As with all athletes determined to make it to the top, Shannon’s accomplishments have not come without setbacks.  Severe knee injuries and broken jaws would stop most mortals from continuing the pursuit of their sport, but not Shannon.  Perhaps she gets her strength from hidden super-powers in her highlighted pink hair.   But more likely it’s her dedication and uber-positive attitude that has her back on the slopes competing for 2010 Winter Olympic gold.

2010 Winter Olympian Shannon Bahrke

Shannon talks to Bombshell Bride about overcoming the odds, dealing with stress and her Hawaiian wedding plans with fiancé Matt Happe (pronounced happy).

Bombshell Bride: You’ve had some crazy injuries – busted knees, broken jaws, and I’m sure a lot of minor pulls and sparins. What drove you to get back onto your skis after all of that?

Shannon Bahrke:  I think my drive to come back is just in my nature.  I absolutely love what I do and I want to be the best in the world.  Every athlete has setbacks and that is just what you have to deal with.  It seems like it was harder to come back each time but so much more rewarding.  As I stand here today, I’ve had such a roller coaster career of 12 years, and I couldn’t imagine it any differently, I have learned so much and I am thankful for all of it.

You won a silver medal in the 2002 Winter Olympics. What have you learned in the last 8 years that has made you a better competitor?

I think the biggest thing I have learned is to really listen to my body.  When it aches and hurts, maybe it is time to take a break and get a massage.  But when it feels great, I know when I can push it.  I lift weights in the summer a lot differently because I know what my body really likes and what it doesn’t.  We are all so different as we need to do what works for each of us.  I think knowing my body better has made me a tougher and smarter competitor!

Traveling on the circuit with the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team, training for the 2010 Olympics and now planning a wedding is a lot to put on your plate. What do you do to chill out and relieve stress?

There are a lot of things I love to do to relax.  I love to go for walks or hikes, just listen to my Ipod, and enjoy nature.  I try to go for at least 1 walk a day.  I do yoga a lot too.  When I’m on the road I bring a DVD to do and when I’m home I go to Centered City Yoga, it’s a time when I can just be by myself and focus inward.  I love to read, I have a Kindle and it has saved my life on the road!  I also love to take baths.  There is nothing better than just soaking in the tub with a good book/Kindle!  Being with my friends and family is also a good relaxing time for me.  We laugh and have a good time and I just cherish the time we can all be together.

[Try this Yoga Workout for Wedding Weight Loss by NYC Yoga Instructor Sadie Nardini]

If you win a medal in the 2010 Freestyle Moguls, are you planning on doing anything crazy? Dye your hair orange? Have any friendly bets with any of your team mates?

If I win a medal in 2010 my life will get crazy in general.  My fiancé Matt and I own a coffee company, Silver Bean Coffee Co., and so I think we would have to start a new line of coffee!!  Besides that I think the first thing I would do is go on a crazy shopping spree.  I have the worst clothes right now and I would just LOVE to actually update my wardrobe.  I think I would also use some of the money to get some more diamonds on my wedding band!  My pink hair is staying, no new colors, but who knows maybe my Dad will dye his hair pink!!

[View Shannon's favorite ab exercises]

What unique things do you have planned for your wedding?
Matt and I are getting married on 10-10-10 in Kauai, Hawaii.  We have so many friends all over the country and world so this is going to be a time for all of us to be together.  I really want to go hiking all over the island and go on a kick ass helicopter tour of all of the waterfalls.  I think in general we are very non-traditional so we don’t want to have a “normal” wedding.  I really want people to have a fruity and colorful cocktail when we walk down the aisle.  I don’t want white shoes so I’m looking for some really funky high heels.  I am up for anything so I want to work with our planners to have something out of the ordinary that everyone will remember for ever!!

Watch Shannon Bahrke Saturday, February 13th as she competes in the Freestyle Skiing Moguls at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Update: Shannon Bahrke wins bronze medal in Freestyle Mogul Skiing. She joined her USA teammate Hannah Kearney, who won gold, on the medal podium.

Photo: Harry How

Mary Knott and Dan Beaver on their wedding day. Photo: Paul Nestor

Her “walk” down the aisle was actually a run of 3 ½ miles down the Las Vegas Strip to get to the wedding altar—aka the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Hotel. And though the bride did wear white, it’s fair to say most women don’t choose their wedding dresses from a line of running skirts, or use a water bottle as the base for their bouquet. There were other unusual details, of course, but when it comes to expressing love and commitment, everyone has their own way of doing things. And for Mary and (now husband) Dan Beaver, there was no better place to express their love and commitment than surrounded by other runners.

They weren’t the only ones who felt that way. The 2009 Run-Thru Wedding, held December 6 around mile 3.5 of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon and Half-Marathon course, was the setting for more than 85 couples who married or renewed their vows in a short group ceremony officiated by Reverend Jamie Firzlaff, who also ran the half-marathon. The minister and the couples took off at the starting line (where two caged Bengal tigers were in the crowd), stopped for the ceremony in front of the Paris Hotel, then continued on to complete either the half-marathon or the full marathon. And though Mary and Dan are both hardcore triathletes and marathoners, they chose to take it a bit easier on their special day and run “just” the half marathon (13.1 miles).

[Get three get-thin and love-exercise tips from Jennifer Aniston's trainer Mandy Ingber.]

I talked with Mary the week before her wedding to hear about the special role running plays in her relationship with Dan, why a marathon course was a perfect setting for her wedding, and how she proposed.

Read on for more…

For Lauren, the bride-to-be blogger behind Salt Says, her destination dream wedding is right around the corner. On February 27, 2010, in the beautiful Turks and Caicos Islands, Lauren will say “I do” to fiance Mike. It’s not easy planning a destination wedding, but through yoga Lauren has stayed calm and developed a more toned body. “I can’t say enough about how yoga has kept me sane,” she says, “not just in wedding planning, but in life in general.”

Bride-to-be Lauren (pictured with fiance Mike) uses yoga to for stress-less wedding planning. Photo: openFieldphotography.com

Read on for more about Lauren’s destination wedding planning journey and the key role yoga has played.

The Engagement

It was February 3 of this year. I was on the couch helping my youngest brother with his homework—in sweatpants with my hair messy—I had just got home from the gym. My little brothers were staying at our house for the night, and Mike had gone to pick up his nephew and had taken my other brother with him. When they returned, my brother ran into the house saying I had dropped something in the parking lot. I immediately got up to go check because I’ve done that before, but then my brother took a ring box out of his pocket. He said he found it on the ground next to my car.

It took a few moments, but suddenly the realization that it was my ring box—my wedding ring box—dawned on me, and I started to cry. Then, surrounded by my brothers and Mike’s nephew, Mike asked me to marry him.

I said yes.

Bride-to-be Brie has had a lot of change in her life lately. She moved from Chicago to Iowa for law school. Got engaged. Graduated law school. And most recently moved to Kansas City, Missouri with her fiance. Through these journeys and celebrations, Brie has found another reason for change–her health.

As an overweight, out-of-shape child, Brie was not able to finish the “one mile run” in gym class.  Years later, this onetime asthma sufferer is striving to be happy and healthy in her body by her May 2010 wedding by running, working out and eating better. On her blog, The Fit Bride, you can follow Brie as she tackles her fitness goals clearly written in black and white for all to see: “run a 5k in under 30 minutes,” “run a 10k in under 60 minutes”, and (my favorite) “run a race at Disney World.” This is Brie’s journey…so far.

Brie’s dress is by Pronovias, style Ronda. “When I tried it on, I got the warm fuzzies. There was no way I was walking out of the store without it!”

Bombshell Bride: At what point did you decide that you needed to change?

Brie: It was a combination of things. I always avoided the scale, but I had no choice at the doctor’s office and panicked a little when I realized how out of control I’d let things get. I also was a bridesmaid in my best friend’s wedding and wanted to look better in her wedding pictures than I did in the ones I saw from her bridal shower!

I also came to a point where I realized the next few years of my life were going to be really important ones–I knew I’d be graduating from law school soon, and I suspected I’d be getting engaged and married, and I didn’t want to go through those important moments unhappy with how I looked.

Bombshell Bride: What was the hardest part about trying to eat healthier?

Brie: I still struggle with trying to find the perfect balance. It will never be sustainable for me to eat only healthy foods all the time, and my first (and biggest) weight loss mistake was thinking I could eliminate my old favorites entirely. I finally realized that forbidding myself from the occasional ice cream cone or slice or pizza was just making me want them more, so now I work to keep about 80 to 90 percent of my food choices healthy but leave 10 to 20 percent for the less healthy things I still love.

Bombshell Bride: We noticed that you posted your fitness goals on your blog for the whole word to see, does that help keep you accountable?

Brie: It definitely helps keep me accountable. I feel so proud when I’m crossing something off my list!

Bombshell Bride: Why did you choose running as a fitness goal? What was your experience in your first 5k?

Brie: As a child, I had asthma and was overweight and out of shape. I still remember dreading running “the mile” in gym class for the President’s fitness test, and not being able to finish or having to walk while all my classmates and friends ran. As an adult, I decided that I wanted to redeem that poor little chubby girl that struggled so much by conquering my running demons! I still think of the gym teachers that gave me bad grades whenever I’m crossing the finish line in a race. It’s really been kind of a full circle experience for me.

Jenn Walters is a picture of health. She’s the co-creator of Fit Bottomed Girls (along with Erin Whitehead), a blog through which she channels her passion for sane fitness and healthy-living advice. She’s also a certified personal trainer, a lifestyle and weight management consultant and a group exercise instructor. And to top things off, she’s training for a January marathon (and raising money for Girls on the Run while she’s at it). To look at her, it’s hard to imagine she’s ever struggled with food issues.

Jenn Walters (with officiant Michael Price and husband, Ryan Walters) ended her struggle with emotional overeating by learning to listen to her body's true hunger signals. Photo: http://brianwithaneye.com/

Yet, like so many women, she’s no stranger to emotional overeating and the attendant roller coaster of bingeing and restriction. Here she tells Bombshell Bride how deep reflection and an upcoming wedding helped her take the steps she needed to develop a healthy relationship with food—and with her body.

Bombshell Bride: When did your struggles with emotional overeating begin?

Jenn Walters: I’ve probably been an emotional eater since high school. I remember grabbing a carton of ice cream after a tough day and going to town. I’d generally overeat and then heavily restrict for as long as I could before getting really hungry and bingeing again. My struggle with it worsened in college, and really hit me in graduate school when I was off living in a new city by myself.

Bombshell Bride: Did your struggles with food have a specific turning point, or was it more of a growing realization that you needed to take a different approach?

Jenn: It was definitely a growing realization. In college and grad school I had a part-time job as a group exercise instructor and personal trainer, and I knew better: I knew severely dieting and then bingeing wasn’t healthy or making me happy. But I’m a perfectionist and I felt pressure as a fitness professional to look a certain way, so I’d recommit to healthy eating (in an extremely restricted way) time and time again with the hopes of finally conquering it. In the end it would always conquer me.

It wasn’t until a year out of graduate school, on my birthday during a period of intense self-reflection—and nine months before my wedding, so I was in full planning mode—that I realized I needed help, and another diet wasn’t going to work for me. I knew that it was taking up too much of my mental space and energy. And I didn’t want to worry about my weight on my wedding day. That was the last thing I wanted to worry about. Honestly, I also felt like a hypocrite for telling people to love and accept themselves and their bodies in group exercise classes when I had obviously not done that myself. I couldn’t be like that any more.