Wedding WishesA Women Wedding Helper

A Smart Aunt Saves The Wedding Day In High Style

How many times have we all been tempted to rip out the pictures of ultrathin models from fashion magazine? Yet more than half the women in America wear plus-size clothes size 14 or larger. Still, it took a family crisis for us to realize how to love the bodies we were born with.

The thing is, our family's physical heritage tends to run large. We're descended from sturdy peasant farmer stock - tall men with broad shoulders and tall women with big hips. This is great when you're plowing fields and having lots of babies to be farm hands, but it can be a disadvantage in our time of highly processed foods and much less physical labor.

The whole thing came to a head when our cousin got engaged to her high school sweetheart. We're a close family, so she wanted as many people as possible to be in her wedding. We were beginning to think there'd be nobody left in the pews on the bride's side. Our laughter turned sour, however, when our cousin got hold of some bridal magazines. It wasn't long before we were fighting over how to lose fat instead of getting ready for a joyous wedding.

Our family fights over losing weight finally reached such a point that Celia and her fiance Frank (who's no beanpole guy, either) thought they might have to elope because nobody was talking to anybody else. That's when Celia's mother, Aunt Marge, got into the act in a great way.

Marge talked to one of her friends who runs a bridal shop in a large Midwestern city. Marge's friend told her that she sees this problem all the time, and that she knew just how to fix it. The bridal shop owner loaned Marge one of her dress catalogs that showed how beautiful and becoming a plus size wedding dress could be. She also sent along some information on how to determine body types and what styles of gowns look best on which body types.

The shop owned loaned our aunt some catalogs from manufacturers that specialize in plus size bridal attire. Our aunt knew the rest of us wouldn't show up if it looked like we were going to go another round in the great wedding diet match, so she tricked us. She got us all over to her house by staging a show for party jewelry. While we were drooling over those beautiful sparklers, she sprang the catalogs on us.

The amazing thing is that Auntie's scheme worked! In fact, we had a ball looking over those beautiful pictures, taking our body measurements and deciding what type of dresses looked best on which shape. Almost before we knew it, we had outfitted the bride, the bridesmaids and the mother of the bride in gorgeous gowns!

Our cousin was a romantic vision on her wedding day in a fabulous gown that fit perfectly. And the rest of us, her bridesmaids, were just as beautiful, because we chose fashions that suited who we are.

Lisa showing high end designers' wedding dresses @ My WEDDING Bridal Shop

Framed Prints of Wedding Dress 1860 from Mary Evans £40.00 Framed 16x12 Print, Black Grain Bevel with White Mount. , WEDDING DRESS 1860. High buttoned corsage with vandyked collar, belt with bow a floating ends, five ungathered flounces, tight sleeves with epaulettes a reverse cuffs a a veil. Chosen by Mary Evans. 41x30cm print in 51x41cm frame with mount individually cut to size. Wood Grain effect Artcore molding. Mount board card with high quality facin...