Weddingbee Blog

personal photo

Why yes, that is my rehearsal dinner dress! And you guessed it again. That IS the J.Crew Goddess dress (modified, of course).

source

I adore this dress. I have eyed it for a long time. Unfortunately, our wedding is pretty large and formal. So this light number wouldn’t really work. But that certainly didn’t stop me from making up reasons for needing to own it or for dreaming of occasions to wear it. At $475, it isn’t exactly a good choice for a casual wear dress. So, I would just need to compromise.

If you want a dress that’s out of your budget, but are willing to compromise on its condition, this may be the right move for you, as well!

1. Scour the internet for cheaper versions of the dress.
2. Scour eBay.
3. Save a search in eBay so that you receive emails of new listings everyday.
4. Wait until someone posts your dress in your size.
5. When you see it listed, make sure you’re around at the end of the auction. You should not bid until the end time draws near.
6. Wait for the dress to arrive.

Wait, you didn’t get that? You’ve never heard of saving searches in eBay you say? No problemo, check out this video for a quick tutorial.

I got this pretty number for $41.01 with free shipping!!! The bride who sold it to me had it shortened and altered it to fit her like a glove. Guess who else fits that glove? Moi! Talk about a super score, right? She was completely up-front about the condition of the dress. It had not been dry cleaned. There was a snag under the sash and two loose strings around the spaghetti strap. For the insanely low price, who the heck cares. The snags are not even noticeable and dry cleaning is cheap.

Want more eBay buying tips? Check out Mrs Tulip’s tips for buying a wedding dress on eBay here and here. And, here’s more from Mrs. Cola.

Did you compromise to score a dream dress?