Bride told to pay 'fat tax' for plus-sized wedding dress

By Natalie Oliveri|

When Mary Jane O'Toole was told she would have to pay an extra $600 ($850 AUD) to buy a plus-sized wedding dress, the bride-to-be was distraught.

And outraged.

She had dropped several dress sizes to find her dream gown, but was advised she needed a plus-sized version to fit her frame.

"I had this big bridal moment in a dress I tried on and I was very excited about it, I was told the cost and then the sales assistant said, 'but let me do the calculations for your size'," O'Toole tells 9Honey.

The charge was to cover the extra fabric needed to make the gown.

At her heaviest Mary Jane O'Toole weighed 127 kilograms. (Instagram/then_now_tomorrow)

"But that was almost a third of what the dress cost originally," she says.

"I've called it the 'fat tax' – we pay a societal tax just to take up space.

"We are bigger women and we get this further tax where we're paying more for everything that we do. It's very frustrating."

O'Toole, from Orlando in Florida, had struggled with her weight since the age of seven, even being bullied at school.

Seeing photos of herself at Disney World was a turning point for Mary Jane O'Toole. (Instagram/then_now_tomorrow)

Before wedding dress shopping even came across her radar, O'Toole, 26, knew of the discrimination within the fashion industry towards women who carry more weight.

"When I was in middle school there weren't a lot of options for me so I ended up shopping where my mum shopped.

"So, I dressed like a 40-year-old woman while everyone else dressed like they were 13.

"Being plus-sized for so long I understood that people liked to charge people more just for being a size or two bigger than the arbitrary size they determine is not plus-size."

When her now-husband, Alex Hoffman, 28, proposed in December 2016, O'Toole knew it would be difficult to find a dress that fit and one she wouldn't be overcharged for.

"I started searching and I noticed the dresses I was gravitating towards were far more expensive if you were to be plus sized.

"I started trying on dresses and they said, 'We'll order this for you but we'll have to order it in an 18 – that means you're a street size 10, so don't get your feelings hurt but we have to order it in a plus size'.

"I thought that was a little ridiculous and of course my feelings are going to get hurt, I've worked really hard to get down to be a size 10."

Mary Jane O'Toole found her dream dress and didn't want to hide her new figure. (Instagram/then_now_tomorrow)

A few months before, O'Toole had started meticulously logging her calories after being confronted by how big she had become.

O'Toole and Hoffman did the Wild Africa Trek at Disney World's Animal Kingdom park, and their experience was documented with photos.

"We both had no idea how huge we had become until all these pictures were posted – we didn't realise we were that big."

O'Toole was 127 kilograms and was determined to slim down; Hoffman also committing to shedding his excess weight.

She ended up losing 62 kilograms for her wedding in November, 2018, and eventually found her dream dress having abandoned the one she had loved initially, but would have cost extra.

"I went through a lot of emotions putting on this dress," O'Toole says.

The fitted gown, with its high neck and open back, was the opposite of what O'Toole had imagined herself in.

She planned on wearing two pairs of Spanx and a corset to "disguise" her insecurities but a week before the wedding, changed her mind.

"I just wore one set of Spanx and said, 'This is enough, I'm good enough and this dress is beautiful and I'm just going to be confident in it'.

"Everyone was thrilled I didn't settle for a dress that hid my body, they were all pretty proud of me."

O'Toole admits there was "no secret" to her weight loss.

"It sucks to hear this, but it's being dedicated, you just have to do it. There's no pill you can take, no injection you can get that can keep you dedicated… it's just biting the bullet and doing it."

Even though she lost weight for her big day, O'Toole says brides shouldn't feel like they need to slim down for the occasion.

"Every bride is beautiful - it doesn't matter if you're a size 30 or a size 2, you're beautiful because you're a bride and because you're you.

"Being healthy is awesome and I've really enjoyed it. My knees feel awesome, my back feels better.

"But I don't think in order to be a beautiful, blushing bride, you need to be a small bride."

As for the bridal industry, O'Toole says designers need to re-think the way they make the gowns.

"It's time for the fashion industry and wedding industry to realise that money doesn't come from just skinny people. We've got money too.

"With big girls, our pants are bigger, we've got bigger pockets which means we have more room for money!"

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