Does anyone else remember the MTV series ‘True Life’? It showcased the lives of individuals that lead unique and peculiar lives. I feel like I now fall into this category with the decision to sell my wedding dress. This was not a decision that came easily and has been quite controversial among family members.
Before I get into the process of selling a pre-owned wedding dress, I want to share the reasons why I’ve made the decision to sell my wedding dress.
Storage
It was a conversation between my mother and I that sparked the idea of selling my dress. My parents recently sold my childhood home that I used to store my off season clothing, childhood memorabilia and most recently my wedding dress. When their house finally sold, I was left at a crossroads of where to store all these items.
Living in downtown Chicago, my options were to find a space in our one bedroom apartment, rent a storage unit or discard/sell these items. I found a home for many of my childhood memories in our apartment which didn’t leave us with much space for a wedding dress.
In case you were concerned for my off-season clothing, I have wonderful in-laws that offered up space in their basement. I did not want to over extend their kindness and ask to store my wedding dress. They already have a handful in their home from other family weddings!
Usage
I am a very sentimental person. You might find this surprising given the fact I am selling the dress I wore on the best day of my life. As I mentioned, my parents moved out of my childhood home and saved going through my stuff for last knowing it would be the hardest and that I would want to hang on for everything. Thier poor storage unit is filled with pieces of furinture I refused to let them donate or sell for my future home. Sorry mom and dad.
Strangely, the decision to sell my dress was not as hard. Because of its simple design and lack of details like beading and lace, I couldn’t see myself using just the fabric to create a baptism gown for a future baby (God willing!). My mom still has her wedding gown with lace galore that can be re-purposed in the future. More practically, not many brides wear dresses worn by other family members (i.e. me) so there was no point to save the dress for another family member. I will keep my veil which will be a piece I plan to pass down generations.
Sustainability
I’m not planning to wear my dress again. I found my forever person and don’t plan to walk down the aisle again anytime soon. I am also not going to force family members to wear my dress which means this beautiful gown will just sit in a closet being under utilized. I would much rather sell my gown to a bride-to-be so that she can have the same experience I had of being a princess for the day.
Coming from the finance side of things, I also remember how expensive it was to plan a wedding and all the additional costs that add up. My hope is to allow another bride to find the perfect dress at a fraction of the price and use the difference for their honeymoon or another area of their budget.
Pre-Owned Wedding Dresses
Enter preownedweddingdresses.com. This website was recommended to my mom by one of her dear friends that found success in selling her daughter’s dress. There are other websites out there that offer different pricing arrangements (flat fee vs. percentage of sales price) but being in a referral industry, I believe in the power of referrals and will trust their recommendation. If you want to better understand the other websites out there, Who What Wear recently wrote up a great blog post on the topic.
The process was fairly simple. I created a user profile, uploaded a few pictures of my dress, included important details about the dress like designer, size and modifications and now we wait…
If you know anyone looking for a well loved and cared for dress, send them my way! The link to my dress is here.
