My Sister's Wedding

My sister was married July 12th this year!  Congratulations!  But this meant photographs, and bridesmaids dresses.  When I was thinking of this at 227 pounds, I cringed in horror at what I would look like on the wedding day, being the heaviest person in the bridal party, and I wouldn't be able to avoid getting my picture taken this time.  Not only that, but these pictures would find their way into permanent photo albums, and plastered all over Facebook.  That was an embarrassment I could do without.  So I set a goal before Chloe was even born to weigh 175 by the wedding.  It was a lofty goal but at the time I was overly optimistic.  That would be 35 pounds in only 5 months (or 52 pounds in 6 months if you start counting at 227 instead of 211).  So I bought a size 12 dress thinking I would work to fit into it.  I was about a size 16 when I first tried on the dress, and thought that losing two dress sizes wouldn't be too hard.  After all, that was an average of about two pounds a week.  Having done this multiple times I should have been prepared for the plateaus and pit falls that I would encounter, and since I was breast feeding I couldn't do anything too extreme otherwise it might mess up my milk production. 

This actually proved to be good motivation for me.  Every time I fell off track or was tempted to give up, I would look at my size 12 dress and freak out that it wouldn't fit for the wedding.  On the wedding day I made it to 183 pounds.

That is me walking down the isle with Levi, one of my sisters friends and one of the Groomsmen.
As you can see in this picture I did end up making it into the dress, but barely!  It was quite a task to get it zipped up!  (It was a combined effort between my mom and Chase, my younger sister.)  If I didn't have to wear a nursing bra with it I am sure that it would have fit a little bit better.  But I was proud of the hard work that I did to get to that point.  It was a glorious wedding, and a lot of fun too, even though I couldn't move my arms too much or my dress would become dis-proportioned because it was too tight!
Here is a picture of all us brides maids and my beautiful sister, Julia, right in the middle!  I am all the way to the right.  My skinny mini younger sister is right next to me.

And here is a picture of my whole family.  As you can see, I am the heaviest person in my family even after the weight I have lost.  Well, we are changing that!  Soon I will fit right in :-)



                  Photo courtesy of Jessica Leavitt Photography
And you can see my husband all the way on the left holding cute baby Chloe, and of course my red headed Lily!  (My husband couldn't gain a pound if he wanted to.  He just burns off all the extra calories while he is sleeping!  He is like a little furnace at night, it is crazy and totally unfair.)

In addition to the weight I lost, I thought I did a pretty great job on my hair and makeup.  Thankfully my good friend Casey VanWagenen taught me how to do my makeup just a year ago, so I don't look like a clown.  Trust me, before that it was bad news if I ever got a hold of makeup.  Normally I just didn't wear makeup, it had never been that important to me so I never bothered to learn how to actually apply it in a flattering manner.  What resulted when I actually took the time to apply makeup closely resembled something out of a Tim Burton movie:



Okay, I am just kidding on that one, but trust me, it didn't look elegant and it didn't look natural.  So thank you again to Casey for being kind enough and loving me enough to actually tell me that I was a disaster and then teach me the proper methods and colors for my complexion and my face.  Here are some good pictures of me and my beautiful sisters!

Me and Julia

Me and Chase-not too sure what is up with the look on my face

Photos courtesy of Jessica Leavitt Photography

I also thought that for someone who knows less about doing hair than doing makeup, it came out looking nice!  You can see my hair better than my makeup in that photo.   Here is a photo of us skipping down the Isle.  Hurray for the newlyweds!!!! 

Not too shabby :-)

All in all it was a rousing success, I was able to wear my dress, even though it was probably still a size too small for me, I thought I looked at least half way decent!  (Since I have no fashion sense, this is quite an accomplishment for me.  Of course it helps that my clothes and shoes were picked out for me!)

And I have to leave you with just one more photo, because the two girls in this photo are absolutely beautiful!!  My daughter Lily, and my wonderful sister and a wonderful Aunt, Julia.  Happy Wedding, and may God bless you forevermore!

Photo courtesy of Jessica Leavitt Photography