Carly slims down to be a beautiful bride

At 17 stone, Carly Birchell's dream of fitting into a size 12 wedding dress seemed impossible.

But the teacher was transformed into the beautiful bride she had dreamed of being after losing more than 6st in as many months in time to walk down the aisle.

The former Wolverhampton High School pupil began to put on weight after leaving home to study music at university in London

In her first year she piled on 4st on a diet of crisps, tuna and sweetcorn sandwiches and her favourite Chinese takeaways.

And Carly's part-time job in a pub to supplement her meagre student income did not help, forcing her to eat late at night after her shift had finished and grab snacks during the day.

But then she met husband-to-be Chris, an accountant, who proposed on a beach in the Bahamas and, with her wedding day looming, the desire to slim took on a new urgency.

But determined Carly, of Brenton Road, Penn, Wolverhampton, lost the weight with several months to go and managed to maintain her svelte new look for the big day at St Bartholomew's Church.

When she walked down the aisle in an off-white creation in silk and chifffon she was a full four sizes smaller than her former size 20.

The 30-year-old singing teacher dropped from 16st 13lb to 10st 7lb in just six months on the Cambridge diet and has now started a slimming class at St Columbus' Church in Castlecroft on Monday evenings to help others shed their excess pounds.

"I don't have any scales and didn't even notice the weight going on," she said.

"Then every now and then I'd catch sight of myself in a mirror or notice my clothes were getting tight.

"I don't have a sweet tooth but I didn't realise what my taste for fish and chips, curries and Big Macs, at about 700 calories a time, was doing to me.

"I met Chris when I was at my biggest so that wasn't a problem but I was desperate to shed at least 6st for my wedding."

Carly, who used to work at Kingshill Primary School in Walsall, now teaches music at schools throughout Birmingham, and fits in singing in a choir along with thrice-weekly trips to the gym.

She says: "I'd tried so many diets. It was a fantastic feeling to walk down the aisle in my dream dress after struggling for so long." Carly ditched her fatty diet to shed the weight. She said: "Probably my biggest downfall was bread.

"A sandwich was always a quick option when you didn't have much time between finishing at college and starting a shift at the pub.

"Frozen meals, in fact any convenience food was easier than cooking my own meals from scratch. "There was never the time. Alcohol didn't help either, I used to enjoy a vodka and wine.

"I definitely missed my mum's nutritious home cooking, although my family never remarked on my getting bigger.

"Now I hardly eat any bread at all and I've really cut down on all carbohydrates.

"My GP is really impressed with my weight loss. I thought I had a thyroid problem because the weight was so hard to shift.

"I'd lose up to a stone and a half but then put it back on again.

"I went to hospital dietician for help but they just said eat less and exercise more. It wasn't very inspiring advice."

For more information about Carly's classes, call her on 07977 450513.