The wedding season is hot upon us. Modern couples want to enjoy not only the trappings of a traditional wedding, but also a deep-seated sense of frugality where they can save money. How can you do both of these things? Consider selling your wedding dress after your wedding and recouping some of the money you spent on the dress and affording another bride an opportunity to enjoy similar fashion for less the cost.
Decide Ahead of Time
It’s important to make the decision to sell your wedding dress before you actually get married. I wouldn’t have sold my wedding dress, but I have this idea that I would like to pass my wedding dress on to my daughter. I spent the $80 to have that dress preserved after we were married. That dress is now stored comfortably in the top of my closet.
A friend of mine, on the other hand, considered the fact that she really wanted a splashy wedding and a splashy wedding dress, but her budget would be strained at the ends to do both. She went hunting for a used wedding dress – not necessarily in a wedding dress shop, but online. She went to Ebay, she went to Craig’s List and more.
By some fluke, she met a woman in line at a local coffee shop and they struck up an idle conversation. The woman she met was getting married in a few weeks and she was feeling stressed over her budgeting. They commiserated over the similarity of their problems. Neither one can remember who suggested it first, but suddenly they were talking about the wedding dress.
Over coffee, in a conversation struck up to kill time, they negotiated the sale of the woman’s wedding dress after the wedding. They got together the next day and my friend got a chance to look at the dress. Fortunately, the women were similar in size – the dress would need only minor alteration. She spent just $350 for the dress and assumed the alterations and cleaning costs. The dress’s original price was closer to $1200. While there was no profit made on the dress, she later sold that wedding dress to another friend for the same cost.
This wedding dress attended four weddings over the next 18 months and it made each bride happy as she saved money, got to look and feel like a princess and changed, however subtly, with the alterations and accessories from one wedding to the next.
If You Want to Sell Your Wedding Dress
If you want to sell your dress, remember to clean it after the wedding. You don’t want to preserve it because you want to give your buyers the option of trying it on. Don’t worry if you aren’t around because you’ve gone on your honeymoon – you can ask a friend or a mother to sell the dress for you. Your wedding dress should be priced fairly – you aren’t looking to make a profit and a used dress will sell for less than brand new.
But if you can recoup some of the money you spent while at the same time helping another woman make her wedding plans come true? Why not? If you are advertising the dress, be sure to post your measurements so that shopping brides have an idea on the size and photograph the dress carefully to reveal specific accessories on the dress from the embroidery to the beadwork to whether it comes with a veil or a train.
Have you ever sold your wedding dress?
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