Wedding dress hire: Earn back the money you spent on your wedding dress

Let’s face it. Wedding dresses are expensive and there is a good reason for that which this previous blog post of ours explains. But even with a good reason, it’s still a big part of your wedding budget. We at Indiebride London see buying a wedding dress that reflects your personality and makes you feel amazing as an investment in yourself; your happiness, your confidence and your life long memories. But it can actually be an investment financially as well. Hear me out.

How to do it?

A bride of mine emailed me after her wedding asking whether I knew any wedding dress hire services that allowed her to rent out her dress as she didn’t want to sell it, but didn’t want it to sit in her closet unused either. I knew about wedding dress rental businesses, and websites where brides can sell their wedding dresses, but I had never heard of a platform where brides could rent their wedding dresses to other brides. Turns out, they do exist! After a little research I found a British Vogue article which tells a story of 5 brides who rent their dresses after their wedding. 

You can rent your wedding dress for example on By Rotation or My Wardrobe HQ. Both of these websites have their own section for wedding dress hire. Our wedding dresses are ethically made from sustainable materials. The conscious brides who rent their wedding dress on these websites instead of buying it will appreciate this fact.

Things to take in consideration

There are many things you can do to make a use of your wedding dress after your wedding (check out this blog post to get a few ideas), but renting out your wedding dress is by far the most exciting I have come across. Maybe it’s the business owner in me that is so thrilled about the idea of brides independently renting out their wedding dresses. If you decide to rent out your dress after the wedding, there are a few things to take in consideration. Here are my advise:

• Take good pictures of your dress to make it appeal to other brides. If possible, I would use pictures of your wedding as they are taken by a professional photographer and make it easier for other brides to imagine themselves wearing your dress.
• To make sure that your dress fits well the bride renting it, I would advise you to list your bust, waist and hip measurement at the time you got married. This way the brides can compare their own measurements to yours.
• Always send the dress insured and require the brides to send it back insured as well. You can create an account with courier services to make shipping the dress out easy and safe.
• Explain that the bride can adjust your Indiebride London dress smaller by using a sash.
• If made possible by the wedding dress hire service provider, take insurance in case the dress gets damaged or stained, even though the bride renting your dress is usually responsible for any such damage.

So how cool is this?! You can now start a little side hustle and earn back the money you spent on your dress and eventually even make a profit! Wedding dress hire is a perfect opportunity for brides like my Indiebride who contacted me, who doesn’t want to part ways with her dress but feels that it would be a shame if it wasn’t worn again. It’s also a beautiful idea that you’re giving your dress another lease on life and give the opportunity to other brides with smaller budgets to enjoy wearing a quality, handmade wedding dress. A win-win I would say!

Miina

xx

 Images by Benjamin Mellish