Do brides choose fat bridesmaids to make themselves look good?

The latest research from the UK suggests the personality and friendship isn't everything when choosing bridesmaids.

British women admitted that they would choose an overweight friend as a bridesmaid Credit: With planning your wedding comes the decision of deciding who will stand beside you as your bridesmaids. Do you chose old friends or new, family or just your best friend? To add complexity to this weighty decision comes the latest research findings from the UK. "One in three engaged British women admitted that they would choose an overweight friend to be their bridesmaid in order to make them look comparatively slimmer," quotes the the survey results conducted by Slim.Fast. The findings continue: "Despite this, many brides still profess themselves unhappy with their appearance in their wedding pictures, with two in five saying they felt insecure alongside slimmer guests." Bride to Be talks to newlywed Lisa about choosing her bridesmaids. "When I chose my maids, my intention was to have friends that I could rely on. I wanted to make sure they'd tell me if I had lippie on my teeth or calm me down when I felt overwhelmed. Their actual weight had nothing to do with my decision." Says Lisa, who married on the 28th of November 2009. However, bride-to-be Sarah who is marrying on the 6th of December this year, says that this research from the Slim.Fast survey in the UK did ring true. "This is the biggest day of my life", she says. "When I chose my bridesmaids, I didn't want my size 8 skinny friends standing next to me when I'm a size 16. I would rather we look the same size, or me a bit smaller," adds Sarah. Fiona Hunter, nutritionist from UK Slim.Fast, said: "Women are obviously feeling such pressure to look good on their big day that they're resorting to selecting bridesmaids larger than themselves." In Australia, Bride to Be's 2008 Cost of Love survey also found that Aussie brides were focusing on their pre-wedding body prep, but in a healthier, holistic manner. Rather than resorting to crash diets or choosing 'fat bridesmaids', Bride to Be readers indicated they are investing heavily into their quest for a buff bridal body via exercise and healthy habits. Instead of dieting alone, 48% of engaged women now start a fitness regime. Of these, 61% start their own exercise, 43% join a gym, 22% hire a personal trainer and 11% start outdoor fitness bootcamp. For ways to  supersize your exercise, read our article with tips from The Biggest Loser's Michelle Bridges.  www.bridetobe.com.au

My Mother's Wedding Dress

My mother's wedding dress is stained with sherry from a spill at the wedding breakfast.  The beads, once white, have oxidised and blackened.  The zip is broken and some of the beads from the train are missing, gone to decorate another dress which has long since been donated or cut up or has simply been lost in numerous moves.  But like the marriage, the wedding dress survives.  It is older, no longer pristine, it is stained and altered, it doesn’t do up properly but it is still beautiful.  It was made to last: a carefully constructed garment that rustled with promise.  Its lining was chosen for its durability and strength.  A long marriage has been stitched into its seams.  I wonder if it would pass on its secrets if worn by another bride?

My sister and I used to play with the dress and a missal.  We discovered the ceremonies in the book; the funeral ceremony, the baptism and the wedding vows.  Sometimes we would dress up in the wedding dress and put on the veil and get married to our teddies.  Once we even married our father while our mother was playing the organ at church.  The groom wore pyjamas and a dressing gown and sat on a dining room chair smoking.  First he married my sister, but he began to grow tired of the game when it came to my turn.  Before we could go through with it, he put a stop to the proceedings. 

This turned out to be one of my great disappointments as it was the only time I came close to wearing a real wedding dress at a marriage ceremony.

When my father married my mother at 11am on November 7^th 1964, he wore a black suit. My mother wore the dress which is now 45 years old.