How a wedding dress changed my life

Jul 26 2009 by Anuji Varma, Sunday Mercury

WHEN bride-to-be Faye Wells spotted the beautiful jewel encrusted wedding dress she knew it would be perfect for her big day.

The stunning £1,600 white two piece boasted Swarovski crystals and was the Cinderella-style frock that she had always dreamed of.

Faye, 33, found the outfit just a month after fiance Joel got down on one knee to pop the question on Valentine’s Day.

But there was a BIG problem.

The dress was a size 14 – and new mum Faye had ballooned to a size 20.

Faye, from Halesowen, had piled on the pounds before giving birth to first child Harvey.

She also had some very unhealthy eatings habits, including stuffing herself with up to 30 bags of crisps a day.

“When I tried the dress on, I couldn’t even zip up the skirt,’’ she recalled.

“My fat hung over the corset-style top and the lace-up back had an eight inch gap which looked awful.

‘‘It was the dress of my dreams. It was perfect, but because it was a one-off I knew I either had to lose weight or find something else.”

Faye vowed to fit into the dress, no matter what.

But when she failed to shift the pounds through diet and exercise she opted for extreme measures – having a gastric band fitted.

She underwent the operation at the Hospital Group, based at Dolan Park Hospital in Bromsgrove.