I've never looked good in white...

When I started planning my wedding, I wanted to wear jeans and a t-shirt to say "I do." That was the most comfortable outfit I had and I never look good in white. As planning became more intense, the stress of finding an outfit to wear became more serious. 

Could you imagine going into a dress store to ask for a size 26 or 28 dress? And you know formal dresses are even smaller so I'd probably have to ask for a 32 or something. Ugh. Just the thought of that is depressing.

After a few months, I knew what I had to do. I had to wear a black and white polka dot dress. Polka dots are my go to pattern... I understand they are not flattering. I also understand they are amazing and cute and look way better on me than a big ole white dress.

I ended up sewing my own dress. When the pattern came in, we had to completely revamp it because it only goes up to an 18 and sewing sizes tend to be different than regular clothes sizes. It took my mother an entire weekend to get the pattern right. Then we almost ran out of fabric. I had to finagle it since we didn't have time to reorder fabric. I had waited until a few weeks before because I was "going to get smaller" for the majority of the engagement. The dress was tight (-lack of fabric), even with the suckie innie thing I wore. The suckie innie straps ended up showing. Right before the wedding, my sister finagled a clear bra strap to tie the suckie innie stroaps to hide. It ended up showing in pictures. The whole day I was worried my seams were going to rip. It was that tight. When I took this picture below, I thought for sure it was going to be the end of things for the dress. I periodically pull it out and put it on to see how I'm doing. It's usually fits the same since we got married.

My amazing siblings with my super awesome rigged up photo ruining strap holder

Today, I'm happy to report that I fit in the dress! It was loose. I didn't have to put on the suckie innie thing to get it on. No suckie innie straps to worry about and my bra straps stayed in place. It's like it should have been last year...it might even be a little too big already.

I'm hoping one day, I will be able to use the pattern and sew a real dress like it should have been done...using only 3 yards of fabric instead of 5. I love this dress.