Dress Flash!

So beautiful

Gorgeous! Love the waist!

Thank you!
I can't stop looking at the photos! Usually I hate photos of me, but this is an exception :3

Oh my goodness, so gorgeous!

Oh wow that's such a great fit! Looks like a perfect dress for your body type! Can I ask are you petite? I'm 5'1 and feel like I'm going to look swampt in almost the same style dress! But get it back from alterations on the 6th so will have to wait and see!

Yes! I'm only 5ft 2 and the dress fits *just* right. I had no alterations or anything... think I just got lucky, if I'm honest. It only cost £60!

Aw see I could only tell from your tiny waist! My dress was £50 from Hong Kong, had to go to alterations as I went from a 34 waist to a 30 within 2 months, plus it needed to be taken up. Mines only fitted at the top, then 'free' from waist down so really similar to what your dress looks like, so if you look amazing in yours, there's hope fore yet

I think mine might have originally been a China dress, but I bought from eBay from an English seller who looks to buy wholesale stock to resell for profit. I took it to a seamstress and asked about alterations and she was really pleased to tell me they were all just right anyway! The lace up back helps though because I've lost half a stone since I bought the dress (only three weeks ago - all of this running around!). There's only another three weeks to go so can't see me needing anything last minute.

But I digress - I'm sure you'll look beautiful in your dress too! Send us flashes please

Also as a side note, this was me two years ago, so doubt you could've told I was a petite then, haha!

Oh wow you've come a long way in your weight loss, well done you

I would flash but my sofa has a middle leg that sits about an inch off the floor and someone knocked the laptop under it and smashed all the screen and my iPhone wot flash, when I go on the link it's jumping all over the place! Funny enought my dress is the one thing I wouldn't mind flashing as most people apart from OH have seen it ha!

The only thing Iv found with my weight loss is I now have NO boobs! That and 2 kids, Mother Nature and gravity!! So Iv had to get a mega push up bra so make it look like I have boobs... OH's going to be so depressed on the wedding night haha!

your dress looks like it's from an actual bridal shop!!

Wow love your dress and what a steal looks like it cost far far more xx

Thanks again everyone

I understand completely, haha. I went from a buxom 40E to (what feels like) a barely there 32C after losing 6+ stone and having three kids (not all at once, haha).

That is pretty

I'm 5ft 2, and I've gone for a similar shape, mostly because I'm all boobs and shoulders and no hips! haha. You look stunning, and what a steal! Congratulations on the incredible weight loss too!

Beautiful dress, and a huge well done on the weight loss.

Thanks everybody

It's really the first time I've seen a photo of me that hasn't made me cringe. I think a big part of that is the weight loss, and another big part is that the dress feels like it was made for me! I'm a very budget conscious person and no way could I have justified spending hundreds on a dress when I have three children to support (but that comes down to my background and is not a judgement on anybody else).

Now for the shocker: I'm a "big fat gypsy bride" without the big fat gypsy taste! Haha

Wowsa that dress is super pretty You look gorgeous!

Also, well done on your weight-loss You must be very proud of yourself

Haha, and without the big or the fat! I hope my dress looks anywhere near that amazing, and I have spent lots on it!

Haha, bless. Thank you!

Truth be told, I didn't want to have a wedding beyond our means and I think it's worked out so well for us - going to Gretna with a few close family and friends and having a cottage pie for tea afterwards, haha. Nothing swanky because that's really not us. All in all we've spent less than 1.5k on everything including wedding attire.

I love big weddings as a guest though and I've seen some beautiful dresses (none of my family have had any that I particularly liked, mind! And yes, one of my cousins was on BFGW as a bride!). A wedding I went to last month had the bride in a £4k dress and it was stunning, as I'm sure yours will be too!

Hehe, amazing! Love watching that for the dresses, can't imagine having a dress that weighs more than the bride!

4k?! Wow! I definitely couldn't stomach spending that!! I refused to go into 4 figures, and even then I spent a lot of time considering it all.

Your wedding sounds like its going to be very you, and it sounds lovely to me! Mine is basically as big as it is for my family, they've waited a long time for an amazing family do! I was never one of these little girls who has their wedding planned out, it just sort of happened!

MrsSheptobe, if I even tried to accommodate for my family it would cost us far, far too much. I'm the eldest of seven, four of which have children of their own, and my mum is the second youngest of nine - all of my maternal aunts and uncles have their own children and most of those children also have children. There would literally be over 100 people just aunts / uncles / cousins / their families if I even tried to work it out that way and we're not including my dad's side in that calculation, let alone OH's family.

Since we don't feel particularly close to anybody we haven't invited, we don't feel like we're missing out by not having them there. There are some members of the family who we would have liked to come, but they can't for various reasons and that's fine too. We want nothing more than a nice, relaxed, intimate wedding with no drama and by keeping the guest list so tiny (literally 20 guests all in all) it feels like we've saved ourselves a huge headache.

BFGWs are so hectic, I dont think anybody has any time to enjoy themselves despite what you see on tv. My experience is that there are so many people there's an inevitable argument and the drunken fights are ridiculous! When we originally started planning (way before deciding on Gretna) my mum offered to pay a massive chunk if I would allow 7 of my cousins to be bridesmaids; as it stands now, there are two and they're both my daughters, haha

The dresses never appealed to me at all, but I don't really fit into the mold of a regular gypsy bride, because I'm not. I was educated (at uni at the moment) and as you can see from my DP, I had my hair cut short. Most people don't make the connection with gypsies and long hair but have you ever seen one with short hair? Haha. It's considered 'unfeminine' for a woman to have short hair in the culture and when I cut it short, I was practically disowned. Phew.

Goodness me! Now THAT is a big family! My nanna's were both 1 of 7, and my dad has around 40 cousins (big irish family, of course!) but thankfully the family has got smaller from there!

It's interesting to get an insight into what feels like a very different culture. I had noticed the long hair thing, can't believe it can be enough to be disowned over though! They wouldn't like mine, most of it barely even covers my ears!

Good for you for doing what suits you, in life and for your wedding day :-)

I think my family are particularly traditional. Others wouldn't be so fussed over a girl cutting her hair, but I was never really 'one of them' to begin with; for a start, I really enjoyed reading as a kid and am a bit of a feminist so hate the misogyny directed at gypsy women. I would never have been happy staying at home to look after the children as I feel I have so much more to give than that - not that being a SAHM is a bad thing, of course, just that it's not me personally.

I'm happy to be a little bit (okay - a lot!) of a rebel when it comes to expectations from family, and a lot of them have now realised that I'm just being myself and are okay with that.

I always remember my mum's older sister (about 60 years old at the time) asking me how it felt to breastfeed as in the Gypsy culture it's considered rude to do that and she genuinely knew nobody else who had!

I could talk about the differences there forever though, haha. Point is, I think I'm just the type of person to do what I want to do regardless of what anybody else thinks

You sound just like me

The breastfeeding is interesting, the children are so important in the gypsy culture, but that's trumped by modesty. Its funny, because if I had kids, more people would have something to say if I DIDN'T breastfeed! Haha.

Ooh, you've got three weeks to go! How exciting!!

What a stunning dress and well done on the weight loss! You look beautiful x

Three weeks is really soon... Eeeek! I have a few things happening in between to break it up a bit (hospital appointments and birthdays) so it's going to fly by so fast! It's really scary (but in a good way!)

Eek! I bet you can't wait! Mine is 2 months today and I really want it to be now! (Not actually ready yet though, haven't even seen my dress yet!) Will you be flashing the wedding? Be lovely to see it!

Yep! I'm hoping to have lots of photos of the day (especially because I know FMIL wants to wear a really inappropriate dress despite my talk with her a few days ago). IS it even really a dress? I'm not convinced.

Erm, no, that's a top, definitely a top! Oh dear!

I'm just leaving it be! Let her make a fool of herself. I tried being nice and explained that her first dress choice was wrong for other reasons (it being her wedding dress) and when I pointed out that this 'dress' was perhaps on the short side she said she didn't have any others... I offered to help her find another one but she said she hasn't got the time or money to go dress shopping so I'll just leave her to it.

I'll get her to stand at the back in all of the photos so nobody can see her... bits, haha.

Ha! I hope she has some nice knickers that's one thing I know I won't have to worry about! In fact my FMIL is a witch, and isn't coming at all

To be honest, FMIL coming to the wedding caused a few issues for us because now FFIL, his wife, child and H2Bs grandmum won't stay for the reception, and my mum felt too uncomfortable to come at all, but we couldn't very well uninvite her after she paid the deposit for us.

You're lucky in some ways

Oh dear, family dramas! One of the first questions I was asked by a friend when we announced our engagement was oh dear, do you have to work out who to invite, which members of your family you hate and which ones you have to invite anyway to be polite? I was proud to be able to say no, I will be inviting my whole family as everyone is lovely and gets on well! OH's family on the other hand... he is literally just going to have his dad there. We actually work together, and FMIL works there too. Doesn't speak to either of us unless she has to about work, it's so weird