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Why spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on an 8-hour dress? Your wedding is your day, but blowing $1,000 on a schmancy white gown is not going to make it more yours. You can own your wedding on a budget! Here are 8 places to look for a cheap dress. Tip: make sure to budget at least $50 for alterations.
- Perhaps your mom, aunt, sister, cousin or in-law has a dress that fits your body and style? If not, is salvaging the material to make a new dress an option?
- HereComesTheGuide.com lists sample sales and designer wedding trunk shows in CA, D.C., Chicago, and New York City.
- J.Crew has white affordable wedding gowns starting at $225. Some go as high as $2,995! (That is the less-affordable range.) Wait until you get a coupon code for extra savings.
- eBay has many auctions for cheap wedding dresses in the $100 range when I last checked. With any used clothing, but especially white dresses, make sure to ask if the dress has been cleaned, or else budget $50 and up to have it dry cleaned.
- Find high-end consignment shops that specialize in dresses by Googling “consignment wedding dresses + your zip code”
- JC Penney has wedding dresses starting at $100.
- PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com has wedding dresses for $100-$300.
- You might have a super special dress in your own closet. Who says wedding dresses have to be white?!
What did you wear on your wedding day – and how much did you spend on your outfit?
Related blog posts:
Planning an affordable wedding in 10 weeks or less
Ideas for frugal wedding favors and centerpieces
Recession wedding: road trip!
4 cheap wedding tips from a first-time groomsman
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price. 
There’s also a great organization- Brides Against Breast Cancer- where brides can donate their dresses and then the organization resells them for less and the proceeds go to the fight against breast cancer. Saving money and helping people- total double win!
David’s Bridal is having their $99 sale right now. I just went and looked, and they have some *darling* dresses starting at $99.
Also, you can find awesome dresses at thrift stores. A relative of mine found a wedding dress at a thrift store, and only paid $5.00 for it. No one had ANY idea she got it on the cheap.
On my wedding day (just celebrated my 17th anniversary), I actually borrowed a friend’s going away outfit.
I had my wedding dress custom made by a “hobby seamstress.” She created it out of hand-made linen curtains that my grandmother had made and brought over on the boat from Europe and hand-made lace linen closet liners made by my great-aunt. It was an amazing dress that fit me perfectly, but cost about the same as a nice cocktail dress.
I bought my dress on eBay for $125 and then sold it for $250 on a pre-owned wedding dress website!
I found mine upstairs in the clearance rack of a local bridal shop. They often have dresses that are from seasons before marked WAY down. I got a $2600 dress for 400 (counting cleaning and alterations).
Also, check out http://www.offbeatbride.com for other than white gown and other creative wedding ideas.
I got my Jessica McClintock wedding dress at a local garage sale for $5! It even fit me and I didn’t need any alterations.
I looked on craigslist under the garage sale section for a few weeks and specifically typed in wedding dress in the search box.
@Lisa What a deal! I think that is a bargain hunter’s dream – to find a dress that fits for $5 at a garage sale!!!
When I got married 5 years ago I looked on Ebay and they have a couple of people who mass produce new dresses. You buy them and alter them at you local taylors. Mine was 250 plus 110 for alterations. So total $360.00 for a beautiful modern beaded dress with straps. Everyone loved the simplicity of the dress and I still have it in case my nieces want it. These days you can find just about anything for a much cheaper deal if you take the time to really look and realize its only one day and what really matters is the commitment your making.
i got mine from one of the bridal shows in new jersey – http://bridalexpoandtradeshow.com