Bride Finds Dream Wedding Dress at Thrift Store for Only $43

Bride Finds Dream Wedding Dress at Thrift Store

For many brides-to-be, finding the perfect wedding dress is a long and, oftentimes, expensive journey. However, you don't have to spend a fortune to feel like a million bucks on your wedding day. From making a DIY knit gown to refitting a family heirloom, brides have found enumerable ways to save money while still looking and feeling their best. For Cat Purves, finding the perfect wedding dress happened completely by chance when she visited a local thrift store the day after she got engaged.

Purves shared the now-viral story of finding her dream dress back in 2019. “On the day that Mike proposed to me, he took me out for a night in York,” she writes. “The next day, I was looking in the charity shops (as I often do) and saw the dress on one of the rails.” Excited by her stroke of luck, Purves quickly phoned her fiancé to not come up to the second floor of the store while she tried on the dress. It featured long lace sleeves, and a high neck—all features that Purves was looking for in a wedding dress. She ended up purchasing it for the low-cost sum of $43.

After bringing the dress home, Purves had it altered slightly to replace the zip in the back with buttons, add more buttons to the sleeves, and adjust some of the flower details in front. Even with these adjustments included, the price of the gown came to $293, which is a great price for your dream wedding dress. “I took the dress to a vintage bridal store as I was curious and found out that the dress is from the 1950s, and made from home rather than a bridal store. The flower embellishments are older still—meaning they were likely passed down from an older relative as a ‘something old' keepsake,” she explains. “I hope my $43 wedding dress is a small reminder that something doesn't need to cost the Earth to make you feel special.”