Wedding dress shopping for us larger ladies!

I'm a 14-16 at the mo and I've not been in one shop that's made me feel cr@p but I know there are some that do.

Where are you based, and what's your dress budget? I'm sure we can recommend some places for you

PS congratulations ?

Congratulations and welcome to hitched!

I am a size 18/20 and I didn't feel like a heifer once. The bridal shops I went to had loads of dresses in my size, including ones in the style I thought I wanted! I decided not to try on any smaller sizes and stuck to ones I could get into but that was my personal choice. Most bridal shops are lovely and will make you feel gorgeous no matter what size you are! The dress I eventually bought makes my waist look tiny and me look like a 12/14 ?

If you are worried you can always phone ahead to check if they stock larger sizes.

I have only known one bad experience when I went shopping with a friend for hers and the staff in the shop were rather rude, making her parade around in her underwear and squidging her into dresses. That I think was a one off, at least in my area!

Thank you!

That's good to know! It seems silly worrying about it but it's one of those niggley little things! I'm in North London & the dress budget is about £2000.

As you have a pretty decent budget, I recommend Ellie Sanderson...it's in Beaconsfield so a bit of a journey, but the service was great and they made even a use 8 dress look lovely on me!

Confetti and Lace at Lakeside were lovely too.

If you fancy a trip into Kent then Pumpkins and Dragonflies in Folkestone are great as are Country Brides in Faversham (+ dover). One of the things that impressed me was not only were there some lovely dresses but the shop assistants were generously made as well so didn't feel totally uncomfortable stripping off. As far as designers go - Sonsie are amazing. Fell in love with a couple but totally not right for the Zanzibar wedding we had.

Can't recommend anywhere near you unfortunately being in Devon and all that but my dress is Sonsie and I love it!

I'm a larger gal and my wedding dress last yr was a size 20, im an 18 and i got it off the peg as a sample dress.. it made me feel a lot slimmer than what i was and since it had an inner corset it gave me more of a shape.. my dress was a bonny make .. ooh and congrats on the engagement

From the other perspective - I'm a size 8, and had awful trouble getting to try on dresses even vaguely in my size. Most had to have over half the material taken in with big bulldog clips, or I had to have about 5 huge sponges shoved down my back. Horrible. I think many shops (certainly lots I visited) get samples in a 14-16 type size, so don't worry!

I am a size 20 and really didn't mind shopping in all the shops, I checked that they stocked more of the 14 up dresses and didn't care that they pinned me in. There were some I couldn't get over my hips, and my mum made weird comments about not knowing what it would really look like in my size but I got the idea!

I did got to one in Dachet (Windsor) called daisy love or something similar - The do plus size, though there they were to big to see properly it was a nice experience to see the other sizes.