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Add to FavoritesI bought my wedding dress at a garage sale for $25.00, and including the dress my entire wedding cost less than $100.00.
Not that my husband and I are cheap or anything, we just had better things to spend our money on, like buying a house. Our wedding was just as beautiful and special as any of the other five weddings we attended that summer, and those weddings all cost $10,000.00 and more. It never ceases to amaze me, the amount of money people spend on weddings.
The thing about wedding dresses is, people usually only wear them once. Then it gets packed away forever. What else would anyone in their right mind spend hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars for, that they are only planning to use once? Buying a wedding dress that has only been used once before is just smart. My $25.00 wedding dress had been placed back in the box it originally came in. The woman who sold it to me assured me it had been dry cleaned. Later when I got home and took it out of the box, under the tissue paper I found the original receipt for the dress. I got a $800.00 dress for $25.00, you just can't beat that.
I realize that not everyone can be lucky enough to find a perfect dress in the right size at a garage sale. Still, with web-sites like Craigslist and E-bay, finding a decently priced used wedding dress isn't all that hard to do. Plus, think of all the things you and the new spouse can do with the hundreds of dollars you save.
My wedding, though probably not the ticket for everyone, was amazing and wonderful. My hubby and I are both kind of free-spirited hippie types, but I did wear a traditional white gown. He wore blue jeans, a tye-dye t-shirt and a white tuxedo jacket with tails and a matching white top hat. The Wedding itself cost $40.00 for the license and Justice of the Peace fee.
The morning of the Wedding we all got dressed up and went to our favorite nature spot, a place called Hidden Falls, and we took dozens of photos. We posed with our little wedding party and all of the photos are just beautiful. After that, it was still a little early to go to the court house, so the the whole wedding party went to a local tavern. We all played pool and partied until it was time for the wedding.
Then we all went to the court house and the judge gave us a very beautiful ceremony. We lucked out on that one too, we had a female judge who had written an amazing ceremony about two souls uniting and helping each other through life's ups and downs. Of course, we took more photos there as we had at the tavern. After the ceremony, we had a nice dinner at a local fine restaurant, that my new hubby's Parents paid for. This Part of our wedding from sun up to the dinner was just our wedding party, which consisted of immediate family, parents, grandparents, siblings, best man and maid of honor.
We had our reception the next day at a big public park, picnic style. My brother had organized a beer fund as our wedding present, so he and some of the cousins had provided kegs of beer and cups. Everything else was pot-luck with every guest bringing a dish to share in lieu of gifts, but most everyone brought gifts too. My family is full of musicians and the invitations, which I had designed myself and printed at the local copy center at a cost of $25.00 including stamps, asked every one to bring their instruments along.
So we quickly had live music, great food, dancing and just lots of fun. The park had a beach and playground for the kids, it was just a really fun time for everyone. We of course took even more photos that day, and now have a wonderful wedding album. I know our style of wedding wouldn't work for everyone, but our friends and family are still talking about the great time they had at our wedding, 13 years later.
We went to 5 other weddings that summer. Big beautiful church weddings with all the trimmings. Within two years, 3 of those other five couples were divorced. Now, 13 years later, my hubby and I are the only couple left of the 6, that is still married. It makes me wonder how many people get married just for the wedding, rather than love. True, marriage is a lot harder work than a wedding, maybe more people should spend a little more energy on making sure they are with the right person before the wedding. Personally I'd rather have a great marriage than a fancy white wedding, but hey, that's just me.
So, yes I would, and did wear a pre-owned wedding gown, and if I had the chance to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing.
Learn more about this author, Bambi Watson.
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No
Every woman dreams about the day she gets married. And for most of us, a huge part of that dream is the perfect wedding dress. Most women have an idea of what kind of dress they want long before they meet the man they are going to marry. That being said, how many of us are willing to wear a pre-owned wedding dress? I know I'm not. In 3 months I'll be getting married and I did purchase a new wedding dress.
To me, one of the most personal things a woman can experience is her wedding. Getting married in a dress that someone else has already worn strikes me as odd and very impersonal on a day that is very personal for most people.
I believe a woman should have a wedding dress unique to herself as well as her sense of style. And if someone else has worn that dress, then really, how unique is it? I realize that many women purchase a pre-owned wedding dress in order to keep wedding expenses low. While I am all for that (and in planning my own wedding, I too am trying to keep expenses low) it doesn't seem to me that the wedding dress is the place to try and trim the budget. I know I would rather make other sacrifices as far as wedding expenses go, rather than have a wedding dress that is not unique to my special day and myself.
Cleanliness is another issue I have with the idea of wearing a pre-owned wedding dress. Of course one would have the dress dry-cleaned before their big day, but I still wouldn't trust something someone else has worn to be clean and germ free. I may just be paranoid, but to me this seems like a good reason to buy a wedding dress brand new rather than getting someone's hand me down and let's face it, that's what a pre-owned dress is.
Another issue I have with the idea of a pre-owned wedding dress is that the person who had it before you obviously didn't want it anymore. This strikes me as very bizarre. Granted, most women will never wear their wedding dress more than once, but to simply get rid of the dress after the wedding doesn't sit right with me. I know that when my wedding is over I plan to keep my wedding dress for sentimental reasons. Maybe someday I'll have a daughter who will wear it when she gets married, but even if it never gets worn again I can't imagine giving up the dress I will have worn on the happiest day of my life.
Yet another issue I have with a pre-owned wedding dress is that most likely it has been altered to fit the person who wore it before you. How many alterations can one dress handle before it compromises the quality of the dress? And will it ever fit you right after it's been altered for someone else? To me, this is why every woman should have her own wedding dress that is hers and hers alone. Just the fact that most wedding dresses have to be altered to fit the bride makes one's wedding dress that much more personal and unique to them. For these reasons I, personally, would not consider wearing a pre-owned wedding dress.
Learn more about this author, Julie A. Wein.
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