A bride got married in a dress that she found in a charity shop that only cost $41 (£35), according to multiple reports.
Cat Wilkinson, said she found her dress at a Sue Ryder shop a day after she got engaged with her now-husband, Mike. The white gown featured long, lacey sleeves and a high-neck, Daily Mail reported.
Wilkinson had previously talked about her dream wedding dress to her sister and friends long before she was engaged. She told them the most important factors in her dream dress were long sleeves with a high neck.
When she accepted Mike’s proposal, the two went for a night out in York. According to her Facebook post, they went to some charity shops the next day—something she often did. It was in such a shop she found the perfect dress on the rails.
She was excited to try the dress on and confirm that it would be right for her image of an ideal wedding. She called Mike and told him not to come upstairs to the second floor while she was trying it on. Wilkinson even asked the staff if she could have her picture taken with the dress on.
“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 [$41] price tag I didn’t need much reassurance,” she said, according to Metro.
“When I first saw the dress hanging on the rail I couldn’t believe it, I loved the lace design and it was bright white,” she said, Daily Mail reported. “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 mind for so long was correct—and it was!”
She continued, ” … the lady who worked in the shop couldn’t believe that the dress fitted me perfectly,” she said, according to Metro. “It was as if it was meant to be.”
She knew it was her perfect dress, and she bought it right then and there for $41 (£35).
After she bought her dress—curious about the dress’s origins—she took it to a vintage bridal store, where she found that the dress originated in the 1950s. Also, she learned that the dress wasn’t off the rack from a bridal store, but rather, it was homemade. She was further told that the flowers attached to the dress were even older than the dress, meaning that the flower embellishments were likely something that was passed down from an older relative, according to Daily Mail.
“Finding out the history of the dress made me love it even more,” Wilkinson said, according to 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.”
To customize the dress to the way she wanted it, Wilkinson added buttons on the back to replace the original zipper, as well as adding buttons to the sleeves. To top it all off, she had the flowers that adorned the dress moved to the front, according to Metro. Despite all the adjustments, she said she could have easily worn the dress just as she bought it.
In total, she spent $251 on adjustments to the dress, which brought the total amount she spent on the dress to $292.
“I had no doubts about getting the dress, I knew it was exactly what I wanted,” she said to Metro. “I may have missed out on the glass or prosecco you get when you go dress shopping in bridal stores, but I was delighted with my [$41] wedding dress.”
She told Metro that she shops at charity shops weekly and that most of her closet is full of clothes from there. Although she frequents charity shops to buy clothes, she said that she has also donated a lot back to charity as well—and it seems to have paid off for her wedding day.
“I would either like to keep the dress and have it made into a christening gown if we have children in the future, or I would donate it back to a charity shop so that another bride can have a chance to wear it,” she told Metro.
Although she hasn’t made an official decision as to what she ultimately wants for the dress, she hopes that her story will be able to remind people that it doesn’t take a fortune to make yourself feel special.
“I hope my [$41] wedding dress is a small reminder that something doesn’t need to cost the earth to make you feel special,” Wilkinson said.
