With wedding season well underway, it's the perfect time for brides to gather inspiration from wedding content on social media. One Redditor shared their secondhand wedding dress, showing other brides it's possible to save money and find the perfect gown.
In a popular post, the Redditor proudly showed a photo of her wedding gown: a mid-length dress with boning and made of gold bird fabric.
Above the photo is the caption, "Got my wedding dress for FREE at a local second hand shop where I sell clothes for credit. Was only tagged at $18 anyway. It has actual boning, gold bird fabric, and POCKETS."
Her excitement is well-earned, too. Buying a secondhand wedding dress can help you get loads more out of your wedding budget. According to a study by The Knot, the average cost of a wedding gown in 2022 was $1,900. The wider range is between $500 and $4,000, according to the Brides digital platform, depending on the designer, style, and material of the dress.
When they save money on their gowns, brides can reallocate money to other wedding expenses. Saving a few thousand dollars can make a big difference, especially considering that, as of 2022, the national average cost of a wedding in the United States was $30,000, per The Knot.
Not only will you save money, but you'll save the environment, too. Wedding gowns are usually worn once on the big day and then stored in closets or attics for years.
Buying and selling secondhand gowns can expand dresses' lifecycles, especially considering how resource-intensive wedding gowns typically are.
For example, creating a yard of silk fabric requires about 2,542 gallons of water, according to Earth911, which also notes that, if a ballroom gown-style wedding dress requires 8 to 10 yards of silk, that would use roughly 26,420 gallons of water.
Fellow Redditors were impressed by this incredible thrift store find, complimenting the gown in the comment section.
"Gorgeous dress," one Redditor wrote. "Pockets make everything more amazing."
Another user said, "That dress was made for you. Wonderful find!"
"It will make a perfect wedding dress! Congratulations," another added.
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