Tying the Knot in a Preowned Wedding Dress

The average cost of a wedding ranges from twenty thousand dollars to twenty seven thousand dollars. That’s a huge amount of money considering its one day of your life. That same money could be used for a down payment on a house, your honeymoon and so much more, which is why brides today are looking for ways to cut corners, especially in these tough economic times. Yep, being frugal is making a comeback when it comes to wedding planning and one of the best ways to be frugal is to wear a preowned wedding dress.

What is a preowned wedding dress? It’s exactly what it sounds like; a wedding dress that has been previously owned by someone else. Notice that doesn’t necessarily mean worn. True, most preowned wedding dresses are worn by someone else, albeit only once, but some aren’t. Things do happen that cause a bride to not be able to wear her dress. For example, the previous owner of the dress may have called off the wedding and is looking to unload her dress, or she may have counted on losing more weight than she actually did to wear the dress and ended up not fitting into it, or she may have found a dress she likes better after already purchasing the first dress. Whatever the reason, if you find your dream wedding dress that was previously owned by someone else, thank your lucky stars because it is going to be much cheaper than buying a new wedding dress.

The price of a wedding dress previously owned by someone else should be substantially less than what you would normally pay. Wedding dresses normally cost a lot of dough for something you will wear only once, even if it is on your wedding day. By purchasing a preowned dress you can cut the cost down by as much as half and getting a wedding dress for less than a thousand bucks is a great accomplishment.

There are many places to look for a wedding dress that has been previously owned. If none of your family or friends has a wedding dress you can wear, you can start by looking in your local thrift shop or consignment store which probably has several on any given day. If you find nothing there you can always browse auction sites online or your local classified lists. Another great option is to look at online wedding shops, many of which have a program for people to sell and buy wedding dresses that were previously owned. This is a great option because sites like this will have many listings for you to browse along with the dress’ history, size, specific measurements and more. Sites like this also allow you to search by location, price, designer and more.

While the low price tag on preowned dresses is very enticing, there are a couple of things to keep in mind while shopping for a used wedding dress. First of all you need plenty of time to find that perfect used wedding dress, more time than if you were looking at only new dresses. Since used dresses are harder to find and don’t have the same style in multiple sizes, you need to have a lot of time to look for your desired style and size. Also don’t limit your search to just one place, look everywhere. Look online, in thrift stores, etc. Give yourself plenty of opportunities to find your perfect dress. Finally keep in mind that you will probably need to pay for some alterations. This happens with almost every wedding dress, not just preowned wedding dresses. It’s just the nature of the beast. So work the cost of alterations into your budget too when looking for that perfect preowned wedding dress.