All brides-to-be soon find out just how expensive wedding dresses are. I had no idea how to budget for a dress until I started actually going to some bridal shops. If you were to believe the glossy wedding magazines, a dress is going to cost you between £2,000-£4,000. I thought that buying a ‘budget’ dress under £1,000 meant sacrificing on quality but this is just not the case. The best way to go dress shopping is to keep an open mind and shop around until you can start to notice the differences in the quality of beadwork, lace and corsetry.
One way to look for dresses is to go to online auction sites and classified sites such as Preloved which offer fantastic wedding bargains. Or head on down to your local charity shop. Oxfam have special bridal shops where you can make an appointment for a fitting. As well as donations form the public, many of their gowns have been donated by famous bridal manufacturers. Imagine finding that Pronovias dress you’ve seen in a magazine for a quarter of the price?! Just this weekend I went to a hospice charity shop in Essex and found some vintage cream kid leather elbow length gloves. They are in amazing condition with little ivory beads on the inside wrist. Whereas would I have been able to find these for £10? This article has a great list of charity shops with dedicated bridal departments in the UK.
I love routing around in vintage clothing shops and if you have the stamina you can find real treasures. This bride-to-be found her wedding dress in a used-clothing warehouse in Montreal for $5!
Or what about this for ‘Most Inventive Use of Toilet Roll’ prize? Certainly cheap – just don’t get it wet.
