As I’ve said in another post, I’ve made peace with my being overweight for the most part.  Still, when it came time to finding a plus size wedding dress, all my insecurities from my teenage years came flooding back in a torrent. 

Like I was saying, I put off looking for a dress for as long as I could, but with the wedding just 4 months away, I finally convinced myself to start looking. 

I went to check out a couple of bridal boutiques.  The lady at the first boutique stared at me up and down before telling me flat out that they didn’t have anything in my size in the entire store.  The second boutique had friendlier staff that told me pretty much the same thing, except she offered to have one custom-made for me.  By that time I was really feeling self-conscious as the store started getting busy with what I assumed were brides-to-be that all looked a lot skinnier than I did.  So I bailed out and went home.

Yes that was silly I know but I couldn’t help it.  That night, though, it occurred to me that it would be a good idea to ask a plus size boutique for advice on this, although they didn’t sell wedding dresses they might know places that did.  So next day I called up one of them and sure enough, they knew of one that they heard good feedback from some customers about.  It was a website called “Plus Size Bridal”. 

So I went to check out the PlusSizeBridal website and was really impressed.  The entire site is geared towards plus size bridal wear and carries everything including plus size bridal gowns, bridesmaid dresses, mother dresses, flower girl dresses, crinolines, bridal veils / head pieces, bras / lingerie, bridal shoes, and even bridal jewelry.  They even have wedding invitations! 

They carry everything from size 2 to 32 and has over 600 wedding dresses to choose from.  There’s a good selection available at under $200 and others go all the way to $700+. 

Shipping costs $15 via UPS Ground if you’re not in a rush.  They have a lowest price guarantee where if you find a lower price elsewhere they’ll beat it by 5%.  They also have a satisfaction guarantee where if you’re not satisfied with the dress within 5 days of receiving it, you can get an exchange or refund (less a restocking fee – I think this guarantee only applies to certain sizes so be sure to check their website to make sure).  PlusSizeBridal is probably where I’ll eventually choose my dress from.

In addition to PlusSizeBridal, I did a search on google and found other ones that offered plus size wedding dresses.  I’m including them for those of you who want even more choices:

House of Brides – They have a section for plus size wedding dresses with over 250 dresses to choose from.

Igigi - Has a section on plus size wedding gowns and dresses as well as great dresses for your bridesmaids so be sure to invite them to check this site out as well.  (Slide your cursor over the pictures to see how the dresses look from the back!)

Torrid - Do a search on “gown” on this website.  They have a couple of gowns available that look good.  They also carry lots of plus size apparel and accessories for everyday wear.

I’m still trying to decide which one to pick, but I’m really happy that I get to do this so conveniently over the net without having to deal with boutique sales staff etc.  I’ll try to get a picture of myself uploaded to this blog after my wedding to show you which dress I end up choosing.  That won’t be a few months from now though!

I don’t know what kind of thoughts usually go through the minds of other women when they get proposed to, but instead of more logical thoughts along the lines of “will I be happy living with this person for the rest of my life”, I was wondering “how will I ever find a plus size wedding dress that fits me??”

Since that time, I’ve been avoiding thoughts that had anything to do with finding a suitable wedding dress.  I’ve been busy planning all other aspects of my upcoming wedding – except what dress I’m going to wear.  I stalled and stalled until here I am, with the wedding just 4 months away and with everyone constantly “reminding” me to get one made soon because “custom-made wedding gowns take time”…so here I am, starting a blog as a way of finally squaring my shoulders and addressing this issue head on.

As you can tell from my first post, I was still procrastinating and couldn’t even manage to bring myself to mention the words “plus size wedding dress” in the entire post.  Now that I’ve addressed the problem in this post – which is a really good start for me – the next step would be to actually start taking some action to find that dress. 

I’m making a commitment to visit at least 2 bridal boutiques by next week to see what I can find.  I don’t really want a custom-made plus size wedding dress as our wedding budget is not that big so I want to see if I could find a ready-made one first.  The wedding’s only 4 months away.  I can’t put this off any longer, so I’ll try to enjoy the process as much as I’m able to.  Wish me luck!

I was especially self-conscious throughout my teenage years, which are by default difficulty times already and being overweight made it even more difficulty.  Not to mention how hard it was to buy clothes that came in my size that I liked (read: that I thought I looked slimmer in).

It wasn’t all bad though.  After years of being sick and tired of feeling sensitive about my weight and appearance, my perspective finally started to change around 10 years ago (when I was in my early 20’s).  I started on the spiritual quest of getting to know myself better.  As I read more and more books on spirituality (or what some people call “New Age” stuff), and as I did more thinking about myself and others based on my life experience and observations, I felt more and more comfortable in my skin.  (My entire perspective on a lot of things changed, not just on this issue alone.) 

Other “overweight” friends started coming into my life and a couple of them became role models for me with their charm and self-confidence that they didn’t let dwarf by their tiny weight problem.  Hanging around them had a very positive effect on me as I got more used to just being me – smart, funny, caring, sexy me – as opposed to always mentally labeling myself as fat in the past. 

As I made peace with my body I noticed a pleasant “side effect” – that other people enjoyed hanging around me more, and even complete strangers started treating me with more respect!  That made complete sense.  How could I expect other people to love and respect me when I didn’t love or respect myself in the first place?  Gives you something to think about doesn’t it?

Speaking of role models, I was inspired by several celebs who didn’t let their weight issues stop them from reaching for success.  Oprah, although she never really made peace with her weight, was an inspiration nevertheless with the success and popularity she’s achieved.  Later came Beth Ditto and Ruth Jones, both of whom were further proof that being overweight is no deterrent to success. 

And then, in the past few years, plus size boutiques, with their increasingly larger selections, started popping up all over the place, which made buying clothes increasingly enjoyable for me.  Plus size clothing stores have the big plus (pun intended, sorry!) of knowing how to design clothing to make large people look even more attractive (not that we weren’t to begin with but you know what I mean).  Another plus is, staff that works at these boutiques are capable of giving better advice because they’re used to dealing with plus sizes.  Plus size stores are where I get all my clothes from now and have been for the past while.

OK, I just realized I’ve been ranting on and on without getting to the subject matter I had intended to talk about.  As this post is getting really long I’ll continue in another post next time.  Stay tuned!