Is It Ok To Sell My Wedding Dress?

Your wedding day is one of the most memorable and special days that you will experience in life. It is a day that you dream about from the time you were a little girl.

Visions of you dressed in white, tulle, and lace, flowers everywhere, and the love of your life standing at the altar, eyes filled with tears, waiting to pledge a lifetime of love and companionship. Truly what fairytales are made of, right? But now that you are married you may be wondering, “What do I do with my wedding dress, and is it even ok to sell my wedding dress?”

It is also a time in your life that you’ll spend the most money on one event (other than buying a house). You will have to make thousands of decisions, accumulate tons of décor items, buy white shoes that will never be worn again, and of course the beautiful wedding dress that you will only wear for 5 hours.

When you sit back and think about the whole process of planning a wedding and the amount of money we spend, it can really boggle your mind. Do you even have a clue what a wedding costs?

What Does A Wedding Cost?

Here are some interesting stats that may get you thinking about eloping instead of the large, lavish wedding affair.

In the United States, the average cost of a wedding is approximately $33,900 in 2019.
Each year there is an average of 2.4 million weddings in the U.S alone.
The typical wedding lasts only 5 – 6 hours.

Now, let’s put those facts into real words that make sense! If you do the math, you are hosting an event that equates to around $6,000 per hour! And all the items you purchase (décor, dress, shoes, veil, bra, etc) are things you will NEVER wear or use again. Sounds absolutely crazy, right?

Wedding traditions in the past have included women holding onto their wedding dress forever, maybe in hopes that it can be worn again. Dreams of having a daughter and seeing her wear it on her wedding day. Or maybe even fitting into it again for a vow renewal or anniversary celebration. But really, how often does that happen?

Do you remember the wedding dresses with the big puffy sleeves from the 80’s? What millennial would get married in that today?

Are you wondering, “Should I Sell My Wedding Dress?” The answer is Yes!

In 2021 and 2022 one of the hottest wedding trends is to sell your used wedding dress online after the wedding. Heck! Some brides are even listing their dresses for sale before they walk down the aisle. Weddings are a huge expense that can immediately have financial impacts on newlywed couples. Taking your wedding items such as decor and wedding dress etc. and re-selling them for cash is an inventive way to recoup some cash from your wedding and help start the marriage in the green.

Places To Sell Used Wedding Dress

Our number one choice for where to sell used wedding dresses is, online. The internet is such an amazing thing! Having the ability to reach brides worldwide that are interested in buying used wedding dresses, without leaving your home is remarkable. And the sky is the limit! There are many used wedding dress websites to choose from. And even Facebook groups that allow you to sell pretty much anything from your wedding. We have seen couples selling centerpieces, votives, silk flowers, veils, tiara’s and of course their used wedding dresses online. Pretty much anything that you don’t want to hold onto can be sold and turned into cold hard cash! Here are some websites that allow you to sell your used wedding dress (in no particular order).

Once Wed

Nearly Newlywed

Preowned Wedding Dresses

Does Your Romantic Side Want To Keep Your Wedding dress?

We polled lots of brides that got married recently to see what they did with their dresses after the wedding. Most said it is still in their house, closet, or garage (somewhere). Some really didn’t even know exactly where it was but they know they never did anything with it.

Other brides had the gown professionally cleaned and preserved in hopes of breaking it out in the future for their daughter or selling it to another bride. We even heard of brides wearing it for “trash the dress” photoshoots. These are photography sessions where you are wearing your wedding dress and you swim in the ocean or play around in mud…. totally ruining the wedding dress but getting some really great photos. Some brides chose to cut the gown short and turn it into a cocktail dress for anniversaries and other festive events.

We learned during our poll that millennial couples are more likely to sell their preowned wedding dress. This is because they are more in love with experiences than material things so they have no emotional attachment to their “wedding dress”. It is more important to them to recoup some money they spent on the wedding to use for other experiences such as getaways, concerts, theater, etc.

There are limitless options for what you can do with your wedding dress after the wedding, and while keeping it is definitely an option, you might be better off trading it in for cold, hard ca$h. So today the question is, “Should I sell my wedding dress”? If you’re trying to answer that question, here are a few things to keep in mind.

Environmental Impact Wedding Dress Production

Wedding dresses are a labor of love but they also have a huge impact on our environment. Some wedding dresses require more than 20 yards of tulle and tons of dyes and chemicals depending on the style. And it is estimated that simply creating one wedding dress requires 9000 liters of water. That’s 2377 gallons. But that’s not all. Most wedding dresses are made overseas in Asia where they do not have strict regulations in place for proper disposal of waste.

Without regulations, our environment suffers because rivers and streams are polluted with these toxins, which then flow into our oceans. Not to mention, once the wedding dresses are finished, they have to be shipped across the world on container ships which unfortunately adds even more pollution into our atmosphere and the air that we breathe.

Saving The Planet, One Wedding Dress At A Time

We know that part of you feels grateful to wear a designer wedding gown and your inner spirit dreams of the day that you’ll wear it again. But at the same time, the realist inside you is also thinking this is such an incredible dress, so beautiful and perfectly crafted just sitting in my closet for years seems depressing.

Isn’t your wedding dress worthy of another trip down the aisle?

Instead, let’s create a “Sisterhood Of The Traveling Wedding Dress” to encourage women to recycle their wedding dresses! Then, give each wedding gown a 2nd, 3rd, 4th trip down the aisle. What an amazing experience it would be to wear your dress, in all her glory, and then pass her along to another bride. Each wedding dress that is repurposed or recycled is helping to save our planet.

Recycle Wedding Dress Today!

A bride right now is totally in love with the wedding dress that you wore but never in a million years can afford it. By selling your wedding dress, you have the opportunity to make her dream come true!

The answer to the question, “Should I sell my wedding gown?” is a question that only you can answer. We can only tell you that thousands and thousands of brides are selling their wedding dresses, it seems to be the hottest trend in 2022 weddings. But you are the only one that knows how you will feel if you part with it.

You can get started today! List your wedding dress for sale, communicate with interested brides and decide whether or not you sell your gown. Listing your dress for sale is not the end. If you don’t get the offer you want, you change your mind, or don’t find a bride with whom you feel a connection – don’t have to sell.

Make someone else’s dream come true today by listing your wedding dress for sale.

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