You’d never know it from looking at fashion magazines, but more than half of American women wear size 14 or larger clothes. Yet even though we big beautiful gals are in the majority, we still starve ourselves trying to look like something we’re not.

Our family genotype – that means the way our genes make us out to be – runs toward larger-than-average sizes. Both the men and women in our family tend to be tall and large in stature. We think it comes from all those farmers in our family tree!

It all started when our cousin and her sweetheart decided to get married. Since we live close to one another, she asked almost everyone to be in her wedding party (and we’re big in numbers as well as in body size). This joyous prospect started to sour, though, when our cousin became a bridezilla over the issue of how to lose fat to get ready for the wedding.

Finally, our aunt had had enough of her daughter turning into Bridezilla over this issue of body size. Auntie is one smart cookie, and it wasn’t long before she figured out a strategy that saved the day – and the family.

Marge talked to one of her friends who runs a bridal shop in a large Midwestern city. Marge’s friend told her that she sees this problem all the time, and that she knew just how to fix it. The bridal shop owner loaned Marge one of her dress catalogs that showed how beautiful and becoming a plus size wedding dress could be. She also sent along some information on how to determine body types and what styles of gowns look best on which body types.

Now Auntie is cunning. She knew we wouldn’t voluntarily come to another family gathering about wedding dresses, so instead she invited us over to try on party jewelry. While we were going ga-ga over all the sparklies, Auntie pulled out the catalogs and her measuring tape. We knew from the look in her eye that none of us was leaving until we’d solved this wedding dress issue.

Before long, the bride-to-be and her now-reconciled bridesmaids were squealing with delightover the pictures of gorgeous dresses. We got so excited that our aunt had to get out her measuring tape so we could measure each other for one of those fabulous dresses.

Our cousin was a romantic vision on her wedding day in a fabulous gown that fit perfectly. And the rest of us, her bridesmaids, were just as beautiful, because we chose fashions that suited who we are.

Tags