I was Plus Size Bride, and I am ok with that.

In the last year and a half I have been dress shopping  more that I would like to admit. I was the maid of honor in my best friends wedding last fall and as you all know I got marired myself in October. I have learned a little bit in the last year and a half, one of those being I HATE dress shopping. I have had some bad experiences, at certain stores (coughdavidsbridalcough) that make me glad this whole buying a wedding dress thing is all over.

I am a plus size girl, I fall with in size 16-18 depending on the style of the dress. I know that "Bridal" runs small, and I know I was in for a headache before I even started looking for my own wedding dress. I promised some family and my close friends they can go through the whole "looking at me trying on dresses" process, mostly for them, not for me, I hated the whole idea of it. So a month before hand I was at David's Bridal with a friend who was looking for a gown for some benefit, and I figured I would get an idea of some dresses that I wanted so when I went in with the big group of people, I wasn't overwhelmed.

I am not a princess dress person, or a tight dress person, I wanted something tea length-ish. So while my friend was pulling dresses for her benefit I asked one of the girls there what they had for that style. With out even asking me my size, or even measuring me, she simply said "Oh, we don't have many of those in your size, maybe two or three. Our plus section is very small in store." At first I thought her tone was rude, but maybe I was over reacting, but when my friend who was with also heard the sassy/rudeness in her tone. I knew I wasn't over-reacting. So when I went home that night I decided to go on their website, to look at dresses. I wasn't going to have people watch me try on dresses if they only had "two or three for my size." and browsing that website looking at things in my size, was kind of hilarious.

 Because I am a size 16-18 I am right on the edge of regular size and plus size. Some of there dresses go up to 16 or 18 and when others 18 and up are plus size. So I checked both, just in case. I found a dress I loved, it was what I wanted. In standard size it was pretty cheap $200ish. It only went up to a 16. I know bridal runs small so I checked plus size, They had 16 short style dresses compared to the almost 50 of standard size, and most of their short dresses started at 850+, I felt annoyed and discouraged and put off looking at dresses for awhile.

If you follow my YouTube channel, you know I ended up finding my dress, and where I found it was online, Modcloth to be exact. I took my own measurements and decided on a dress I really loved, so I was happy I got to try it on in the comfort of my own home, and with out some sales lady judging me. But my dress shopping wasn't over. I had to go for my friends wedding, which again wasn't a great experience, some dresses we couldn't even look at because they didn't come in that size. In the end I was happy it was over.

I knew going into this it wasn't going to be easy. I know I am a bigger, I know a lot of things wouldn't come in my size. Once I found the dress it was like "phew ok now that is over." but then started the comments, Oh those  "so are you going to lose weight for your wedding? How much weight have you lost to fit into your dress?"comments. Now for some reason a lot of people, and I mean random coworkers, family friends, even random people I barely know online expected me to magically become thinner, or lose weight for my wedding. "you are going to be in pictures! you will look at these forever! Aren't you gonna try to lose weight?" Now don't get me wrong, the 2 months till  wedding I made sure I wasn't eating junk ( i don't eat a lot of junk anyways, but it happens.) so I could make sure I would stay fitting in my dress, but I am fat, there is no other way to say it, I am fat. I was a little smaller than this when I met Eric, I go up and down in my weight all the time but for the most part, I am this size, why would I JUST lose weight to look good in my wedding dress?

Its bad enough trying on dresses at places where they made rude comments at you for being plus size knocks down your self esteem, but once you find that dress that you think you look amazing in, and now people are telling you that you need to lose weight to be thinner so you can look good in photos because its your wedding? So I wont look good because I am fat? No! I am going to be a fat bride, and I have no shame in that. I know I am a bigger girl, it took me a lot of years to love myself, a lot of struggles to love myself, and I am finally here at age 28 and I love myself even though I am fat. Even though that girl at David's Bridal made snotty comments about my size. My now husband loves me, not because of my size. He wont care if I am 20lbs smaller in my wedding dress or this size right now. I am fine with the fact that I am a plus size bride.

At the end of this journey that is what I learned, its been a few months since I started writing this post, my wedding has come on gone. Its been a long journey, and all that is said and done, that day, was amazing. I felt amazing, I took a moment to myself in my best friends bathroom after I was all done up and looked at my self in the mirror, and I saw myself as an adult, I saw a little bit of my grandmother in me (who is a plus size woman) and I saw a beautiful bride. I was overwhelmed by all the compliments that day, I know you get them because you are "the bride" but being told how beautiful you look and stunning, makes you not think about the fact  other people told me i had to look "skinny in your wedding dress." because you don't need to. I had a friend pull me aside that day and tell me as a fellow plus size girl I inspired her, because most people say we "cant wear light colors." and "some dresses are flattering" but I pulled it off and I looked amazing. That right there moved me. And it helped a lot that the one person who mattered  that day, my husband, told me I looked perfect, and amazing all day. And that my friends is what matters. Not the losing weight to look pretty in your dress, or fitting into some plus size bride bubble that stores want you to fit into it. That YOU feel beautiful and amazing and that you are happy. Because its the happiest day of your life, it goes by super quick and you want to enjoy it, not worry if you "look fat" in your wedding dress.

Plus Size Outfit Of The Day - Black Lace Dress

I was on the hunt for a dress for my best friends wedding shower, when I came across this black lace dress at kohls in their plus size department, Let me tell you now I am not really happy with the plus size clothes kohls has, but every so often you find a gem like this one, I wanted a nice dress, but also a dress I can wear again after the wedding shower. It came in many colors so I figured black was the best bet. 

I love how this dress fits, its fancy, but not TOO fancy, and it is my style. I love the lace, its not cheaply made and it fits very comfy. I wanted to keep everything simple so I just paired it with black tights and black flats (all black everything? yeah its very me.) I feel dressed up, but also comfortable enough to dance! Which is very important. And of course my new cat-eye glasses make the cutest little accessory to the outfit. 

I kept my makeup very simple, and soft. Just used my trusty urban decay naked 3 pallet, the benfit blush in "rockatour" and kat von d lipstick in lolita. Kind of the perfect outfit for a wedding shower, but also keeping my own style taste. 

I hope you guys enjoyed my outfit! I am going to be posting more outfits because the next month is very busy, and filled with some cute outfits!

thanks for reading! 

- Ashley 

Plus Size Outfit - Quick Spring Look!

Sometimes I don;t plan to use an outfit for a blog post, and I end up liking them so I want to share with you guys. This is one of those times. Spring is here, and last weekend I had the rare Saturday off from work so I was just going to spend the day with my best friend, it wasn't anything fancy, but after throwing on clothes I thought to myself "i look cute today!" Funny thing is, I've worn this outfit a lot before, mostly last spring, but I have sort of felt like I am in a winter rut. Being forced to wear layser of jackets, I haven't had a lot of cute outfits lately, I think this one pulled me out of that rut because I have been pulling pieces of my closet and getting together some really cute outfits for the following weeks! 

The outfit breakdown is simple, the leggings I got from a small local store, they are a bit thicker for leggins but worked great because it was a bit breezy, and hello pretty floral! The tee is from target, your just simple black v-neck, The denim button down which is a pretty staple in my spring wardrobe I got from Torrid a few summers ago, its comfy, light weight and I love it. And lastly to break up the fabrics I just wore my trusty boots and biker jacket both from torrid. It was sort of thrown together, quick look that actually was really cute. I was comfortable all day, it got a little warm so I took my jacket off, but when it got cooler at night I had the jacket to throw on. All and all well put together, cute and quick spring took! 

Hope you guys enjoyed this quick outfit of the day, I might do more of these mixed in with my "set up my camera and take fancy pictures" outfits! What do you guys think? let me know!

Plus Size Outfit: Rollerdurby Batgirl

If there is one character I love more than others, well Batgirl would be my #2 (under Harley Quinn ofcorse) There is just something awesome about Babs that I love so much. So when I saw Teefury had this RollerGirl Batgirl shirt up for the day, I HAD to have it. What I love about Teefury is they have cheap (but awesome) tshrits out for 24hours, and the feature awesome artists and most of the time are very different tshirts that you may not find at like hottopic. What I dislike is this shirt took over 2 weeks to get to me! But regardless as soon as I bought it, I had this outfit in mind.

I am always looking for ways to wear graphic tee's that are more dressed up, and this way is one of my favorites, the skirt I got from Torrid, it is a little longer which normally I would hate, but I love it with this. I also love it for the colder months because its thicker. I was very worm with this, and the day I wore the skirt it was rainy and cold. Under the skirt I wore my bat symbol leggings, (which you can't really see) but when they peaked out they added to the outfit and kept me warm. My boots from Torrid went great with this, they are pretty much a staple in my winter clothing. I love them.

I threw on my trusted moto jacket, and when I went outside I had a hoodie underneath it, I was very comfortable, and warm. A lot of people complemented me on the outfit (i went Christmas shopping this day) telling me how cute and very put together the outfit looked and warm! I loved every part of it. For my makeup I kept it kind of smudgey with a dark lip, (i have a video for it on my youtube) but I really loved every part of this outfit, and I love finding ways to wear a graphic tee.

Outfit Break down:
Teeshirt - Teefury
Skirt - Torrid
Jacket - Torrid (they dont carry mine anymore but here is one like it)
Boots - Torrid
Leggings - Forever 21 (not made anymore but check ebay)

Plus Size Outfit: Skulls and Snowflakes!

Hey guys! I am so excited to share with you my new favorite outfit! I wore this on Thanksgiving, and its featuring sweater I bought from Torrid, its super comfy and it has this awesome very festive snowflake print, but whats so awesome about it? It has SKULLS in it too! At first glance it just looks like a normal Christmas/winter sweater, but then, you see the skulls! Its perfect for my style. I can still be very festive with out losing my own little touch! Its super comfy, and warm, I didn't even need a jacket when I wore it because this kept me warm enough! I will get a tone of use out of it this winter!

I kept it simple with everything else, black jeggings (from target) with a simple black vneck. I would of used a colored vneck but I could only find my black at the time. I didn't want to pair it with anything that would take away from the awesomnesss of the sweater, and I really have no issue wearing all black.

I kept my makeup simple as well as my hair, but I could of also really dressed this up if i wanted to (and i will for another christmas party for sure!) 

Hope you guys enjoyed this outfit of the day! Follow my blog for more outfits! and Dont forget to follow my youtube channel!!

Plus Size Outfit: Skull Sweater weather.

Its no shock to anyone that I love to wear anything with skulls on. So when I bought this skulls sweater from Torrid, I knew I had to do an outfit with it for my blog.I have said time and time again the fall is my favorite time if year to wear clothes, all the layers, the sweaters and its the time of year I can feel most comfortable in my outfits. This is slightly out of my comfort zone, purely because the top is white, and I rarely have anything white in my closet. Because a) I make a mess of everythng and b) I don't find it look flattering on me. But this top was an exception,

Like I said before the top is from torrid, it is a sweater and its a tad bit over sized, which is okay because I enjoy it that way. I got it in my normal size, so i also think it was meant to be that sort of over sized sweater thing. Its not super thick, so its great for the fall, I pair it with a pair of black pants, which I think contrasted well with the skulls on the sweater, that I got from target forever ago. I kept it simple with my black boots and black jacket (also both from torrid).This wasn't something fancy, it was just a "going out running errands" kind of day. It was cute, and had my style and flare to it. Kind of like "casual punk" maybe? I don't know but I liked how it looked, and it took very little effort. 

Like my outfit I kept my makeup very minimal, not a lot of fuss but it also didn't look like i rolled out of bed and went out. I liked how everything looked, and how it reflected my personality but also had very little effort to the whole thing. Sometimes I don't like feeling all done up, but I don't want to leave my house in sweat pants either.

So there it is, my simple outfit of the day. Hope you guys enjoyed it, please follow my blog for more updates and fun!

Here is my latest plus size clothing haul up on my youtube channel! As always please subscribe to my youtube channel if you haven't already!

Plus Size Outfit Retro Anchors and Mermaids

Last weekend (I know I am late on this post) was my best friends baby shower. I could of worn any one of the 20 dresses I own, but I wanted something new. I mean really anyone likes to find an excuse to buy a new dress, but I just didn't want to wear something I already had, I wanted to feel pretty and sorta match her theme (in my own little way). Now before you ask, her theme was nautical. So my goal was either a beachy dress, of something that had parts of the theme in it, seems easy right? Yeah not to much. After awhile of searching and if somewhere had what I wanted, it wasn't in my size, I saw this gem on Torrid's website, anchors, mermaids, teal and blue, it was perfect, yes even with the skulls, that add a touch of my own style. I was sold! I had my dress!

Plus Size Outfit Daisy and Denim, a Blossom inspired look!

Hello everyone! I have been enjoying the warmer weather lately, mostly because I can do things like wear dresses more often! Which is why I have this outfit to share with you guys today. I have been on the hunt for a daisy dress for some time now. Maybe its my inner 90's kid that remembers having one, but I have seen them "back in fashion" again and I knew, I had to find one.