Cutting Wedding Costs: A Dress from eBay

A lot of women will be horrified by what I am about to write, but I hope many others will read my words and take confidence from them. I bought my wedding dress on eBay. For $99. That's right: My dress was less than $100 off the internet and I am thrilled about it. Now, mind you, I am not a clothes horse, nor am I the type of gal who had her ideal wedding dress picked out long before marriage was every a question. I just wanted a tasteful dress.

I found my dress by googling "J. Crew wedding dress;" it was a model from a past season, which Real Simple had deemed the choice "If you're tall.." which I am at 5'10" (don't you dare, click that link Mr. Wells). When I realized it was no longer available, I checked on eBay, and there were multiple listings for the dress. Not sure what size to order, I consulted J. Crew's website, which, of course, left me more confused. However, searching for the dress name and the word "forum" lead me to a super-helpful thread about the sizing of J. Crew dresses, which lead me to opt for the smaller size.

I also went to the J. Crew bridal shop in New York, because even at full retail J. Crew's dresses are much, much cheaper than almost everything else on the market. I fell a little in love with one of their current dresses (don't look at that link either, just in case!), but just couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger on a $575 dress. So, I went back to eBay, where sure enough, the dress was listed for sale by multiple vendors. On a whim, I made a low-ball bid on one in my size and ended up winning it, as well. I love both dresses, and frankly,  I feel like I beat the system getting a dress for so little. (Note that most wedding planning sites tell you to allocate 10% of your budget to attire!)

I am 99% sure, I'm going to go with the first $99 dress, but I've got another month to decide, at which point I'll bring the winner to a tailor for some minor alterations. I'll sell the other one on eBay, and post-wedding, I'll plan to sell my dress, as well. because really, I'm not ever going to wear it again, unless, of course, I had it dyed...