You can probably buy a wedding dress in a regular bridal store -- many stores carry large sizes, and almost all stores can order them. They may have only a limited selection of sizes in stock for you to try on, so you may have to use your imagination to figure out how the dress would look on you in particular. Sometimes just putting your arms through the dress and holding it in front of you will give you an idea of what it would be like. Note that wedding dress designers do not size their dresses consistently. Some call a dress with measurements of 46-36-36 a size 42; yet another may say a size 42 has measurements of 50-40-50. Many national bridal designer's "measurements to size" descriptions are at this web site: http://www.lm.com/~modernbr/sizechartsa.html

It's also very common to have dresses tailored once they arrive. (This is common even for women who wear smaller sizes -- often they can't try on the dress in their particular size, so when it arrives it needs to be taken in or let out.) If the dress turns out to be too small, they can split the side seam of the bodice and sew in a few inches of extra fabric. This is hardly noticeable, even when you are looking for it. They may be able to get lace trim that matches the rest of the dress and use that to make it even less obvious.

Also, nearly all bridesmaid's dresses go to at least size 24, and some go larger. Many of these dresses are fairly formal and can be ordered in white or off-white, so may work as a wedding dress.

You may want to look through some of the bridal magazines -- many of the advertisers list what sizes they make. Also look through bridal books. *Bridal Bargains* by Denise and Alan Fields lists which sizes various manufacturers make. They have a Web page where they make available updates to their books: http://www.usa.net/~adfields

Copyright 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 by Stef Jones (stef@bayarea.net)
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