Your dress idea sounds lovely, Helliecopter! I bought a dress online but when it arrived, although gorgeous and pretty much my ideal dress, it is FAR too small. I am going to see how I feel about it (ie whether or not it is a vaguely realistic target) after Christmas and if needs be, look again at buying a new one then. Because it will be hot in Las Vegas and then my party will be low-key bbq vibe, I don't want /can't have anything too big, fancy or heavy....(even though I am sure a small part of me would probably quite like a MASHOOSIVE puff ball if I ever tried one on

) Anyway, cheap, simple, flattering and white are now the main criteria for me, given teh circumstances.
The dress I have is Sized 12 but HONESTLY it is more a size 8 in my view (wedding dress sizes are pretty weird and inconsistent - well, I guess all dress sizes are depending on the shop, material etc.) and I think it might just be a bridge too far for me in terms of weight-loss / inch-loss, but I am going to see how I get on for a bit, focussing a bit on inches rather than pounds. I have been doing the C25k (and loving it) and I think I have toned up already a bit (but still a loooonnnng way to go). I want to go on and maybe try Bridge to ten km next. I see some of the girls on here have done the 30-Day Shred video. The thought of it makes me nervous as it sounds tortuous but then I will be looking at these photos for the rest of my life so maybe it would be worth it for the results..... Oh, I dunno....
To be honest, I genuinely never thought I would go on a wedding-dress diet at all, but now that it's in sight, the idea of looking the best I could is pretty tempting.
If I was having a traditioal wedding, I think the stress of it all might cause me to lose a few pounds, but we both want our wedding to be as far as possible stress-free, so Las Vegas it is, just the two of us with a few dollars to spend in the casino afterwards, and then honeymoon in San Francisco, I think. Not everyone's cup of tea but the logistics of bringing my massive family together with his tiny family who live thousands of miles away, would be too much hassle and money for us to enjoy. Las Vegas is one of the places neither of us has been and would both like to go to. Plus some of my family are very opinionated and I think I could be very sensitive and I fear we would all have stupid massive arguments about the colour of chair sashes or something

...Actually, I have a feeling that organising the bbq afterwards with around 100 people with be enough for me to be getting on with!