Friday, January 20, 2012

And The Dress That's No Longer My Enemy

When we last met, my wedding dress and I weren't agreeing. Things have improved since then. My second dress fitting made me feel like slightly less than a fat ass. Slightly.

It didn't take two women to zip up my dress. I could breathe in my dress. I didn't get bruised ribs!

But the dress was still too tight. The seamstress thinks that if I lose another 1-3 pounds, I should be fine. Seeing as how I didn't get back into exercising like I should have, I could probably squeeze in 1-3 yoga sessions and accomplish the goal the seamstress set for me.

It's such a relief to know that I may get into the wedding dress without any alterations. They're steaming the dress, and I'll pick it up next week.

To celebrate a dress that finally fit, I went shopping. I bought a great hat for the honeymoon and a beautiful hair flower/fascinator for the wedding reception. I've always wondered about the difference between a fascinator and a hair flower. Is is the feathers that make it a fascinator?

Well, what I purchased has feathers, a tulle, and a flower. It will be perfect for my hair for the reception when I take the veil off. Speaking of veils, my lovely wonderful Etsy shop of choice, Joyous Illusions, and the angel behind it is currently working on my veil!

My veil will be done by next weekend, and then I will be ready for the big reveal of my whole wedding outfit. There will be dress, veil, fascinator, shoes, stockings, jewelry, and undergarments. So many details went into choosing the whole ensemble.

How long did it take to put together your entire wedding look? How many dress fittings did you have?

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Over-Achieving My Dress Goal

My final dress fitting has happened and once I order my veil, every part of my wedding ensemble will be in place. I can't wait to tell you how the fitting went. After that, I will share the entire outfit.

But first, I have to tell a tale of woe. A story about a petite girl who ordered a dress and then feared that dress would be too big.

That girl is me. When I first picked out my wedding dress, the sample size was 10. That dress swallowed me up. They took my measurements and found I was a 6-6-8. You know, size 6 boobs, size 6 waist, size 8 hips.

After the initial shock of feeling extra huge because the wedding sizes run extra small, Momma Kettle and I decided on the size 6. The dress had an A-line ball gown skirt, so we'd rather fit the boobs than the hips in this case.

I worried about the dress fitting too loosely. The top has 3D flowers all over it and wouldn't be easy to alter. I didn't want to risk ending up having to fidget with dress all night long or having a saggy tube top dress. If you've ever had a saggy tube top, you feel my pain.

Well, I didn't do much exercising because I was terrified of losing weight. The size 10 was huge on me, the 8 would be too big, and the 6 might even be too big. At least that's what was going through my head after we ordered the dress. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what happened next. I got to my fitting, eager to try on my dress.

I got into the room with my consultant. She tried to zip up the dress. It wouldn't zip. She called for help from the front of the store. One woman had to hold the dress together while the other one zipped. I was almost tipped over several times.

And my dress has buttons. Those little buttons that require a special little hook to get closed. Again, one had to hold it closed while the other buttoned. Then the consultant pulled on the skin of my back. It hurt. When I said ouch, she replied, "I just want to make sure you don't have a back ass." That's a verbatim quote.

I had back booty, Oprah arm, and side boob everywhere. I had achieved my goal of not gaining weight. I had over-achieved it. The consultant began assuring me the dress could be taken out all would be fine.

Momma Kettle told her no. She said I would go back to yoga and I'd be tiny again in a few weeks. Then she had me walk, sit, dance, and twirl in my dress so she could make sure it would stay up (that dress wasn't going anywhere!) and see how it looked.

She took some pictures and I loved the photographs. But I couldn't breathe, and my ribs got bruised, and I was sure there was no way I could eat and dance and breathe all night if I wore that dress that way.

I firmly believe in not forcing myself to conform to some image of how I'm supposed to look, but it's not like we have the time or money to rush order some other dress. So I will take my butt back to yoga so I can wear my wedding dress while eating, dancing, and breathing all night long.

I care more about my health than my appearance, and if I'm honest with myself, I honestly haven't been behaving as if I cared about either since we ordered a dress I was afraid would be too big.

Since I'm Miss Kettle, I had some images saved on my computer of kettle in case I need them. Remember Miss Potts from Beauty and the Beast (on 3D in a theater near you, woot!)? Yeah, I feel like her right now.


Image via Disney Wikia / Happy and loved, but overweight is she.

How did your first fitting go? Did you dress have to be altered?