Would you lend your friend your wedding dress?

[WeddingDressQuest]

Just that really. I've been looking for a wedding dress. I don't want to spend loads as I'm having a small intimate wedding. I've seen people that rent their own dresses out and I think it is great. It then got me thinking of all my friends who have been married and their dresses sat away.

So would you lend out your dress or do you feel too attached to it? If it got a bit of damage would it ruin the friendship etc?

Yeah I would.

I ran 10km in mine with my husband in his suit on our ten year anniversary!

Yes, but mine was just a sundress I already owned, DP unlikely to be in demand.

Yes.
I've never worn mine again (unsurprisingly) and would happily give it away of someone wanted it

@GreatGateauxsby is it a size 14? 😆

Hmmm -maybe if I spent over 1.000£ I’d like gift or thank you money.

I would quite happily

@Shoppingfiend yes there would definitely be gratitude, money/gift then cleaning/repairing as necessary. It's so hard to buy a dress

No I wouldn’t - sorry.

Wedding 16 which is basically a 14...
It's v neckline sleeveless tulle and floofy in a nice way.

If it sounds like you jam and If you can get to north London let me know 😜

Yeah if size 10 I’d give you mine!

Lovely idea.

I would in principle. That said, it was a budget wedding so I didn't have a dress. I might well have had a look if something like this was an option

@GreatGateauxsby sounds lovely! If you're being serious I could get to North London easily enough too! Do you have pictures?

@Bettyscakes I used to be a 10. But god help me I cannot get back there or have any hope of maintaining it if I did! haha

I don’t even know where my wedding dress is. Lending it out wouldn’t bother me in the slightest.

Are there any charities near you? I got mine from a place that people donate wedding dresses to and then they sell them to fund weddings for people with terminal illnesses. Mine was about £500 (plus about £80 for seamstress bits but they did that too) and was the most expensive one they had. Price range started at £50 I think. Sometimes more general charities sell them too - oxfam from memory

@BigDogEnergy I live in the south east so I guess we would have some charity shops that sell dresses. I know the local ones haven't had any in recently but that's not to say they don't get them in. Where was the charity shop?

No because my late mum made it and it would break my heart if anything happened to it

I would give it to one of my neices, but probably not a friend (mine cost 4k so for me that is a big cost and id rather keep it nice), but I doubt any of my friends could fit in it anyway as I'm quite petite

Oxfam have an online shop https://onlineshop.oxfam.org.uk/bridal-wedding-dresses/category/bridal-wedding-dresses?N=3336598367&Ns=product.creationDate|1&Ntk=&Nr=AND(product.active:1,NOT(sku.listPrice:0.000000))&No=0

Oxfarm has a shop in Kingston upon Thames for wedding dresses op if you prefer to see in person.

There is always a risk it will get ripped or stained. I would feel awful if anything happened to a friends dress whilst I was wearing it. So even if someone was kind enough to lend a dress its just a very bad idea.

Exeter so maybe a bit far. There must be places over your way that do similar.

I would now, and would not be the slightest bit concerned about whether it got damaged/stained etc- I'd just be happy for my friend to get as much pleasure from wearing it as I did. I wouldn't want to give it away but would be delighted to see someone else wear it.

But when I was younger I would not have wanted to. It is the most expensive and best fitting item of clothing I have ever owned and I imagined having it altered/dyed to wear as an evening dress and/or passing it on to my daughter/DIL to be. It is now over 20 years later and I have never worn it again and have changed shape so I very much doubt I ever could. Now that my DD is a young adult I know that she will want to choose her own dress and any DIL I have will be no more likely to want my dress than I would have been to want my MIL's.

Yes definitely. I wouldn’t be worried if I got it back either and definitely wouldn’t be precious about stains etc. I’m (hopefully!) not going to wear it again!

I wouldn't lend something out when there's no guarantee it would come back in the same condition. So the only reasonable thing is for it to be given away, not something I'd be willing to do and I would find it cheeky to be asked. That's the type of thing that needs to be willingly offered, not asked for.

Theoretical, as I am not married and have no plans to ever, but no. If I had a wedding dress I would want to keep it nice, not risk someone else damaging it. Unlikely that they would be the same size as me either and wouldn't want it altered.