We're spreading our wings a little bit on The Cheap Engagement Rings Guide to look at other money saving ideas for weddings.
Wedding dresses compete with diamond rings in terms of baffling choices for the potential bride, with thousands of options and prices ranging from £50 or less, up to several thousand pounds if it's appeared with a designer label on it.
If you're currently sitting in the car and crying into smartphone after seeing the prices in a local wedding dress boutique...fear not, there are cheaper alternatives.
Firstly, there's the option of either importing a wedding dress from abroad, or buying a much cheaper dress online. It won't surprise you to realise that eBay and Amazon are good starting points, but you do need to be willing to sift through thousands of options and do a bit of research.
My preference is Amazon, as you can filter by user ratings out of 5. Sure, you will probably sift out some good quality dresses, but that's not a big problem when you are starting with 250,000 results for the phrase 'wedding dress' (yes, that a quarter of a million).
You may end up needing to get some tailoring or adjusting done, but if you've paid £100 for the dress rather than £1000 then you will hopefully have some budget to spare.
The next option is to buy second hand. Again, it's a question of being willing to sift through thousands of dresses to find the best ones. Sold prices on eBay range from £50 to £2000, whilst prices in Oxfam's bridal section ranged from £50 to £850 when I searched.
Finally, there's the option of hiring a dress. You might assume this is a cheaper option that buying second hand, but it generally isn't as the companies do a lot of the legwork for you (cleaning, couriers etc). They also seem to focus on the higher priced dresses, presumably because no-one is going to hire a £100 dress. Expect to pay at least £500 to hire a wedding dress from To Have and To Hire or Be Bride.
Good luck!
If you've not sorted an engagement ring, check out our guide to retailers...
Wedding dresses compete with diamond rings in terms of baffling choices for the potential bride, with thousands of options and prices ranging from £50 or less, up to several thousand pounds if it's appeared with a designer label on it.
If you're currently sitting in the car and crying into smartphone after seeing the prices in a local wedding dress boutique...fear not, there are cheaper alternatives.
Firstly, there's the option of either importing a wedding dress from abroad, or buying a much cheaper dress online. It won't surprise you to realise that eBay and Amazon are good starting points, but you do need to be willing to sift through thousands of options and do a bit of research.
My preference is Amazon, as you can filter by user ratings out of 5. Sure, you will probably sift out some good quality dresses, but that's not a big problem when you are starting with 250,000 results for the phrase 'wedding dress' (yes, that a quarter of a million).
You may end up needing to get some tailoring or adjusting done, but if you've paid £100 for the dress rather than £1000 then you will hopefully have some budget to spare.
The next option is to buy second hand. Again, it's a question of being willing to sift through thousands of dresses to find the best ones. Sold prices on eBay range from £50 to £2000, whilst prices in Oxfam's bridal section ranged from £50 to £850 when I searched.
Finally, there's the option of hiring a dress. You might assume this is a cheaper option that buying second hand, but it generally isn't as the companies do a lot of the legwork for you (cleaning, couriers etc). They also seem to focus on the higher priced dresses, presumably because no-one is going to hire a £100 dress. Expect to pay at least £500 to hire a wedding dress from To Have and To Hire or Be Bride.
Good luck!
If you've not sorted an engagement ring, check out our guide to retailers...