Weddingbee Blog

Shopping for a wedding dress when you’re a big girl sucks. Most dress boutiques carry few to no dresses in extended sizes, and the dresses they do carry seem to be copies of the same strapless, modified A-line dresses with ruching and, if they’re fancy, a sprinkle of beading. No offense to the brides with ruched, strapless, modified A-line dresses. There’s a reason why these dresses are so popular—they fit and flatter everyone. But this is not my idea of a dream gown.

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Given the choice between dress shopping and a root canal, I would choose a root canal every time. Fortunately, the one thing I fear more than dress shopping is walking down the aisle in my skivvies, so as our wedding day grew closer I knew that it was do or die time and I had face my fear and find a dress. After some research, I was able to locate two bridal boutiques that carried samples in plus sizes. Both happened to be located in the Orange County area within a few miles of each other, so Bridesmaid SD and I decided to make a day of it and hit up both.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures or dresses to share with you from our day out, which goes to show you how underwhelmed I was with our shopping experience. While both Mon Amie Bridal and Ferndales had a large selection of dresses to choose from, the dresses themselves were either just OK or so far over my budget that it wouldn’t matter if they were in a size I could try on because there was no way I could afford them.

I also found myself getting slightly annoyed with the fact that the stores were set up in a way that the plus-size gowns were segregated from all of the “regular” dresses. This practice shouldn’t have really surprised me, though, because isn’t this the same industry that has brought us such TV magic as Say Yes to the Dress: Big Bliss? Because, you know, big girls can’t be featured shopping for dresses amongst their petite counterparts.

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I understand that separating the large dresses makes shopping the racks easier and more comfortable for some brides, but for me having to walk through racks and racks of beautiful sample-size gowns to reach the couple of racks of plus-size dresses in the back of the store left me feeling more self-conscious than shopping amongst the so called “normal sized” brides ever would.

Needless to say, I did not buy a dress that day, and actually to this day I still don’t have one. After talking to my mom and detailing our day of shopping, she asked why I hadn’t considered having my dress made. This was a total forehead-slapping moment for me! My mom made my prom dress in high school, and it fit perfectly and flattered me in a way that no dress in the stores ever did back then, so why wouldn’t I go the same route for one the most memorable dress of my life? Decision made! My mom and I will be working with a seamstress friend of hers to design and construct my wedding dress. It will be 100% custom and flatter me in a way no other dress off the rack will, and I won’t have to stick to the big-girl section of the store to get it!