Where is your wedding dress? Do you keep it somewhere super special like me? That would be the dark trenches of the unfinished storage part of our basement, right next to a roll of old carpet, the furnace and an old cat scratching post. Really special. I’m keeping my dress for my daughters, because if they don’t run off and join the convent as their father wants them to do, they will definitely want to wear my dress. It’s a Monique Lhuillier (before she was really discovered) for crying out loud.
Chew on this for a minute:
If you buy a $90,000 Mercedes and own it for one year, the cost of ownership is 17 cents a minute. If you buy a $5,000 wedding dress and wear it for five hours, the cost of ownership is $16.67 a minute. Brides are recognizing that they have an asset.
Potter girls rejoice in the ocean while their mother still clings to her wedding dress–just in case.
Chanel's Bombay collection wedding dress. So long and lush that it hangs down the stairwell. Now that's an asset.
That’s right. You can SELL your wedding dress. And not to some sketchy person on Craigslist or someone that might give you a $49.99 bid on eBay. I mean really SELL it for a good price. There is a great website that makes this happen: www.preownedweddingdresses.com.
It’s pretty straightforward. Sellers sell their worn-once wedding dresses. Buyers can get a beautiful, almost-new dress for usually half off retail price.
I spoke with the founder, Josie Daga about how this works. (Josie gave the quote above about how much your wedding dress cost per minute that you wore it.)
What is your advice for sellers?
Time to unpack the wedding dress in the dry cleaner box.
Our advice is simple – think about your dress from a buyer’s perspective. Great pictures, a detailed description, full disclosure and fair price is what will help it sell quickly.
We have brides who have cleaned their dress and not cleaned it. Some gowns with dirt on the hemline and others in pristine condition. Full disclosure what’s most important. A bride who is needs to hem your gown 2 inches won’t be concerned with dirt on the hemline.
In terms of pricing, sellers can set any price they want. We have pricing recommendation in our selling tips. Searching our recently sold pages is a great way to see how other gowns are priced.
What is your advice for buyers?
Recognize her? Even a Real Housewife can buy her wedding dress from this website.
It’s super simple. If you are just starting your dress shopping, you can come to the site and browse for inspiration with our pages like: Dresses We Love (the gowns we drool over the most), Best Dresses for Your Body Shape, Best Deals or Most Viewed.
If you know the exact gown you want, you can type the name/style number in the search box and go right to it.
And if you are somewhere in between, you can search by designer, size or with our advanced search.
We have over 9,000 gowns and so many ways to find the one that’s just right for you.
Once you find the dress, or dresses, that you are interested in, you can save them to a list of your favorite gowns, and use the “email seller” button to contact the seller directly.
When you are ready to buy, you and the seller agree to your terms (payment, shipping, etc) and the transaction is completed.
Here are some local gals that did just that. These two weddings were featured on the website’s blog, which tells details about the wedding and the seller, bringing the dress to life.
Brittany and Ryan in Nicholasville, Kentucky
Why Brittany decided to sell her wedding dress:
I actually can’t believe I am selling this dress. This was the perfect dress and it was confirmed as I tried it on in the bridal shop and started to cry. I feel like I got the most out of my dress and I hate to see such an amazing dress boxed up and put away. If someone else can enjoy it as much as I did if not more, that would make me happy. Besides, the extra money is always nice and I would absolutely love to go on another honeymoon!
Dress shown here on a model.
Brittany’s dress: Sottero and Midgley, Gracie
Photography: Jennifer Deegan and Elizabeth O’Neill (post-wedding photo shoot)
Dress is for sale for $850.
Kelly + Cameron | September 11, 2010 | Louisville, Kentucky
Why Kelly decided to sell her wedding dress:
My little sister paid for my wedding dress because she knew I couldn’t afford it at the time, and she wanted my dream dress to be her gift to me. I really want to sell my dress back so I can repay her for being so amazingly thoughtful and loving. I also want to sell it because that dress made me feel so spectacular, and I would love for someone else to love that dress as much as I did.
Model wearing dress.
Kelly’s dress: Judd Waddell
Photography: Allen Jones
Dress sold for $2500.
Well, I’ve got you thinking. According to Josie, “the reality is that daughters don’t wear their mom’s gowns. We did a survey and found that 70% of brides say their mom kept her dress. And 94% of brides say they didn’t consider wearing it. Instead of keeping your dress for a 6% chance your daughter might wear it, sell it to know that another woman will definitely enjoy it.”
That is their mantra after all:
A wedding dress is too beautiful to sit in a closet. Sell it, and share its happiness with another happy bride.
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To enter for your chance to win the 8×10 handmade Delta Girl Frame pictured below,
with a $120 value, click here!
