What a difference eight years make

I still have the dress I wore as Maid of Honor for Jenny's wedding (Hi, Jenny!) and I got it out the other day thinking I could maybe use some of the fabrics from it for flower fodder. Not only is it red, but I thought it would be sweet to incorporate something from her wedding into my wedding. (Awww...)

Of course, I've gained weight over the last eight years, so I thought, "Haha. Let's see how far I've come..." and I put that dress on my dressform (which is my current size).

From the front, lookin' all right:


Now let's turn that bad boy around...


Whoops.

I actually tried the dress on my body and when Bill saw that it wasn't zipped up in back, he said, "Oh, do you want me to zip it up?" What a sweetheart. He didn't realize that it actually could not be zipped up. It's way too small for me now -- the photos don't show it, but I couldn't sit down without busting a seam.

Even if I cut up parts of the dress, I think I'll keep the main body intact so that I can try it on as our wedding grows closer and the pounds come off (I'm already down 14 lbs. from my maximum weight, so there has been progress). That way, I can see some visible results as the gap between the zipper narrows.

As I recall, I lost weight to fit into this dress in 2000. I'm not sure if I can return to that particular weight (I was under 30 then, after all) but it's good to have goals. :)
-kelly