To buy a wedding dress 1/2 sizes too small

Wedding dresses are famously small in sizing, so in all likelihood you would be ordered a 14 for a 12 bottom. Or at thr very least a 12. So no, don't do it.
You say you can't afford £2300, but you will probably end up buying 2 dresses that come to a similar figure

Oh I'm really invested in this now. Any news @nailnc?

How did it go nailinc ? 🤞

Don’t do it. Wedding dresses run small anyway and buying it small means that even if you diet and exercise your way to a size 8 there will be no room for alterations which are usually essential.

Keep looking! There will be another dress out there which you love and which will be within budget.

Are you serious? This is HORRIBLE advice.

I did this 🤣 they gave me discount at the shop as it was ex display, would be cleaned etc....but it was a 10 and I'd just had a baby and was a 12-14.

It showed me how unmotivated I am even with a dress to fit into! However, three months before the wedding, having given up crisps only, I realised I had to actually try. Juiced for five days a wk for two meals a day, normal eve meal (for about a month) didn't give up wine and walked for 1-2 hrs a day.

It worked. I looked good but probably could have done with an extra half stone off.

However, I saved a grand. On balance, probably worth it.

Well no one can tell you whether you will be able to lose the weight or not.

But it's silly to put yourself in a position where you will have so much pressure in the lead up to your wedding.

Weddings are super stressful anyway. The last thing you want is to be starving yourself in the lead up.

Good luck and please update us.

I hope no one else buys it first, let us know how you get on.

Good luck @nailnc - let us know how you get on! 🤞🤞

Good luck op! Got everything crossed for you!
It's a stunning dress.

You need to try on the bigger dress to see if it fits at your normal size. I found I needed a size bigger for my wedding dress and it fits perfectly after I'd lost another 6 pounds. For some unknown reading wedding dresses are always smaller.

YABU. Usually, the dress needs to be at least a size or two bigger to allow for the alterations, but to put yourself under such pressure is silly regardless.

You could go on a real weight loss mission, size 10 to 8 should be easy enough.

Or you could spend an extra £200 and get it altered to let it out a bit/add in an extra panel if the style would allow it.

You have to be careful with wedding dresses. They all fit differently and size differently. I am a high street 12. When i was trying on, some were 12, 14, 16 that i tried. The size depended on the shape and style of the dress. The wedding dress i ought was a high street 18 that I had altered on the waist, straps and length. I am quite large chested but with a small waist and larger hips so it was easier to buy bigger to fit those areas and alter smaller in other areas.

I wouldn't buy one in the hopes to lose weight because this will give you 2 issues. Number 1 is you won't manage to lose enough to fit the dress and then you will be annoyed with yourself with little time to find another one and 2. you will lose the weight and wear the dress but you won't like it once you've done it because it will look completely different on your new shape to when you originally tried it on.

I would go to some bridal shops, try on all different styles and shapes and see which one you like and roughly what size you are, then look for it cheaper elsewhere if its not in your budget. Then if you do lose weight you can have it altered instead.

I lost quite a lot of weight before my wedding and went from a 14 to a 10. I didn't want to put pressure on myself though and buy a dress for a size I hope I could be, as you have no idea what will happen in life.

Buy for the size you are now, or at most, a snug size which you can lose a small bit of weight to make more comfortable (or can be let out). You do not want the stress of knowing your wedding dress does not fit you, either now or potentially on your wedding day!

When I got married my measurements were 34,23,36 and I needed a size 12.

Good advice to buy the bodysuit in a 10 (from the link here) and get the skirt made. That is honestly a super easy skirt to make so wouldn't be too expensive and at least it will fit!

I wouldn't. There is more to fitting into a dress than weight. A size 8 true to old school sizing should have a 24" waist, which unless you're built a certain shape, may never be possible for you. It also may also be cut too narrowly for your bust/ribs to fit. You may lose weight in places you dont expect rather than equal inches everywhere reducing you all over. These are the reasons we need to try clothes on the bodies we have, not rely on a number on a label, especially when the price tag is high and the occasion important.

I've never been a size 8, I was skeletal at a size 10 but I'm taller and wide boned, so it'd be unachievable for me.
For you though, you're petite in height, have been a size 8 before. With intense exercise and really cutting all the crap I think you could.

It's easier to fit a larger dress to a smaller body, than it is to fit a smaller dress to a larger body. I bought mine size 12 and then lost a stone so had it taken in.

In bridal, a size 12 is usually a high street size 10. So a bridal size 8 is more likely to be a size 6.

No don't do it. My sister used to buy clothes too small, as and incentive to lose weight. "I'll slim into it" she always said.
2 wardrobefulls of unworn clothes later she realised it would never happen

Seems it’s Ellis bridal, in which case the sizes are the same as (most) usual high street sizes: https://ellisbridals.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Ellis-Size-Chart20567.pdf

So an 8 should be 34” bust, 26” waist. Depends what your body shape is etc whether you can slim down to those measurements.