To buy a wedding dress 1/2 sizes too small

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I am a size 10 on top and some bottoms, but a size 12 in jeans.

The wedding dress I have fallen in love with is over budget at £2,300. The thought of spending that on a dress makes me wince.

I have found the exact dress, second hand, in perfect condition, for £800. But it's a size 8. It hasn't been altered.

Wedding is 14 months away.

AIBU to buy it and diet and exercise my way into it? Or more accurately, am I being stupid?

I should add, I'm very petite. Not much over 5ft so I don't carry my weight well, I look round, and definitely need to lose a little.

This could be a good motivator?

Have you ever been a size 8?
Is it honestly achievable?

I am erring on the side of no, you shouldn't buy it.

No. Crazy idea!

Isn't a size 8 Wesson dress more like a size 6?

Madness. Don't do it

Depends on the style of dress. What shape is it?

I did this and managed to lose the weight but the dress was reduced from $3500 to $295 - how much can you afford to get this wrong?

is it a small 8 or a generous 8?

Wedding dress sizes are tiny! A size 8 will be a high street 4 or 6. Don't do it.

Wedding dresses are usually 1-2 sizes smaller in real terms than street sizes. So a size 8 wedding dress is likely to be more like a size 6. A dress can normally be let out a little, depending if the manufacturer left any seam allowance but 2 sizes might be pushing it. Sometimes it's possible to alter a dress in other ways to make it bigger for example changing it to a corset back/adding panels.

What you shouldn't ever do, is try and diet your way into a dress. It's madness. You're perfect as you are. Unless the dress is a total one off, there WILL be another one available in your size somewhere. Do you fancy sharing the name of the designer/style? Im usually quite good at tracking down secondhand wedding dresses.

Worst case, could you have it altered and save a bit of money for that between now and then?

I think you may struggle. I am a size 6 and was 8 stone and 4ft 11 and carried no weight over my ribs (30 bra band) and my size 10 dress was snug. From what I understand you size up on wedding dresses plus the stress of losing what might be an unachievable amount of weight and body shape.

Buy one the size you are now and focus on enjoying your preparations. You can always have it taken in if necessary.

What type of dress is it? How forgiving is the material? Can it with altered to have a lace up back if all else fails?

In terms of dieting, have you ever consistently been size 8? Do you stress eat? Weddings can be stressful and sometimes people lean on food in the build up. Be truthful with yourself.

Ask for actual dress measurements. Some people say wedding dresses come up smaller but I wore the same size as I do in normal clothes.

If it can be altered to a lace up back then go for it

I don't think you're being stupid if you decide to do this - you're giving yourself a lot of time to make the change so could hopefully do this at a sustainable pace that doesn't feel too punishing.

I would advise that you think about your history with weight loss and your thoughts and feelings about it as a process - is this something you've achieved before and how easily? Obviously you're giving yourself some strong motivation here but some people find it easier than others for all sorts of reasons. If you find monitoring your weight stressful, or if you're already sustaining your current weight whilst living healthily and therefore don't have lots of obvious places to make lifestyle changes... you might just be putting yourself under pressure that will risk overshadowing the build-up to your wedding. That would be a shame.

There is the added complication that wedding dresses tend to run small so you might have to lose even more than you think.

I bought my wedding dress second hand online and had to lose a stone and a half to fit into it. I managed it but I became a bit of a self-flagellating killjoy for a while whilst trying to achieve my goal. I also forced myself down to a weight that wasn't very sustainable for me and ended up feeling down when I gained some of it back post-wedding. I'm in two minds as to whether it was worth it. I liked how I looked for my wedding and loved saving money on my dress but I wish I hadn't made myself a bit miserable with the fixation.

That's just one person's experience though. You know yourself best and if you decide to go for it and achieve it, good for you. It doesn't sound like a ludicrous proposition on paper.

Definitely not!!!! Wedding dresses are small by nature

I'd buy the dress and see if it could be altered to my size rather than stress myself trying to diet into a dress. If it can't be altered you can sell it.

I take a UK size 8 on the high street and I’m pretty certain my wedding dress was a size 12, although it was taken in, so probably ended up being between a 10 and a 12. Check out the sizing carefully as I’m pretty sure it’s standard for wedding dresses to run v small. £800 isn’t exactly nothing if it’s no good!

Don't do it.

Wedding dresses run small anyway, you typically need to size up, not down.

There will be another dress.

Do it

Get weight loss injects 2 months before wedding

Also 14 months is plenty of time, you might still be able to find one second hand in your size or one above.

It's much easier to get a size too big and have it taken in than to get a size too small.

As someone who did this, didn’t lose the weight then had to buy a dress last minute that I didn’t really like, please don’t.

I did exactly this. Bought a second hand dress and dieted my way into it. It fit like an absolutely dream in my wedding day. I was a size 10 and went down to an 8.

Keep looking for a dress. I bought a sample sale one and managed to have it taken in a lot (although that wasn’t cheap). But bigger is better than smaller.
Contrary to what others are saying my dress (essence of Australia) the sizing didn’t appear to be tiny.