After 7 Years of Marriage, 2 Kids + Losing 109 LBS (!!), This Woman Was Ready for a Wedding Do-Over
When Shandra, a viewer of ours from Michigan, married her husband Gerald 7 years ago, she had a vision of what her wedding gown would look like -- but things didn't exactly go as planned.
"I spent months talking with my sister and my mom about what I was going to get," Shandra tells us, "even though I think I knew, deep down, that I wasn't going to be able to wear those dresses."
"During my 20s, I gained 100 pounds in like a 10-year period," she explains of the time before her (first) big day.
But everything changed after she had to be taken off a rollercoaster because she didn't fit in the seat.
"I got home from that and I weighed myself and [I] was 260 pounds," Shandra goes on. "Something about that number was just a no-go."
Not only did she want to get healthy for herself, but she also knew that she and Gerald wanted to have kids in the future -- so together, they took on the challenge of making a complete lifestyle change.
"We're a team, so everything that we've ever done or we've been challenged by, we've faced together," Gerald says. "So this wouldn't be any different."
(How sweet is that? ❤? )
So first, Shandra tackled exercise.
"It takes 21 days to build a habit," she tells us, "so I said, 'I'm just going to go to the gym every single day, no matter what, for 21 days and I'll see what happens after that.'"
"It was really, really hard," she continues, "but I went for 21 days and never looked back."
And she didn't stop there!
Once she had a workout routine down, she and Gerald started counting calories.
And after losing 109 pounds, Shandra found her wedding dress in the back of her closet, tried it on and laughed out loud -- because if she had let go of it, it would have fallen off.
And thus, this photo went viral!
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Now, 7 years of marriage, 2 little boys and a 109 lost pounds later, Shandra was ready for a wedding do-over -- in the dress she always envisioned herself in!
"I had all these dreams for the dress that I wanted in the first place," Shandra says.
So that's where we came in!
RELATED: Bride Gets Wedding Dress of Her Dreams After Losing Her Original
Before throwing the sweet couple a second wedding right in our studio -- which seemed fitting with the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle right around the corner -- we sent Shandra wedding shopping at Kleinfeld Bridal with none other than "Say Yes to the Dress" star Randy Fenoli.
And together they narrowed it down to three gorgeous dresses!
Watch the video above to see which one the beautiful bride chose and to see Shandra and Gerald renew their vows.
Grab some tissues first, though, because there wasn't a dry eye in the house!
And what's a second wedding without a second honeymoon? Watch the video below to see what trip we surprised the happy couple with!
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