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Original poster

Would you lend your friend your wedding dress?

235 replies

WeddingDressQuest · 31/01/2024 06:17

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?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
FunionsRFun · 31/01/2024 07:48

There's one in Norwich? I also remember an app like vinted for 2nd hand dresses.

WaltzingWaters · 31/01/2024 07:55

I’d sell mine on to a friend at a hugely reduced price. Or gift it as the wedding gift.

rookiemere · 31/01/2024 07:57

I'd happily lend you mine - size 14, but labelled as more - but I'm in Scotland.
However I might find it odd to see a friend wearing the same dress as I did if I was attending their wedding.
You should be able to find something through Oxfam or try local FB groups.

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JanuarySlog · 31/01/2024 08:01

You can definitely buy one cheaply. I bought mine for £150 in the sample sale and my sister bought hers for £99 from a charity shop. It was brand new with tags, the shop donates their samples to the charity. We're up north but their must be loads of places like that around.

DelurkingAJ · 31/01/2024 08:02

I would, willingly. At first, no, but it’s been sat in a box for 13 years doing nothing which now seems mad!

CountryShepherd · 31/01/2024 08:05

I am usually a very kind person but I wouldn't lend my wedding dress - it was custom made, wildly expensive (for me!) and very striking, red silk corset. I just wouldn't want to see anyone else in it!

Monkeybutt1 · 31/01/2024 08:07

I would, I gave mine away to charity the week after my wedding. Personally I don't see the point in keeping a dress you will never wear again packed away in a wardrobe.

OrlandointheWilderness · 31/01/2024 08:07

I find the wedding dress thing so odd. To spend so much money on a hugely impractical item of clothing that you will wear once and will spend eternity in a wardrobe is a bit bonkers IMO!
I would lend it out gladly.

Original poster
WeddingDressQuest · 31/01/2024 08:11

Just to clarify I wouldn't ever ask to borrow a dress. I was just intrigued if it's something people would do.

OP posts:
1daughterand3sons · 31/01/2024 08:12

I'd lend my dress to my DD or my niece but I wouldn't lend it to a friend.
My dress wasn't expensive either it just has sentimental value and id hate for someone to ruin it.

YeahBrackie · 31/01/2024 08:13

I'd feel weird about it. The dress would be personal to me and my day. To see someone else wearing it,I'm not sure I'd like it.

Guavafish1 · 31/01/2024 08:15

I'll give it to my daughter to alter for her wedding day

OctoblocksAssemble · 31/01/2024 08:28

After a year I gave mine to Oxfam bridal in leatherhead (I think it was there). I haven't missed it. If a friend had wanted it that would have been fine, but I wouldn't have wanted it back after. I didn't want to hang onto something so bulky on the off chance one of my daughters wanted to wear it many years down the line, but I did save my veil and tiara -which I actually bought second hand, but they ended up more sentimental than the dress I bought new.

JurassicParkaha · 31/01/2024 08:32

Not to anyone I know, who's wedding I was attending or seeing photos of. It wasn't expensive but it's tied to the very personal memory of taking vows and getting married and I would feel weird seeing a friend do the exact same in it. I wouldn't ever lend anything sentimental to someone to create the exact same sentiment for themself that I was also going to be part of, memorialised in photos with me in them.

Would happily give it to a stranger though (dress not DP).

Schoolrunmumbun · 31/01/2024 08:34

I'm having a tiny low budget wedding in March (I have a thread going in S&B getting some fab help finding a second hand wedding dress)

Yesterday a friend of a friend offered to lend me her wedding dress! It's my size. Im trying in on on Saturday. I didn't ask around for dress loans, I think they must have been chatting about my wedding and came up with the kind offer.

Like you OP I do think about all the dresses in wardrobes wishing they could have another outing! I'd never ask but im chuffed to be offered.

TomeTome · 31/01/2024 08:40

Never in a million years.

UtterlyButterly2048 · 31/01/2024 08:44

Yes I absolutely would, to a friend, or there are charities that arrange weddings for people who are unwell and ask for dresses etc to be donated. I’d like to see it used again.

Kwam31 · 31/01/2024 08:46

Can I ask what people who say they won't part with their dress, plan to do with it? unlikely a DD will want it; they have their own style, when you die it'll
be binned.
Better to give it more use.

YeahBrackie · 31/01/2024 08:47

JurassicParkaha · 31/01/2024 08:32

Not to anyone I know, who's wedding I was attending or seeing photos of. It wasn't expensive but it's tied to the very personal memory of taking vows and getting married and I would feel weird seeing a friend do the exact same in it. I wouldn't ever lend anything sentimental to someone to create the exact same sentiment for themself that I was also going to be part of, memorialised in photos with me in them.

Would happily give it to a stranger though (dress not DP).

Totally agree. You said it better than I did. It's like your friend wearing the same dress at an event. Just a big no from me. No issues selling or lending it to someone I didn't know.

Strugglingtodomybest · 31/01/2024 08:48

I would if I knew where it is! Now I think about it, I'm not even sure that I've kept it. God my memory is shit.

YeahBrackie · 31/01/2024 08:48

Kwam31 · 31/01/2024 08:46

Can I ask what people who say they won't part with their dress, plan to do with it? unlikely a DD will want it; they have their own style, when you die it'll
be binned.
Better to give it more use.

I rented mine. Obviously wasn't going to wear it again and we have the photos to remember it by.

SameToo · 31/01/2024 08:50

I would. Loved my dress but it’s not a sentimental item to me, it’s just a dress.

@WeddingDressQuest I bought mine off ASOS. It was an evening dress rather than a typical wedding dress. It’s gorgeous and was only £60! I could also wear it for other occasions as it’s not a wedding dress.

Poyul · 31/01/2024 08:52

Yes it’s sat in a wardrobe as obviously not being worn since then, so wouldn’t mine lending it to a friend

GeorgeBeckett · 31/01/2024 08:53

I absolutely would if you wanted it. I don't know if it's nicer to have one preloved by someone you don't know though, rather than a friend where there might have been guest crossover. Not that it really matters or that probably people would notice.

determinedtomakethiswork · 31/01/2024 08:53

I think you have to be careful lending some things that's so expensive and sentimental. My friend got married recently and it was a really rainy day. Her dress was completely ruined by the mud. She had intended to sell it on but it just couldn't be cleaned well enough. I would only lend it to somebody if I didn't mind if that happened.