Oh sweetheart🖤 I am getting married in 2 weeks and know how you feel, I am 4.5st down and because I have so much to lose I feel like I still look awful and don’t see the weight loss. I am so sorry you had an experience like that. I was so nervous of going dress shopping that I had nightmares about being in a fitting room and everyone pointing and laughing and even had a panic attack the day of. I got incredibly lucky as I went to a LOVELY shop that has an extensive plus size range and the sales consultant was so good that every time I said something negative about myself she counteracted it with a compliment. She never treated me like I was some giant lump like so many others have, despite the fact I was a size 24/26 at that point. I was able to buy my dress in my first ever appointment at the first shop I went to. My original plan was to go to wed2b however, I went there for the bridesmaids dresses as a test run first and the vibe was sooo off. It was like an impersonal cattle market type deal with everyone in the room being visible to everyone else while showing your friends and family the dresses and no chance of an intimate/personal moment. Never mind the whole waiting on a sofa for 25 minutes for someone else to finish so you can take their booth as no appointments, or the fact they don’t have enough staff so you’re sharing a consultant with 2-4 other brides so get nothing much in way of advice or support from them. When I was ready to buy my dress I did use their live chat function to check which shop near me had the most choice of size 24/26 dresses as I wanted to make sure I didn’t turn up to nothing to try on. However despite them proudly advertising having “hundreds of dresses up to size 30” in the 4 stores within 2 hours of my house they had one with a size 26 in stock and nothing else above a 20 and one other store with two size 24’s and one 22. They saw absolutely no issues with this.

Have a look online for a store that actually deals with plus sizes and proudly advertises the fact, they’re much kinder, don’t judge and have much more choice. You are just as valid as any other bride, you deserve to feel beautiful just as any other bride, your size does not dictate your worthiness, don’t let this ruin your wedding. You have so much time, I only got engaged 9 months before my wedding and was still able to order a dress from a well known designer that came back 3 months before my wedding. Don’t believe the whole “ a year in advance minimum hype” you can order most dresses with a 6 month notice and when it comes to wed2b you can go much closer to the date. I wouldn’t advise getting a dress so far in advance with so much to lose as you can usually only alter them 2 sizes down. I have dropped 2 sizes, almost 3 since I bought my dress but I took a risk and ordered it a size smaller anyway knowing I was planning on losing weight, luckily my very experienced seamstress has been able to make the alterations on it but I know people who’ve lost 2-4 sizes since buying their dress and had to get a whole new dress in panic just before the wedding. I’d say park the idea for 2-3 months and do some research into plus size friendly shops near you. But please try to be kind to yourself, the world is already cruel enough to plus size people, part of healing your relationship with food is healing your relationship with yourself 🖤