This story is what PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com is all about.  It is about one stunning wedding dress being a part of 3 beautiful weddings. Its about 3 modern brides knowing that a wedding dress is better shared, then stored in a closet for 20 years. And it is about 3 savvy women wearing a designer wedding dress at a fraction of the cost.

Meet Sarah, Kate and Grace.

Why Sarah loved this dress:
The Pronovias Estefania gown was my dream dress from the minute I saw it in the boutique. I fell in love with it but it cost more than twice of what I had in budget. So I went ahead and tried a lot more dresses to try to find another one that would fit me as great! But this didn’t happen. So I decided to buy it with the condition that I would later on sell it. That way I would spend what I had initially planned to spend on my wedding dress.  Thanks to PreownedWeddingDresses.com I was able to do just that…plus I helped another bride find her perfect dress!

Sarah passes it to Kate
Back then, making the decision to sell the dress was easy because after all, I was not planning on getting married ever again! Letting go of the dress on the day I went to ship it to California to the other bride I sold it to, was the hard part. I did drop a few tears I must admit! Thank God I retained the veil! I say I want to keep it for my daughter if I have one!

Why Kate loved this dress:
I had looked online, magazines, stores at hundreds –probably thousands—of dresses. There were a few here and there I liked, but nothing really caught my eye until I saw the posting on PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com for the Estefania Pronovias gown. I loved it at first glance, and then I kept coming back to the posting, and as Sarah sent me more photos of it, I fell in love with it even more.  I thought it fit my personality and the way I dress – to me it has a special, one-of-a-kind couture look, without looking too ‘high fashion’. I think that is a hard balance to achieve, and I think this dress does just that. I felt absolutely wonderful in the dress – I paired it with my mom’s vintage veil, and was able to move and dance comfortably all night.

Kate passes it to Grace
The girl who purchased the dress from me, Grace, came to San Francisco to try the dress on – it was perfect for her, and she took it home to Seattle — in its own airplane seat. She knew it was bittersweet for me to let it go, and emailed me later to say “If you ever need it back or want to pay it a visit let me know.” So thoughtful of her; I can’t wait to see pictures of her enjoying the dress –once more- for her big day!

What they think now:
Sarah: It makes me extremely happy to know that a third bride will be using this dress. Best of luck to the bride that will be wearing it soon! She will look stunning!

Kate: Who knows, maybe Sarah and I will take Grace up on her offer and all meet up one day…It does feel a little like the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants kind of story!

We often hear from wedding dress sellers that part of the reason they decided to sell their gown was so that someone else could get as much joy from it as they it.  Rather than have the dress sit in the closet for 20 years, they want to share it with another bride now.

This gown recently sold on PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com and is currently enroute to its new owner.

If you are passing your dress to its second bride, here are the three things you should do to ensure that it gets to its new home safely.

1. Package it properly.
2. Insure it for the full value (its selling price, not the retail price).
3. Use a trackable shipping method and require a signature release.

Proper Packaging

1. Use a sturdy corrugated cardboard box. Boxes are rated according to “burst strength.”  Look for a box that is rated for 200-lbs-per-square-inch burst strength or the equivalent.
 (A reputable wedding dress cleaner is a good source for this).
2. Make sure you get a box that is the right size for your wedding dress. You want to ensure the dress doesn’t move around too much inside the box.  If the box is too big, fill extra space with tightly wadded kraft paper, peanuts or other materials.
3. Fold the gown as required and use plastic to cover it (for the unlikely, but possible event, that the box gets wet).
4. Seal the flaps and seams with strong mailing tape that is a minimum width of two inches.
5. Place the shipping label on top and avoid putting the label over a seam/closure or on top of the tape. Put a duplicate label (with a phone number) inside the box.

Often (but not always) online sellers ask their buyers to cover the shipping costs.  If you want to get a reliable estimate as to what that cost would be, use any one of these shipping cost calculators.

• USPS
• FedEx
• UPS

Here’s to one wedding dress being a part of two amazing weddings. (And two smart brides each paying less).

Evonne turned this:

Into these.

We hear so many stories from PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com sellers about why the decided to sell their wedding dress.  I just loved what Evonne (who sold her wedding dress in June) had to say about selling her gown.

“I absolutely loved my dress and I wanted someone else to enjoy it as much as I did.  I thought about passing it on to my daughter but I had so much fun choosing my dream dress, I would never want to pressure her to wear mine and miss out on the experience. I also live in NYC so I knew I didn’t have room to store the dress.

With the dress proceeds, I bought a pair of diamond earrings.  These I can wear over and over again to remember my wedding.  They are a true momento to pass to my daughter.”

Earrings (or something else you can enjoy on a daily basis) are such a better way to “preserve” your wedding dress than keeping it in the closet for years.

And Evonne giving those earrings to a daughter one day – perhaps on that daughter’s wedding day – is a modern and lovely template for a mother/ daughter wedding dress tradition.

Pre-Sale: Monique Lhuillier Meriah Available Apr. '11

Today’s brides view their wedding dresses differently than our mother’s generation.  While our moms carefully heirloomed and stored their gowns for future daughters, women today want to pass their dress along to another bride now.  And recoup some wedding costs in the process.

And if you’ve got your heart set on a more expensive wedding dress, pre-selling it is smart option.

Pre-Sale: Vera Wang Diana Available Sept. '10

Wedding dress pre-sale means a gown is listed for sale before it is worn by its first owner. The buyer and seller agree – in advance of the original wedding date – on a price, cleaning method, and shipping date.

For the seller, the advantage is knowing that the dress is sold (and money has been recouped), before she walks down the aisle.

For a buyer, the advantage is knowing when she can purchase the exact gown she is looking for, in her size, at a price she knows she can afford.

Wedding dresses that are going to be offered as pre-sale can be altered with that in mind. This means that the seamstress leaves extra fabric in the seams, or saves it, which will make any future alterations easier.

Pre-Sale: Enzoani Diana Available Oct. '10

Pre-sale brides will also wear their wedding dress with resale in mind.  Brides who have sold their gowns in advance will take even more care of the gown while wearing it to ensure that it is in excellent condition for the next bride.

On PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com – sellers can list their for sale until it sells.  So putting a gown up for pre-sale, gives it even more time to find its next happy bride.  And when two brides can share an amazing dress, at half the price, everyone wins.