By 
Faye Martin had the man of her dreams, but not the body.
When her boyfriend, Kevin, proposed in 2004 in front of friends and family in a crowded restaurant, she said yes immediately. But when it came time to set a date, the medical receptionist from Bristol, England, had one excuse after another.
"I thought I'd look like a giant meringue in a size 26 white dress so I made excuses to postpone the wedding," Faye told the Daily Mail. She admits to having an "addiction to sugar," which she fueled by drinking four cans of Coke every day. She ate cookies and chocolate all day, too, and snacked on greasy fast food in the afternoons. At her heaviest, she weighted 280 pounds.
"The years just passed by and nothing ever changed," she continued. "I knew I was big but I never saw any point in losing weight." Meanwhile, Kevin wanted to get married. He tried reassuring his bride-to-be that he loved the way she looked, but she still felt self-conscious.
Ultimately, it was an ugly comment from a stranger that spurred her to change. In 2012, Faye was shopping for clothes at trendy retailer Primark when another woman called her a "fat bitch."
"The lady said it so loudly that people around me turned round to stare," said Faye, recalling the incident. "As mortifying as it was it turned out to be a blessing in disguise."
After that, a determined Faye joined Slimming World, a U.K.-based weight-loss organization similar to Weight Watchers. Over the course of 18 months, she dropped 126 pounds — nearly half of her body weight — and went from a size 22 to a size 6.
She could fit into the clothes she'd always wanted to wear, but the rapid weight loss had left her with two and a half pounds of baggy skin around her stomach that she tried to disguise by tucking it into her jeans. Feeling "constantly paranoid" that others would see, Faye underwent surgery to remove the saggy flesh last November.
In July, Kevin and Faye, who once dreaded "waddling down the aisle in a big white dress," finally said "I do" in front of friends, family, and their two children, Imogen, 14, and Kalston, 12. Faye's confidence has been restored; she wore a beautiful corseted gown for the occasion, something she never would have considered trying on before.
The day was everything the couple had hoped it would be and more, she said.
(h/t Daily Mail)
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