrup, honey, and coconut sugar, paired with fiber and plant-based protein, were enough to leave me feeling satiated. Sugar, my go-to stress-induced crutch, no longer haunted my post-dinner thoughts.
Also, I started to notice that my skin was glowing more than usual. It had improved so much that people were asking me about my skincare routine and were shocked to hear that the only change was the food I was eating.
My favorite meals this week:
By the final week, as cliche as it sounds, I genuinely felt like a million bucks. I couldn’t believe just how incredible I was feeling. It was as if I was glowing from the inside out.
Since our wedding was just two weeks away at this point, I needed to make sure that my wedding dress still fit. My favorite pair of jeans were looser around my mid-section, and I had a feeling I’d be calling in for one last fitting.
And I was right.
My dress was about a half-size too big around my waist – the area I tend to hold stress and excess sugar – and it was a total wake-up call to me just how much the late-night sugar (even if it was gluten-free and dairy-free) slowly affected my body.
At the end of the program, I realized that what you’re eating is so much more important than how much you’re eating when making physical changes in your body. I know that not all calories are created equally, but Sakara truly put this into perspective for me, and the way I felt and looked in my wedding dress was evidence of that.
I am genuinely grateful for a company like Sakara. A company that puts overall health and wellness first, not a way to lose weight quickly to then only gain it all back the moment you “go off track.”
While eating my way through the four weeks of the Bridal Program, I felt like I was nourishing the best possible version of myself.
When you’re a bride-to-be, it’s easy to feel like you have stress coming from every facet of your life. Opening the fridge to find my Sakara meals was the best gift I could have given to myself during the weeks leading up to our wedding. I learned more lessons about myself and had insights I never expected.
On the day of our wedding, I felt so calm and confident. A close friend commented on how she needed to borrow some of my chill vibes.
I didn’t feel a lot of the pre-wedding jitters as I slowly sipped on my water dosed with the Sakara Beauty drops because I had done the work beforehand – nourished myself through food, took time off, and created healthy boundaries – to get me to this point of zen.
Truthfully, slipping into my wedding dress made me feel like the sexiest and luckiest woman alive.
Yes, Sakara is legit, and the proof is in the Avo-Cacao Probiotic Pudding. I hope this review helped you feel inspired to opt for the less-stressful wedding preparation route and choose Sakara.
All wedding image credit: Ryan Flynn Photography
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