Desperate to become a mum, I’d taken a big decision. But with my wedding coming up, what was going to be the fallout? By Steph Wannell, 32
Ringing my mum, I tried to contain my excitement.
‘I think I’ve found the perfect dress,’ I told her.
Although my wedding to my fiancé Lee had been delayed by Covid, I’d been keeping an eye out for my dream gown.
And, scrolling through Facebook Marketplace, I’d struck gold.
Mum was on a caravan holiday when I called, but she rushed back to join me at the dress shop and when I tried it on, we both burst into tears.
‘This is the one!’ I said.
It gave me a lift because as well as having our wedding postponed, our scheduled IVF treatment had been cancelled for the foreseeable future too.
'Am I making a mistake?'
After losing five stone to have the treatment, I’d now slipped back into my old habits, and my weight had been creeping up again. The wedding dress I’d chosen was a size 22.
‘I’m going to have to lose some weight if I still want the IVF when Covid is over,’ I told my best friend Nicol anxiously.
‘Have you thought about weight-loss surgery?’ she asked.
She’d been under the knife herself and lost several stone.
Although I felt nervous about it, I thought it might be the only way to shift the pounds and keep them off.
After researching online, I picked a clinic in Turkey and booked myself in to have the operation after Christmas.
Although having it done abroad was going to be £8000 cheaper than it would cost in the UK, it was still going to be a pricey Christmas pressie to myself.
Some of my friends were worried about me doing it, and Mum said: ‘What about your wedding dress? It won’t fit if you lose too much weight.’
‘Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it,’ I replied.
On Christmas Day I savoured my last turkey dinner along with a box of chocolates. Then the day after Boxing Day, Lee and I set off for the airport.
‘Am I making a mistake?’ I asked him, on the way.
‘We can still go back home if you want,’ he said.
But I shook my head.
‘I’m doing this for our IVF treatment,’ I replied.
When we arrived at the clinic just outside Istanbul, the nurses held my hands and reassured me it would all be OK.
‘I’ll see you soon!’ I told Lee as he waved me off to surgery.
The operation took two hours and when I woke, I felt groggy but relieved it was over.
At first, I was only allowed to drink protein shakes. But within days, I felt well enough to visit the aquarium in Istanbul with Lee.
'I'm glad to see you so happy'
Back home in Newport, it took some time for my brain to catch up with the changes in my body.
I’d feel hungry, but if I tried to eat, I could only manage a couple of teaspoons. For a while I was worried I wasn’t eating enough to keep me alive.
Meanwhile, the weight was dropping off me.
One day, I spotted a friend of Mum’s in Asda and went to chat to her, but she just smiled at me blankly and walked off.
A few minutes later she texted me.
I’m so sorry! she wrote. I didn’t recognise you!
Soon after that, my neighbour approached Lee in the street and said: ‘When did you and Stephanie split up?’
‘What do you mean?’ he asked. ‘We’re still together.’
‘Who was that blonde woman walking into your house then?’ she replied, shocked.
‘That was Stephanie,’ he said, laughing when he realised she hadn’t recognised me either.
When my clothes began hanging off me, I had to shop for new ones. I began exercising twice a day too.
I’d do weights in the morning and aerobics or cycling after work, and thankfully it meant I developed little loose skin.
And, with our wedding rebooked, it was time to get my dress out of the wardrobe. Since I’d bought the size 22 gown, I’d lost 10 stone.
When I took it to the dressmaker for alterations, she gasped seeing all the excess material.
‘It’s way too big!’ she said. ‘I don’t know if I’ll be able to adjust it enough.’
But she took a deep breath, picked up a tin of pins, and got to work.
‘Is it going to be OK?’ I asked anxiously.
‘I’ll do my best,’ she said. ‘But don’t lose any more weight before the wedding!’
I’d lost 10 stone in 10 months and in the end, the seamstress had to remove eight inches of material.
‘There,’ she said. ‘Now it fits like a glove!’
But when the wedding morning came a week later, the dress was already a bit loose around my boobs and we had to pin it in place!
‘I just hope I don’t fall out,’ I chuckled.
We held the wedding at a local hotel, with our family and friends around us.
‘I loved you at every size,’ said Lee. ‘But I’m glad to see you so happy.’
And once I’d got down to 11 stone, and a size 12, I had another big reason to be happy — I could start IVF again.
This time, I was in the best shape I’d ever been and 16 months after my weight-loss operation, I discovered I was pregnant with twin girls.
The babies are due any day now and we can’t wait to meet them and bring them home.
Becoming a mum has made going under the knife the best decision I’ve ever made. Even if it meant I had to slice a huge chunk out of my dream wedding dress!