Vera Wang Dress
Did you know that 25% of engagements happen over the holidays? If the recent holidays made you into a bride-to-be, congrats! Wedding mega-site The Knot points out some real scary financial statistics related to weddings. According to them, the average wedding cost is $31,213. Let’s be real though, if you’re checking out sites like mine, you’re trying to make smart money decisions and cut that cost way down without losing any magic on your big day.
One major cost is your dress. For an outfit that’s only going to get one day of wear, it takes up a serious sliver of the overall budget. Fortunately, money savvy brides-to-be have gotten hip to the idea of saving money in this area too. When you are ready to start thinking about wedding dress shopping, here’s a smart financial tip to help you save and look amazing.
Maggie Sottero Dress
Wedding dress resale sites, like PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com, list new, sample and used wedding dresses at a fraction of the retail price. You could save hundreds – or even thousands – of dollars on a wedding dress that has been only worn, for a few hours, if even at all. Like this Maggie Sottero gown. It’s brand new, and listed for 45% off of retail. Or this stunning Vera Wang offered at 71% off the salon price.
Even better, PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com has just launched a new Real Brides Gallery. You can browse wedding dresses by designer, and see them on real women. The gallery is packed with gorgeous dresses and wedding dress inspiration. But fair warning, you could spend hours looking at all of the prettiness (and the savings!)
One great tip to take the edge off of some online purchasing is to still go to the bridal stores and boutiques to try the dresses on. This will make you more confident in purchasing a previously used dress from the internet. Check the listing and note for any alterations (though with the money you’re saving, budgeting in your own alterations now becomes a breeze). Many dresses also list as unaltered, so you’ll know you’re getting the same dress that you tried on in the store.
Real Brides Gallery
PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com is celebrating their New Gallery with their #FindingTheDress Giveaway. Enter and you could win $1,000 towards any dress on their site. See more details here.
Wedding costs are out of control. I recently got married and we were able to get it done at a fraction of that cost. It took a lot of research, creativity, manual labor and extra hands but it was worth it. The dress is definitely the first big expense the bride will be up against. I had to try on a lot of dresses before I found a style I was comfortable with and my friend found “the one” on the clearance rack at David’s Bridal. Since it was the last one the store had, they cleaned it and made minor repairs on the house!
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One interesting way I saved money was altering and a dress that didn’t quite fit me, instead of getting it custom tailored at the bridal boutique. This helped save a ton of money! Thanks for writing.
It’s amazing how much you can save on such big name designers with websites like these. If they’ve only been worn once, then budgeting alterations is really worth price. Thanks for sharing!
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