FEATURES...FEATURES...FEATURES...FEATURES...FEATURES...

KAREN RICHIE HATED THE WAY SHE LOOKED IN HER WEDDING PICTURES - SO SHE LOST 2 1/2ST, SPENT £10,000 ON COSMETIC SURGERY AND REBOOKED THE PHOTOGRAPHER

By Kelly Strange

THE wedding was brilliant and you can't wait to see the pictures that tell the story of your big day.

Yes! Your new husband looks hunky, the bridesmaids couldn't be cuter, and you look... dreadful.

Sadly, that's the way it went for newly-wed Karen Richie.

When she opened her wedding album for the first time, she promptly burst into tears.

“I looked hideous,” she says. “My tummy was straining at the seams of my size 18 gown and my ears stuck out and I could see how my face was drooping with age.”

Karen married her fiancé George on New Year’s Eve, 2005. They’d both been married before and wanted it to be extra special this time round.

Karen, 40, wore a £1,000 red and white gown. On the day, she felt like a movie star. But the photographs told a different story.

Karen, who’s 5ft 3in and weighed 11st 7lb at the time, decided to take drastic action.

She started dieting 17 days after her wedding and lost 8lb in the first week.

“That gave me the incentive to carry on. By the end of March I was down to 9st 2lb and was a size 10,” she says.

But Karen still hated her sticking-out ears and sagging jawline. “I’d looked into surgery before and it was way too expensive,” she says.

“I sometimes daydreamed about new wedding pictures, imagining how much better I’d look if I was thinner, with neat ears and a perfect chin.”

That was when 44-year-old George, a construction foreman, came up with a radical idea.

They still hadn’t booked their honeymoon so he suggested they spend the £3,000 earmarked for it on cosmetic surgery to make Karen feel better about herself.

Karen, from Angus, Scotland, says: “I felt guilty spending our money on myself, but George was adamant.

"I decided to go to South Africa for surgery because it worked out cheaper, so last May we took out a bank loan to cover the extra £2,000 needed for flights, hotels and spending money.”

Karen flew to South Africa with her mum. She had a chin implant, her ears pinned back and liposuction on her jaw.

“I was nervous,” she says. “But the results were stunning. When the bandages came off, I cried with joy. It had been worth every penny.”

In fact, Karen was so pleased she chose to have breast implants too.

In May last year, George sold his car to raise £5,000 for the operation and they travelled to Belgium where Karen went under the knife and went from a 34B to a 32FF bust.

“Although we couldn’t afford the wedding again, I decided we might be able to have the photos retaken,” she explains.

“It would cost £400, but I thought it was worth it.”

Karen booked the photographer for December 2007 – a week before their second wedding anniversary.

“My old dress was too big by then, so I bought myself another one in a similar design,” she says.

The photos went well, and Karen – now 9st – felt so happy with the way she looked second time round, she couldn’t stop smiling.

When the album arrived I couldn’t wait to open it,” she says. “George looked as handsome as before, but I barely recognised myself – which is how I wanted it.”

“The house is filled with our wedding photos and I now love looking at the album,” she says.

“The new shots might have been taken two years after the event, but they capture how I felt on my big day – absolutely beautiful.

 

Credits

Photography: Alistair Devine, Make-Up: Andrea Young at Stolen Models
Karen used Let's Face It Together Cosmetic Surgeons, Visit www.lfit.co.uk