"Say YES to Consigning your dress"
Congratulations – you did it! You had the picture-perfect celebration and couldn’t be happier with how perfectly everything turned out.
Now you’re busy living Happily Ever After, yet, sometimes, you can’t help but stare, dreamy-eyed at your gown … that gorgeous thing hanging in your closet that, once upon a time, made you feel like a million bucks.
Or perhaps you’ve just surprised your husband, donned those frocks one last time for your first year anniversary and revelled all over again in that feeling of being crazy in love (with both the dress and the man!)
But now it’s time to get on with post-wedded reality.
Some newlyweds may have the real estate in their matrimonial abode to display their stunner on a mannequin and stare at it lovingly… but for most of us, let’s face it, storage is the only solution.Somehow.
But…. seriously…. what a shame to pack up all that lace and tulle - never to be seen again! It’s far too gorgeous to be locked away… it should be showcased.
Scratch that…
It should be shared.
These days, gone away are the superstitious hoaxes about wearing a previously-loved gown on your wedding day. More and more brides are turning to consignment as an option to not only recoup some wedding day dollars, but to play their role in paying-it-forward and outfitting a budget-savvy bride in the same love and beauty they felt themselves.
{ Top 10 Reasons To Say Yes To Consigning Your Dress }
1. Storage
Reality check: most of us just don’t have the room to store a wedding dress.
Whether we’re tight on storage in a condo or have small closets in a starter home, packing away a ballgown eats up precious property for linens, towels, and … well…. shoes!
And, if we’re being honest: Out of sight = out of mind. If your dress is tucked neatly away, you won’t be thinking about it (regardless of how much you fantasize about doing dishes in it one day).
Don’t waste space in your closet and don’t spend even more money on preserving the dress in those tacky preservation boxes that don’t fit under your bed regardless of how hard you push. That dress will ultimately end up in your basement only to be found a decade later when you move. At that point, please don’t consider consigning. Regardless of how beautiful the dress was once upon a time, it’ll be outdated and nearly impossible to sell.
2. Sentiment
You’ve married the man, not the dress.
If you’re emotionally tied to your gown because it represents such an important day of your life, just ask a 10-year-married-mother-of-three how often she dreams about her dress. As life goes on, new milestones will undoubtedly become the focus of your life, leaving the sentimental value of your wedding dress, the garment itself, entirely worn away.
Sell your dress as soon as possible so that it is still a sought-after design. Not only will the likelihood of selling be higher, you’ll assuredly sell it for more.
Yes, you might be sad that you’ll never hold that amazing piece of clothing again, but one day you’ll be sitting in a rocking chair staring at the canvas print of your wedding day above the mantle while holding a sleeping newborn…. and just think of how happy your heart will be knowing you weren’t the only one who shared that sentiment!
3. Practicality
Tell me I’m wrong up and down… but I’m probably not: you won’t ever wear your wedding dress again.
Unless you buy tickets for some fabulous Do-It-All-Over wedding gala or your dress is designed to be altered or dyed, you won’t ever wear your wedding dress again.
The earth-friendly and economical alternative is to turn your wedding gown into a cocktail dress, keep it, and get more wear out of it. But, let’s be serious, most newlyweds won’t…. and even if they did, where would they possibly wear it?
If you have hopes of holding on to your dress for your yet-to-be born daughter to wear down the aisle, the cold, hard truth is that fewer than 1 percent of brides will choose to wear their mother’s dress (did you?). It’s nothing personal; there are many different reasons for 20+ year old gowns not to make a second appearance… but the fact is, it probably won’t. Besides, wouldn’t you much prefer the experience of shopping for a gown your little girl loves anyways?
4. Eco-Love
We all love the planet.
We also all owe it to the planet to be concerned about the carbon footprints we’re leaving behind… even on our wedding day.
Recycle your dress.
Tell me… where do 10-year-old, discarded, wedding gowns go to die? Landfills.
Even if you purchased your dress brand-new, reselling it shows environmental responsibility by offering the next bride a choice to decrease the negative impact her big day will leave on the planet.
Eco-warm-fuzzies all around, right?!
5. Self-Sale Fail
The internet is bursting at the seams with online forums and bridal resale sites that you can use to liquidate your wedding day inventory… but therein lies the issue.
Did YOU buy your dress online?
No?
Because you were skeptical?
Precisely.
And most brides are.
Not only that, but maybe you’ve listed your pre-owned gown, maybe you have gotten inquiries and feedback, but now you need to juggle incoming inquiries, multiple schedules, and random strangers showing up at your house (or promising to show up and instead leaving you hanging without explanation). Remember that those who do show up will likely do so with an entourage of their four or five favourite people… who will sit in your home…. while she tries on your dress….. in your bedroom.
ick.
For posterity’s sake, look up the Calgary Kijiji wedding dress scam too.
6. Buyer’s Remorse
Maybe your wedding gown didn’t make it down the aisle at all? Maybe, while you were planning your own dream day, you decided to spare no expense and go without compromise and then…. you regretted it.
For some brides, high-end designer labels matter more than their credit card limit. Maybe you went shopping, fell in mad-love with a gorgeous gown that you couldn’t picture yourself living without… but then you got home and realized that there’s just absolutely, positively, without-question, no way to make it work.
For others, it’s not about the pricetag so much as it’s about the indecision. Maybe you went shopping, fell in mad-love with TWO gorgeous gowns that you couldn’t make a decision between…. and then you got home and realized that there’s just absolutely, positively, without-question, no reason on the planet to have two wedding dresses.
Yup.
It happens.
Think Lindsay Lohan on 2 Broke Girls.
And then there’s the newlywed wives who look back on the extravagance of their big day, love every minute of it, but feel overwhelmed with the debt and bills left over. Sometimes smarter spending choices could have been made beforehand… but at least this way, there’s an opportuntiy for some salvation!
7. Plot Twist
Picture this: you started out planning a luxurious ballroom gala …. the chandeliers, the chiavari chairs, the ….. family’s opinionated shenanigans.
Change of plans.
You decide to leave the stress of chandeliers and chiavaris behind and tie the knot on a beach instead. Will that over-the-top, extravagant ballgown fare well in the sand? Sure, it’s suited for a queen… but it may not suit an easy, breezy day of romping barefoot in the waves. Not to mention, it’ll be a nightmare to travel with.
8. Mind Change { re: Dress }
So, your wedding plans have stayed the same …. but ….
“Ooooohhh, I promised I wouldn’t go into any more dress shops …. Ooooohhh, okay, just this one.” …. and then we all know what happens next.
We’re women.
It’s our biologically-given prerogative to change our minds as often as we please; choosing a wedding gown is no exception. Unfortunately there isn’t a bridal boutique in the world that will take back a gown after a down-payment has been paid.
Maybe you made an impulsive decision based on emotion… and that’s totally okay… but if you realize you won’t feel your very best on the day that literally all eyes will be on you, you need to continue searching for the stunner you’ll feel stunning in.
9. Mind Change { re: Guy }
Sometimes even the best laid plans and dreams don’t always work out exactly as you expected.
Maybe your wedding didn’t happen – you may have purchased your gown and then decided that married life wasn’t right for you as a couple. Or perhaps you’ve gone separate ways from your fiancé but there are no hard feelings toward your dress. Remember, it was just an outfit you bought to enhance the beauty of a special day …. the satin itself didn’t do anything wrong.
For all you skeptical Soon-To-Be Brides … the tulle, lace, and loveliness of a dress that didn’t make it down the aisle isn’t stitched with bad karma. Truth be told, most of those dresses never even left the bridal boutique. And if a fellow female had the courage to call off a wedding and/or life that was poorly fitted to her, consider her gown to be infused with the bravery and courage to follow her heart – and know that everything happens for the best possible outcome!
10. Selfless Love
Maybe you didn’t change your plans.
Maybe you didn’t change the guy.
Maybe you aren’t struggling with storage, sentiment, or savings ….
But maybe you just want to be selfless.
Simply put, consign because you want someone else to experience the joy and beauty that you did.
Not only do you adore your gown too much to leave her bagged up in a stuffy closet, but you know the difference you can make in a bride-to-be’s big day when you hand her a budget-savvy alternative to a dreamy designer dress.
———-
Regardless of the ways in which your gown was bought, loved, worn, or not … the option to consign allows you to make back some of your wedding dollars that can now be put toward a weekend away or a mortgage payment. Assuming your dress is in good condition, expect to earn back about 25% of your original purchase price when you consign… on top of all the warm-fuzzies you’ll get for doing a good thing.
You had the dress.
You had the day.
You’ve got the guy.
You’re ready for life.
Sell the dress, buy some bubbles, toast to the future.
It’s time to pay that lace forward, Ladies.
Previously-loved dress superstitions are about as lame as disallowing a bride with a baby to wear white. Welcome to the new millennium, you gorgeous bridal beasts!
