I’ve sold my wedding dress. Not even a
full year later and it’s gone…
Soon after the wedding was over I was
faced with the task of deciding what to do with my wedding gown. For sure, I
knew I wanted to get it cleaned and preserved. After more thought I settled
that I would try to sell my dress on eBay. If it sold, great; if not, then at
least it’s cleaned and preserved.
I decided to sell my dress for a
couple of main reasons.
First, I did not want to hold onto it
with the illusion that one day my daughter would wear my dress on her wedding
day. If I do have a daughter, God willing, I would not want to pressure her or
guilt her to choosing my dress to wear on her big day. She deserves the right
to go through the experience of shopping for her own gown, and feeling that
excitement when she has found the one.
Being at the bridal boutique and standing on the pedestal, seeing yourself
wearing the gown you know you will wear on your wedding day is a feeling like
no other. I certainly wouldn’t want to deprive her of that.
Secondly, since having my dress
preserved all I could enjoy of the dress was this small front section of the
dress. When you preserve your dress it gets sealed in a box. If you break the
seal, you would have to pay to repeat the process. I enjoyed my dress more
through pictures and through memories. My dress, I felt, was so beautiful and
it brought me such happiness with how I felt on the day of my wedding. I wanted
to give my dress another opportunity to do that for another person, and give it
another day to shine.
When I listed my dress I knew it
wouldn’t be an easy sell. For starters I had done so many alterations to my
dress, that is was no longer the original dress. The dress was altered to fit a
person of my stature and I had to be very clear of the changes I had made to
the dress on the listing for eBay. Any question that I would have if I wanted
to buy the dress online, I tried to answer on the listing. I was specific
to the factory measurements of the dress, to the measurements I was when I
bought the dress, my weight when I bought my dress, the changes I made to the
dress, what height I was, the heel height of my shoes for the wedding, then my
final weight when I wore the dress on my wedding day because I did loose weight!
After having my dress listed for
almost six months, I had a steady number of “watchers” and more than 750 views
on my dress. Finally, I received a bid on my dress, after a short negotiation,
I accepted her bid and it was official -- I had sold my dress.
The finality of the listing brought on
a short panic attack with “what did I just do?!” thoughts. I just had to remind
myself why I did it to begin with and then I was calm again.
After the confirmation came through
for the dress, I was able to see the new owner’s real name as opposed to her
username…so, I did what any normal person would do, I Googled her!
I found her (rather easily). I saw two pictures of her. One for her LinkedIn and she looked so pretty and sweet and the second for her Pinterest profile where she was standing next to her
fiancée. She looked short compared to him and right away I knew she would
have no problem with being too tall for the dress length.
We did go back and forth a few times
in conversation before and after the purchase of the dress and I could tell
that she was a sweet person. Being able to see a picture of her with
her fiancée, happy, was a comforting feeling and I was happy to know my dress
was going to her.
I packed the dress, included a nice
note wishing her well, and shipped it off.
A few days later, she sent me a message that
she had received and tried on the dress and it was perfect. She loved the dress
and felt it was gorgeous! She was happy the dress fit her so well, the
only thing was she would have to get it hemmed a little since she is only
5ft tall. She appreciated the note I included with the dress and thanked me
again.
I hope (I know it’s weird) down the
line after her wedding, she will be kind enough to send me a picture of her
wearing the dress. I didn’t ask but I hope she’ll consider it on her own after
its all said and done.
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