Wedding Dress!

When we began budgeting the wedding, I decided I didn't want to spent over $50 on my wedding dress.  About a year ago when I was half fantasizing-half planning, I thought $200 was reasonable.  But, as you well know, life happens and our perspectives shift.  So $50 for my wedding dress it was!  Which sounds ridiculous...even to me.  But I had several plans to make this happen:

1. Go thrift store hunting.  I know there are several thrift stores within a 10 minute walk from my apartment that sell beautiful wedding dresses!  Of course 90% of them look like they came directly from 1985...but I knew eventually something would come along that would just blow me away!  And wedding dresses at thrift stores average between $20-100 depending on where you are.
2. Alter a dress I already have.  Because I do photography work, I found a beautiful wedding dress at the thrift store for $20.  I used it for a few photo shoots (with models) but I myself can't fit into.  If I couldn't find anything in the thrift store, I was prepared to alter that dress to fit me.
3. Look at bridesmaid dresses!  After all, they are lovely and much less expensive than an actual bridal gown.
4. Look at prom dresses right after homecoming/prom or on off season.  I know I've seen some amazing prom dresses in an array of styles and colors that are highly discounted because prom/homecoming had just ended or it was off season.
5. It's okay to have a short skirt!  It's no secret that the more material it takes to make a dress the more expensive it can get.  If you're not too picky about having a long gown, look at shorter dresses.  I know you can easily find a nice white sundress for $20-30 at any clothing store around the end of winter/beginning of spring or summer.

Thankfully I actually didn't even need to fall back onto plan B.  When I went to Ohio last week I knew I wanted to look at dresses with my mom.  We went to the local thrift store and, per usual, most of the dresses were beaded, poofy, meshy messes from the 80s.  But there was one.  I wasn't really sure about it at first but decided to try it on anyway.  

It fit like a glove!  And it's actually quite lovely despite the terrible images/messy apartment.  At the end of the day I spent $0 on my dress!  My mother so kindly covered the cost (which was a whopping $25) and now I have my wedding dress!  With that, we saved $50 from our overall budget cost.