Used/secondhand wedding dress - would you?

lelole

Hi

I have found my wedding dress second hand on preloved, and it is half the price the shop quoted, so thinking about saving myself a bit of cash. Would you consider a second hand dress? It's not close by so it would require a relatively long trip to see it or risk a courier delivery?

bubbles0169

this is how im hoping to get my dream dress! i dont know what it is yet but all the ones ive liked so far are on the very expensive side
id just check that it specifically states if there is ANY wear or tear,if it doesnt state that id ask first and whether theyve had it cleaned or not x

Sammy85_2

My wedding dress is second hand. Cost less than £150. Its my fairytale dress and i couldnt find anything remotely similar in the bridal shops.

There is a bit of wear and tear, as to be expected with any used wedding dress, some beads have been knocked off and there are a few dirty marks underneath, but nothing outwardly visible or noticable unless you go telling everyone.

pinkteapot

One of my friends had a second hand Maggie - had no idea until she told me a few months ago (wedding was three years ago). I had a Maggie dress and had it cleaned after the day; dry cleaners do an amazing job, aside from some faint residual marks on the underside of the train you wouldn't know it was used. They do only get worn for one day after all.

Can you try and haggle? I think you should be able to do a bit better than half price.

FatVonD

I wore a vintage wedding dress and still felt like a million dollars (That might be the key, call it vintage rather than second hand!)

Not sure where you are but one of the charity shops in Surbiton, Surrey has a whole floor devoted to wedding dresses presumably pooled there from all their branches and they're not all the out of date ones, some are gorgeous plus they have grooms stuff and evening dresses, shoes and bags etc. I'm not sure which one it is but could find out for you.

binkyboo_2

I have bought a second hand ronald joyce dress off ebay for £150 its original price was £800 and is only last seasons range. It was worn for about 8 hours on the wedding day and then dry cleaned straight after. it is spotless and in very good condition. I have had to have a couple of inches taken off the length but other than that is perfect.

floss2

Some people must do - I have my worn-for-14-hours Linea Raffaelli on ebay as I type, and there are 14 watchers (and it's only been there since Monday!)

lelole

I have just arranged to go and see it on Friday!! The lady says she has had it cleaned and cannot see any problems with it at all, although she admits it did get quite dirty on the day.

PINKTEAPOT - I asked her how much she would like, and she said she would like £500 for it, as this is half price. I am not the haggling type so I didn't comment or barter, but am kicking myself now, esp as I can see some of you paid much less!

SO any tips from more experienced hagglers how to get a better deal would be great...although to be honest I am pleased to get a £500 saving (I'm probably a mug!!)

FatVonD - nowehere near Surbiton I 'm afraid - sounds like an ideal place to look though!!

Thanks

frannyann

Lelole, as its a Preloved dress she will know that £500 is a very hopeful price. Second-hand dresses normally don't fetch much, some people are a bit 'funny' about buying them (Not me!! A bargain is a bargain!!) I would take the money in cash, go see the dress and if you want it, then offer £400 in the cash, the sight of that money will probably seal the deal, but if not, you can offer £20 extra at a time, she will settle for less

Emms

I bought my second hand Maggie from Ebay for about £150 and it was well worth it. Few minor marks on it but nothing anyone would notice. Sold it on again for the same as I had paid for it :)

u751904

I haven't had much luck with second hand dresses. In wedding dresses I am a size 18 but probably wear a 14 - 16 in high street shops. My advice is see if you can try the dress on before hand especially if you aren't a classic 'small' shape. Always seek measurements ask how they measure the dress as well. Most folk don't seem to know how to do this on account of lack of dressmaking knowledge, if you can't try the dress on see if you can gain agreement that you can send it back if it doesn't fit. The dress market is hyped for the designer names and usually they sell reasonably well second hand but I know as I have seen that a lot of dresses need a few airings on ebay before they reach the desired level of asking price. Esecially the case for ladies who feel their dresses are worth quite a lot. So in other words if it doesn't fit an you need to sell it be prepared it may take you a while to sell the dress on. IT is very sensible to buy a nice dress second hand and can be perfect if you think of these things and are prepared to hunt around a bit. THe truth of the matter is all in the fit so consider this. You may need to have to it altered and that doesn't come cheap so again factor this in. Personally I struggled and found the best option for me was to have mine made. This turned out to be roughly the same as a second hand dress and of course perfect fit exactly how I wanted it.