affordable wedding dress 4

If you’re getting married on a budget, you’ll soon realize that any dress with the label “bridal” or “wedding” will be accompanied by a giant price tag. But there’s one way you can find the dress of your dreams without making your wallet bleed. Instead of looking at bridal salons, go to your favorite department store and look for long (or short) white or off-white dresses that could pass as a wedding dress. The trick to making your department store dress look like a wedding dress is to narrow your search down to long white dresses with interesting necklines, such as the Calvin Klein stretch mesh gown pictured above. It only costs $178, which by US standards is pretty cheap for a wedding gown. Dress it up with a large, sparkling brooch or statement jewelry, and you’re all set to get wed!

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You can also go for long white dresses with tiers, sashes, and other interesting details, like this BCBGMAXAZRIA lace and tulle tier gown.

affordable short wedding dress

And if you want a short dress to wear to your wedding, choose one with an large details that can’t be ignored, such as this oversized bow.

The best part about buying a department store dress for your wedding is that you can get more mileage out of it. With a few alterations (cut it short or dye it a loud color), you can easily wear your wedding dress to other special occasions.

Another alternative is to have a seamstress sew you a simple, long white wedding dress – but don’t tell her it’s for your wedding! If you keep mum about what the special occasion is for, she’ll charge you about half the price of a custom wedding dress.

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