I have just delved into healthy living and a weightloss regime a few months ago. Also, recently I have gotten ENGAGED! YAY!! The wedding is planned for July 2009. I want to be on the ball and organized as much as I can for the wedding but I have a problem concerning my wedding dress.
My goal is to lose 100 or so pounds and I don't know what weight/size I will be at the time ofthe wedding.

When should I order my dress? Should I put a hold on the weight loss and siply maintain for the months prior to my wedding? Has anyone had this experience themselves?

i would absolutely wait as long as you can away get with. good luck and congrats

Congratulations on your engagement!
The good news is you still have plenty of time. I would say don't even worry about your dress for the next 9 months, just focus on weight loss. Of course you can look and think about what styles you like!
Then you still have 6 months to order and have it fitted. I got married last summer and my wedding dress had a lace up back. It had no buttons or zippers and was really pretty. It was especially nice because I didn't have to worry about losing or gaining several pounds. I could have lost or gained quite a bit and still fit nicely without having to get alterations that cost a fortune!
Good luck! You will be a beautiful bride!
Beth

I bought my wedding dress 4 months before the wedding so you do have time. I even bought it tight (a big risk but hey).

I bought my dress 6 months before the wedding, in a size 18W. When I got married, I was a size 10...but I was able to get it altered. Sure, the alterations were expensive, but it was a big rush getting the dress taken in so many times (I also made some design changes to the dress that made it more expensive than it might have been otherwise).

That will depend on where you order your dress. I used to work in bridal sales and some manufacturers take 3 month to get the dress shipped to the store. I would order at least six months out if you are going for a traditional gown. You be surprised at how much a dress can be altered down.

If you are going the non-traditional route you can wait a while longer. I bought my dress during winter formal season (4 months prior to the wedding.) I didn't want a train so my ivory Jessica McClintock was perfect for me.

Congratulations on your engagement!

Ok. good. You've put me at ease. The one that i have my eye on at the moment is a tie up one. So so far, so good! I'm new at all this wedding stuff so thanks a bunch for the advice. As long i'm 6 or so months before the wedding I should be ok! Have a good one!!

Wait as long as you possibly can and then determine your "size" by your measurements since each dress is different. One maker of a size 10 dress feels like an 8 in another or a 12 in yet another!

Congratulations!

You will be a stunning Bride!

I agree with all of the comments...also if you know where you are going to be getting your dress, I would ask them how long they require for a dress to arrive once ordered, most will have a standard time, although most designers will have their own timeline. But you may surprise yourself and find a floor model that you LOVE and be able to take it when your ready with a NICE discount like I did......

Ditto all the above, AND, go to bridal shops starting maybe in January/February and look at styles, try them on, find what the particulars are that you like---ex-neckline, type of sleeve, train or no train, etc. Take someone with you and take pictures of yourself in the various styles.
Ask the shops how long they need to get you a dress.
Then go back as your size goes down and try things on again, but this time you will have narrowed your selections.
I would also say to try things on, they look so different on than they do on the hanger or on the models in the catalogs.
My DD worked at David's Bridal and was able to help me choose and had one of their alterations specialist change a few things on the design for me.
You also could find a seamstress and have one custom made.
I wish I had done this. There were 2 dresses in the catalog that I loved, but they did not come in plus sizes, so I found something else. If I had thought about it, I would have taken the catalog picture to a seamstress and tried to get one made.
Have fun with it and congrats!!!

PS- The Knot .com has some very helpful planning tools for free.

I got engaged last October, and we set the date right away for October 2008. Most people told me I could probably wait until 5-6 months before the wedding to get my dress, but I'm sure glad I didn't. I went dress shopping right after New Years, and ended up ordering a dress then. I bought it from a local boutique who had to order the dress for me. They told me it could take anywhere from 3-5 months just for the dress to come to the shop, so I'm really glad I ordered it when I did. I have heard that major chains like David's Bridal get dresses in faster, but I also think it depends on the designer. So, you are getting married in July 2009 - I would start looking around the end of this year, and I wouldn't wait much longer than January-February to order your dress - maybe even sooner than that. It might be a good idea to look around this year at where you think you might shop, and go to those places and ask how long it normally takes for a dress to come in, then you can go based on that. I understand you want to wait as long as possible since you are still losing weight, but don't wait too long. Another thing - DO NOT order the dress for the size you THINK you might be around your wedding date -order the dress in the size you fit into in the store (the people who work there can help you decide what size you are, because I found that wedding dress sizes run much larger than regular clothes - I had to order mine in a 14 when I was already wearing a size 10 in regular clothes). You can always have it taken in when you get closer to your wedding if you are smaller (which I have no doubt you will do great on losing the weight!) and it is much much harder to make a dress bigger. It seems like a lot of brides order the dress in the size they think or want to be for the wedding, and if that wedding comes around and you aren't that size, it isn't going to be pleasant.

Good luck with everything! and congrats! make sure you take your time with planning and make it fun!

I will add my own two cents here...I think it depends on your budget. If you have the money to have a dress designed for you or made special then you might have to start much earlier. When I bought my dress I bought it about four months before the wedding, but I just went and got it off the rack in a shop. It didn't fit in the chest (I have really small breasts for my weight unfortunately) and they altered it for me. One alteration was part of the package or something like that and the alteration only took about one or two weeks as I recall. It was not time at all.
But my point is if you are buying a pre-made dress from a bridal shop I think you can wait until only a few months before the wedding. I don't know anything about custom dresses though, so if you are going that route I can't help. Ha.

I got my dress about a month before the wedding. Yeah, I procrastinated like crazy. I bought one off the rack that was altered like crazy to fit me (i'm only 4'9" so i had an awesome dress maker alter it for me). But I loved it and I got a $5,000 dress for $1,200! Who says procrastinating doesn't pay? It was tight. REALLY tight. But I survived.

Heyo
My mom was a Wedding Gown Alterationist during my impressionable years, and I've gotta say: that Woman could work WONDERS! If you find the dress of your dreams, I'd say talk with the alterationist at the store and ask how many sizes down you could take the dress without it messing with the beadwork, overall design of the dress, and the neckline/armholes.

You'll want to be aware: if you want sleeves on your dress, I'd wait as LONG as possible until you're closer to your goal and date. If you think about it: if you look at a 3X t-shirt vs. a Medium t-shirt, The arm holes are MUCH different sizes. And, when you get into the "X's", they cut the arms wider as well as deeper to accommodate the lower armpit.

If you're going to go for a strapped or strapless dress, you'll have little to no issue with this, though!

If you went to a wedding dress designer to custom-make a dress for you, s/he would be able to make muslin mock-ups of dresses for you to try on, then make a dress fairly last minute. (this is easiest if it's a simple design with little to no beading). They would also be accommodating to your weight-loss journey! (and if you requested it, you could ask to keep the muslin mock-up dresses afterwards so you could see your journey that way, too! Nifty!!)

My last idea, though this is the most risky: Is to wait for a Wedding Expo. My girlfriend bought a $4,000 dress for $850 AND got a free Veil!--Brand New dress, not even a Sampler! It fits her beautifully. She bought it in February and she's getting married in August.

Congrats on the Engagement!! I know you're going to look gorgeous!