DISCOVER YOUR DREAM WEDDING DRESS. SHOP DESIGNER NAMES
No doubt, your wedding dress is special. And expensive too! And we totally understand if you could pay an arm and a leg for it you could definitely afford to "trash it" with a color bomb-filled photoshoot or to preserve it professionally, or to turn it into a family heirloom (a little space to keep it forever is no biggie, after all!), but don’t you think packing and throwing it into a dark corner of your cupboard would be a bit unfair to it? Not only by doing this you are taking life back from a dress that was once full of life but also (refusing in a way) to help a bride who is looking to buy a beautiful wedding dress at an affordable price. Certainly, you can keep your wedding dress after the wedding day is over if:
• You are sure you’ll have a daughter and she will don the hand-me-down wedding dress of her mother.
• You are going to recreate your wedding photos on your silver or golden anniversary like this couple.
• You have some sentimental value attached to it and would want to transform it later into something you would love to slip into or a keepsake or another item that can be used again and again?
If you don’t fall into the community of the brides who opt for any of the above options and are looking for ways to sell your wedding dress then you must give this article a read before you type in on Google “best stores selling wedding dress near me.”
1. Strings attached? Cut them off first thing!: Buying a preloved wedding dress is a tad difficult task but not more than selling a used wedding dress! Let’s face it! Before you take any sales lessons or tips to sell your wedding dress online, you need to cut the strings connecting you to your pricey designer wedding dress. You have to make yourself ready for the scenario when you will no more be able to see, touch, or feel your beloved wedding gown. Maybe as you start to lean towards selling it, you feel engulfed by a little fantasy that one day you'll have a little girl that will sneak into your closet and you will catch her playing dress up in your wedding gown. It might sound silly but even the thought of a moment like that could make you want to keep the dress forever. Not only for parting from your wedding dress but also there are so many things that you have to be prepared for while selling wedding dress. You may get over with the wedding dress moments revolving around your non-existent daughter and be all set to list it online and pay the commission or profit percentage to the selling platform, but what if the dress doesn’t sell and all your dress cleaning, listing, or other additional costs that you put towards selling it go down the drain? Are you mentally prepared to confront the unfavorable results too? All we are meaning to say here that it’s you who has to sort out your emotions before putting your wedding dress for resale. Don’t withhold your sentiments and refrain from reselling your wedding dress until you are 100% convinced in the first place!
2. Don’t make it older, it already is: “Tomorrow’s work do today, today's work now, if the moment is lost, how will the work be done?”, said Kabir Das, a 15th-century Indian mystic poet, and saint. There is no other time than now! You don’t know how long your wedding dress was hanging in the display of the retailer you bought it from plus, how many times other brides-to-be would have tried it before you bought the same dress, do you? In a way, your new wedding dress is old. So before it gets older sell it! We love it when a bride thinks ahead of time and lists her dream wedding dress online even BEFORE her wedding day. Imagine you are on your honeymoon and your phone is beeping with alerts one after other showing that many soon-to-be brides’ are interested in buying your pretty wedding dress? Early submission of wedding dress for sale online doesn’t guarantee a quick sale however there certainly are advantages to selling at the right time. If you ask us how long after the wedding should I wait to sell my wedding dress? Then our answer would be- as soon as possible! There is no harm even in listing your dress on your favorite second-hand wedding dress website/s two weeks prior to the wedding. No, I am not a buzzkill! Pre-selling a wedding gown is a great idea! Remember, latecomers always suffer! Join the group of a growing number of brides who are pre-selling their wedding gown like Baldwin pre-sold her stunning Vera Wang dress.
3. Have the dress professionally cleaned: If you are leaning towards not dry cleaning your wedding dress after the big day, we don’t blame you at all. It’s not a cakewalk to find a professional wedding dress dry cleaner whose cleaning technique doesn’t damage your gown (some dry cleaners won’t refund you either!). Plus, who would want to splurge on a dress that they would probably never re-wear! Yes, ranging between $150 - $250, wedding gown dry cleaning (in addition to the charges for different stains found throughout the dress) could rip one off! Plus, you never know you might be charged anywhere from $15-$50 extra for pulling oils out of your wedding gown. But dry cleaning is still the safest and most affordable way to prepare your dress to be sold. Receiving a clean spotless wedding gown is something that every bride expects from the seller regardless of the price she pays. Fair enough! Ideally, dry cleaning a wedding dress takes about two-three days. However, it could take up to a month depending on the number of layers your dress has and the busy schedule of the dry cleaner. Making sure your dress is clean and ready to go to a new bride is crucial to the selling process. And if you ask us, “Should I get my wedding dress cleaned before selling?” then it’s a big Yesss!
4. Be sensible about the price: You sure want to sell your expensive wedding dress at a great price but weighing your wedding dress against the price you expect from it is extremely important. The age, condition, designer label, style, embellishments, original price, clean or not, freebies (if you are giving away your bridal veil, sash, hairpins, a piece of jewelry, coverups, bridal accessories, or something else nice complimentary), etc. all count when you decide the correct price of your wedding dress. In general, the gowns that are 2 years old or so and are in excellent condition are in greater demand and can easily fetch you about 50-60% of the price you paid for them. To determine the exact current value of your used wedding dress you could also use online dress evaluation tools. Several websites like www.preownedweddingdresses.com and www.stillwhite.com provide a wedding dress value calculator that computes your second-hand wedding gown’s worth basis the information you provide about it on asking. Plus these tools also give you a list of real examples of sold and currently on-sale gowns that are the spitting image of yours. Putting a realistic price tag on your pre-owned wedding dress takes you closer to the buyer. You can have a fair idea about the starting price for your gown and plan the wedding dress sale around it. Keeping room for negotiation helps you sell the dress in a heartbeat. A tip to nip the long wait time in the bud- be flexible while selling your preloved wedding dress and ‘say yes to the price’ (quoted by the new bride) that’s slightly here and there from the price you expect. A bird in hand is worth two in the bush!
5. Make it available for purchase online and locally: There is no harm in looking at both wedding dress resale websites as well as boutiques to put your wedding dress for sale. Both the options are equally good in their own right. While physical stores are perceived as a thrift option as new brides could find a wedding dress in store for even less than $500. Online stores have better reach to the millions of brides who are soon getting married increasing the chance of someone liking your dress. Of course, the competition is also stronger. You don’t have to meet the buyer in person while reselling your wedding dress online and this can be a positive if you are occupied or don’t want to deal with strangers especially during COVID times. Plus, most second-hand wedding dress seller sites provide you with some form of selling assistance, whether through payments, handling shipping and returns, or marketing your dress. On the other hand, if you choose to sell the wedding dress offline through online platforms, local wedding consignment shops (only if you have no idea about your dress’s selling price), or a thrift bridal store nearby you don’t have to worry about your dress getting lost during shipping because you’ll physically meet up with the bride-to-be buying the dress. Meeting up in person also allows the buyer to both see and try the dress on. This can increase the chances that they will be happy with their purchase and less likely to request a refund. Sites such as Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, LetGo, OfferUp are entirely free to use and provide tips on the best practices for promoting them. Online, at a boutique, or both at a time, the best option for you will be the one you feel most comfortable with. We suggest you place your preloved wedding dress for sale at both places to have it sold in a wink!
6. Let the pictures and words speak on your behalf: Adding both old photos of your new dress and the latest photos of your old dress is the best practice when listing your wedding dress online for sale. Not only excellent pictures of your wedding dress but also the selection of pictures will decide the fate of your wedding dress resale plan. Tell your bride how the wedding dress would look when it was brand new, how it looked on you when you said your vows, and how it’s looking now after standing the test of time. Beef up all your wedding dress photographs with strong detailed descriptions for an honest and ethical sale of wedding dress and to steer clear of return/refund hassles. Make sure your listing is complete, accurate, and informative! More is definitely better when it comes to describing your wedding dress online for the brides-to-be who keep aside the fun, excitement, and joy of feeling or touching the fabric of their dream gown before paying for it and choose to buy it online. Include information about the fabric, the details, original price, your measurements, any extra details you added, model number, color, collection, year of manufacture, where you bought it from, the alterations (as not all alterations are reversible), flaws/stains (if any), if/how the gown was cleaned or preserved, and so on. Brides-to-be who seek second-hand gowns want to find out all they can about the listed dress. Like you and me, they shop around, compare options, and pursue the one that looks best from every perspective. So, make sure your advertisement caters to this expectation. Your buyer won't know anything about your dress unless you tell them. Remember, before being a seller, you were a bride and you would not want to give shopping wounds to another bride who is entering the new phase of their life.
Wedding dresses (both new and used) are big business. Selling wedding dresses is such a wonderful, enjoyable process to share the joy of the wedding gowns with someone else who loves it as much as one does! Just pop on borrowingmagnolia.com or thousands of other sites, and there are eager brides to take your second-hand wedding dress or other wedding stuff off your hands. Selling your wedding dress is a good way to free up some space in your home, earn some extra bucks, and make some bride-to-be really happy.
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