Northern Beaches Mums Group
Northern Beaches Mums Group

The Reasons It Makes Sense to Sell Your Wedding Dress

Selling your wedding dress has become one of those controversial topics. Some brides would NEVER consider selling such a treasured item, preferring to pay to box and store it carefully.

For many modern and practical brides, selling your wedding dress is not only a sensible idea, but we think, should become regularly accepted practice. 

Of course, it is a treasured item, but it is also just a physical object. Selling it doesn’t get rid of your precious memories or remove any of the magic of the big day. It just makes sense sometimes.

There are all sorts of things that prompt you to sell your wedding dress. You could be following a bit of Marie Kondo’s advice and doing a declutter. You may have lost weight and are overhauling your wardrobe. Maybe you might just need the money. Or you want to reduce your carbon footprint by contributing to the reuse of clothing.

Here are our top five reasons why it makes sense that you should sell your wedding dress.

Money

Money is the main reason why we do anything really. Let’s be honest here?

Many brides spend thousands of dollars on their dress and even though they look amazing on the day and create many incredible memories, a wedding dress is an expensive purchase.

Life rolls on after the big day, and expensive undertakings will continue to crop up. You might be trying to buy or renovate a home together. You could be expecting your first child and trying to get by on one income.

Even if you do still fit into it (it’s ok not to, it happens to the best of us!), seriously, when were you planning on wearing this thing again? 

There is something you will never use in your closet that is worth possibly thousands of dollars. 

Selling your wedding dress is starting to sound a bit more sensible now?

If you list your dress online, you could recoup up to 50% of what you paid for the dress. A website like ours, www.onlydreamdresses.com only charges you a small fee of $19.90 to upload your dress for sale ( and the option of hiring your dress will be coming soon).

One savvy bride we know even bought her designer gown for her wedding day and sold the dress before she got married. 

This bride was able to afford to buy a dress a bit more than she budgeted knowing that she had already sold it for half the price she paid. I know that not many brides-to- be wouldn’t take this risk but it is still an option.

There was obviously an agreement with the buyer that she would receive it after the wedding, but this could be a very clever option and a great way to get the dress of your dreams without the nightmare price tag.

Declutter your home and reclaim your space

Face it, wedding dresses take up a lot of space (especially if you wore a dress with lots of volume or length!) 

Granted, you can shrink them down a bit into a box or bag, but they still do take up that valuable space in the wardrobe or cupboard that every woman needs.

Think of what you could do with the space! 

You want to share the love

Maybe you just want to share the love and feeling you had in your dress with someone else. You might subscribe to the whole ‘if you love something, set it free’ philosophy.

If you really adore your beautiful gown, why not let it continue to live and breathe and make new wedding dreams come true? 

I think this is a lovely thing to do!

Green, minimalist and eco-friendly brides will also love the idea of recycling their gorgeous dress, and not just creating yet another possession in their lives.

Trends change and fashions have a new life

As with every fashion item, trends change. 

If you have chosen a wedding dress that is very definitely on point this season, it may go out of style by the time next season rolls around. 

But there is no reason not to be spot on trend with your gown, as long as you sell your dress as soon after your wedding as possible. That way you have more chance of selling it quickly and at a good price. 

If your dress is still on a rack in a shop for full price there will be people out there that have tried it on and would love to buy yours pre-loved because it is that fraction cheaper.

That being said, fashion trends do come around again many years later, and retro is most definitely in. If you were married in the 1990s, or even in the 1960s, you might find a real market out there for your vintage gown.

Clear out those memories for a fresh new start

Unfortunately, not all marriages have a happy ending. 

Selling a wedding dress is sometimes a person’s way of cleaning out those memories that they would like to forget, and this is okay too. Every dress owner and every dress has a different journey. 

Selling your wedding dress is not for everyone, just as wearing a preloved wedding dress doesn’t suit everyone either. The gown may have sentimental value for you, or you may just not be ready to let it go. 

But if the reasons are starting to sound a little bit sensible to you, it might be time to check it out.


Natalie Churchill is the founder and owner of Only Dream Dresses, an Australian wide online marketplace for pre-loved wedding dresses.  Like many brides, Natalie experienced the desire to wear a beautiful designer gown on her wedding day but didn’t want to spend the earth in doing so. So the idea of purchasing or hiring a pre-loved wedding dress was formed. Only Dream Dresses specialises in creating a service that personal, cost effective and efficient.