matron of honor''s weight

[MustangFan]

Hi
My matron on honor keeps asking me, when is the absolute lastest that I should order my dress? I told her three month prior. She is trying to lose 50 pounds before the wedding and she''s concerned about buying in her size and not fitting in it when the dress comes in. She says she''s been dropping weight like crazy and has no clothes that fit. Is three months cutting in close for alternations and arriving in? Should I tell her 4?

 

[surfgirl]

I''d tell her to buy it 4 months out, and get it altered just before the wedding.

 

[tberube]

that''s a great question - my maid of honor is doing the same thing. I hope more people will chime in...

 

[Sparkalicious]

I would say tell her 4 mos and buy it BIGGER or at least the size that would fit at the time and get it altered to be smaller, if need be. It is too hard to get it made smaller and to have to alter it to take it out a little.

This happened to me and it was a bad scene. I didn''t lose as much, by the wedding date, as I had thought and we had to have an entirely new dress made! If I was the bride I would have been not happy.

Thank goodness everything worked out in time.

 

[MustangFan]

ok I''ll tell her to buy it in her size in May and have in altered down.

Approx how many sizes can you make a dress smaller?

 

[sweetjettagirl04]

This happened to one of my sister's bridesmaids - ordered her dress 4 sizes too small, and ended up gaining weight instead of losing it! They had to take the remnants from my dress and the other two bridesmaids to fill in the gaps on hers, so to speak. The seamstress had to put panels in the side, and it ended up costing her an additional $150-200 for all the work to make it bigger, and that was six years ago. Emphasize to them it's easier to take the dress in rather than let it out, err on the side of caution! And, those dresses are never the "real" size anyways!

edit - she ordered it that small without anyone knowing, so my sister wasn't able to have that talk with her.

 

[bee*]

I''d definitely tell her at least four months and that she can get it taken in nearer to the wedding. I''ve had dresses that have been taken in 3 sizes so it can definitely be done.

 

[Harleigh]

Gosh, amazing that so many of us are experiencing this!

I have already bought all of the dresses for my BM''s, and the dress I got my MOH was a little loose everywhere but the chest, which she didn''t like, and then I happened to find it in a smaller size, she insisted on taking it even though she has put on a lot of weight in recent months. I never got to see her in the new dress, which she said was "a little tight" but claims she is going to lose the weight before July, which is completely possible, but I''m not sure how likely that is to happen at this point. She also has a very large chest, so I mentioned I was concerned that "the girls" might not fit well in the smaller dress and I''d rather not have the focus be on her 36DD chest at my wedding!

So, since 3 of my 4 girls were here this weekend, I told them I wanted to see them together in their dresses. One of my BM''s has recently lost a LOT of weight and is working on losing about 20 more pounds, so her dress is going to be hanging off of her soon, which she is more than happy about! My other girl is tall and slender and they both look fantastic in the dress. I took pictures of them and my MOH HATED the way she looked. The dresses definitely need SPANX or some kind of smooth undergarment under them to help them lay smoothly as they are a sort of clingy chiffon that shows every lump, bump, etc...

I definitely think I am going to have to hold on to the bigger dress, and if she''s not fitting into the smaller one by June, I''m going to have to insist she take the bigger one and have it altered down. Arghhh!

 

[Fancy605]

Date: 1/21/2008 1:50:12 PM
Author: MustangFan
ok I''ll tell her to buy it in her size in May and have in altered down.


Approx how many sizes can you make a dress smaller?

You can have dresses altered to be quite a few sizes smaller. But you can''t have them let out much at all, so it is always safer to go with a larger size and have it taken down than it is to go with a smaller size and hope to fit into it.

It is generally easy to alter BM dresses to a smaller size depending on how much detail they have on them/the shape of the dress.

My sister and I were BMs in a wedding a few years ago, and the dress shop sent us a size 10 and a size 12 although we ordered a 4 and a 6. We had to get them taken in quite a bit, but they still looked nice--probably nicer than if we had gotten them in the correct sizes to begin with because they ended up being tailored pretty much exactly for our bodies.

 

[Octavia]

Date: 1/21/2008 1:50:12 PM
Author: MustangFan

Approx how many sizes can you make a dress smaller?

This really depends on the dress -- does it have a bustle, or a lot of detail, or some sort of pattern in the fabric? These things can make it more difficult to alter past a couple sizes. One of my best friends had to buy a "busy" bridesmaid dress and the SA at the dress shop insisted that she should order a certain size and basically forced her to do it, and it was (as she suspected) about 4 sizes too big. Because the alterations then had to be so extensive, it ended up looking really different than the other girls'' dresses despite the seamstress''s best efforts. If the dress you chose is fairly simple, she should be able to go a few sizes down without too much trouble.

 

[somethingshiny]

My advice is to find a seamstress in your area. Then ask HER how far out to buy the dress. If your BM orders the dress in a size 14 (for example) four months out and then needs it altered to a 6 or 8, the seamstress may as well start from scratch. Her entire figure could change, not just weight, but shape.

 

[Dutchgirlll]

Well, because I'm trying to lose weight for my own wedding this August, I can tell you that losing weight is not predictable at all! I lost 30 pounds so far, but that took me 4/5 months. But I'm not losing any weight for the past 2 months (Christmas isn't helping too

). I ordered my dress in he size I fit in right now, beacuse taking the dress in is always possible, letting it out not.

Plus, even though you might lose 30 pounds in time (aprox 3 sizes), you never know where you lose the weight!!! It's never spreads out evenly. Like I lost a lot of weight on my legs and behind so far, but not so much on my tummy

. So you still might need that dress one size larger to fit your hips for example.

To make a long story short, just order them in time, in the size they need at that time, you can always take them in later. And the pressure of fitting in a dress, you never fitted to begin with, can be quite stressful too.

Good luck!