Finding the right wedding dress can be one of the most stressful aspects of planning a wedding.
The average cost of a wedding in the UK is a whopping £14,740, and a wedding dress can be an expensive part of the overall bill.
But Cat Wilkinson snatched her dress just a day after her engagement and bought it for a bargain.
In the summer of 2019, Cat tied the knot with her long-term boyfriend Mike at a wedding venue near Doncaster.
The senior lecturer in education walked down the aisle donning a stunning white bridal gown with long sleeves and a high neck.
Friends and families were astonished to find out that the bride’s dress cost her just £35 plus £200 for additional alterations.
She found the beautiful dress by chance at a Sue Ryder charity shop in York – just one day after her engagement.
Cat said on Facebook: “Since our wedding, I’ve received lots of lovely compliments about my wedding dress, with people messaging asking where it was from, so I thought I would share the story.
“On the day that Mike proposed to me he took me for a night in York. The next day I was looking in the charity shops and saw the dress on one of the rails.
“It was a charity shop on two floors and I was upstairs and phoned Mike to tell him not to come up while I tried something on and to ask if the shop volunteer could come up to take a photo.
“I bought the dress there and then for the small sum of £35 I had a few alterations made to it to make it just how I wanted, including adding buttons (instead of a zip) to the back of the dress and buttons on the sleeves, and moving the placement of some flowers on the front of the dress.”
She later told the Metro that the key criteria of her “dream wedding dress” were long sleeves and a high neck, both of which the charity shop dress ticked.
She said: “I was so pleased and couldn’t quite believe that I had found my wedding dress the day after being proposed to.
“I hope my £35 wedding dress is a small reminder that something doesn’t need to cost the earth to make you feel special.”
