29-Year-Old Bride Walks Down The Aisle In £35 Wedding Dress She Found In Second Hand Shop The Day After She Got Engaged

Jul 17, 2019 by apost team

Cat Wilkinson, a senior lecturer in Education at Liverpool John Moores University just got married to her long-time boyfriend Mike in a wedding dress that cost her a mere £35. 

The 29-year-old found the perfect fitting dress in a charity shop, just one day after she got engaged.

The dress is a lacy white gown with long sleeves and was bought from a Sue Rider shop in York.

According to the Daily Mail, Wilkinson visited a vintage bridal store after she bought the dress where she was told it dated back to the 1950s and was most probably homemade. She altered the dress a bit by adding buttons to the back and sleeves and floral detail to the front.

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Following many queries as to where she got her wedding dress from, the 29-year-old took to social media to reveal where she got the thrifty bargain from.

“On the day that Mike proposed to me he took me for a night in York. The next day I was looking in the charity shops (as I often do 🤭) and saw the dress on one of the rails. It was a charity shop on two floors and I was upstairs and phoned Mike to tell him not to come up while I tried something on and to ask if the shop volunteer could come up to take a photo.” she wrote.

She told Metro that she never thought the dress would fit her as perfectly as it did. 

“I never expected the dress to fit me – my main reason to try it on was to see if the image of what I wanted that I had in my mind for so long was correct – and it was! ‘Myself and the lady who worked in the store couldn’t believe that the dress fitted me perfectly, it was as if it was meant to be. ‘The lady kindly took a photo of the dress and I excitedly sent it to my sister and mum who gave me the reassurance I needed to buy the dress. Although with the £35 price tag I didn’t need much reassurance!”

She explained that although the dress was perfect, she decided to make a few alterations in order to make it perfect for her special day. She replaced a zip, added buttons to the back and the sleeves and added a floral detail to the front. The tweaks cost her just £200, which meant her dream wedding dress only cost her £235.

“Finding out the history of the dress made me love it even more,” she told Metro. “I would really love to find the person who donated the dress to Sue Ryder in York to show them photos from my wedding day.”

She hopes that her story will inspire people to recycle vintage treasures more often.

 "I hope my £35 wedding dress is a small reminder that something doesn’t need to cost the earth to make you feel special."

What do you think of her wedding dress? Did you wear a vintage frock on your wedding day too? Let us know in the comments - and make sure you pass this along to your friends and family!