A while back I ranted about how I think brides are best off having their wedding dresses custom made — you’ll get a better fit, exactly the design you want, and won’t have to suffer the attitudes and obscene prices of a bridal boutique.

There was some grumbling in the comments about “Ok, fine: but how do you find a custom dressmaker?” My best advice is start in your immediate circle and work your way out &mash; do you know any seamstresses or amazing sewers? Do any of your friends or family known any? If not, search online or in the Yellow Pages for someone locally. Being able to do fittings in person is a big bonus. If there’s no-one in town you like, then start looking online for seamstresses with styles you like who will work with you via email.

The ladies of the OBT came to the rescue with lots more tips on picking a custom dressmaker, as well as specific dressmaker recommendations:

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Um. Yeah, so I have only one question? Ok - it’s more a comment and plea for resources to be added than anything else. There aren’t a lot of resources out there for plus size brides, let alone plus size off-beat brides. -Karissa

I haven’t spent a lot of time talking about dresses for plus size brides because my advice to y’all is the same as my advice to everyone: HAVE YOUR DRESS CUSTOM MADE. I don’t care if you’re a size 2 or a size 18, apple body, pear body, or cucumber body — a custom dress made to your exact measurements is going to fit you better than anything you could buy off the rack and will cost less than 90% of the dresses you’ll find at any bridal salon.

Remember Angela’s red wedding dress? Custom made. What about Bree’s stunning pin-up style dress? Custom made. Honestly, I don’t know why anyone even bothers with the demoralizing hell of bridal shops. Regardless of your size or shape, you’ll get the best fitting dress if you have it made for you.

That said, if you’re looking for additional resources, I definitely recommend the Plus Size Bridez group on the Offbeat Bride Tribe. But my best advice is to start looking for a good local dressmaker.

Kellett Photography has some great pictures up from a recent wedding where the bride wore the most amazing butterfly-emblazoned wedding gown. Not only is the dress stunning, but Madeline paired it with the most amazing knitted shrug. I don’t even know how to describe it, but it’s really inspiring.

Oh-oh, and be sure to check out Madeline’s hair. And the butterfly cake!

I’m hoping I can stalk down the bride and groom online to get more information about this beautiful wedding, but in the meantime, be sure to check out Kellett Photography’s 21 pages of photos. (Thanks to Kathy B. for sending this to me!)

This post from LJ user theelusiven cracked me up:

The Nuptial-Industrial Complex: Hi! Great to see you! You know, you’ve only been wearing that engagement ring for over a year now. You owe it to your friends to get married soon. They aren’t going to be around forever, you know. You don’t want to wait until you’re a fat old embittered hag of a career woman who can’t pop out the babies anymore, because he’ll leave you for the Emperor’s Club!

Me: ::sigh:: No, not right now. I’m just taking a look at some informal wedding dresses to take a break from deconstructing Article III. Don’t go getting your hopes up.

TNIC: ::grumbles:: Okay! There’s this dress: see how pretty it is, with the flounces! And the train! You’re not a real woman if it’s not bright-white and floor length, and he’ll think you’re so beautiful with that extra few yards of cloth dragging the ground and slowly turning black!

Read the whole hilarious post/conversation. (And yes, I found it in my referral logs. I find a lot of good stuff there.

Ok, so you’ve all heard of Trash The Dress, the photography fad of doing a shoot with the bride after the wedding where she destroys her wedding dress.

I posted very briefly months ago about why I didn’t like TDD, but I realize that I actually didn’t go into much depth there, and based on a discussion I recently had with a wedding photographer, I realized I probably should say more—

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