The Dress Search Part 3: How I Turned My Wedding Dress Indecisiveness into $$$!

So, there I was with two dreamy Monique Lhuillier dresses that I got for a steal at the mother-of-all-sample-sales. I had a REALLY hard time deciding which dress I liked better. I polled my friends and family, and although Amelie got more votes, it was by no means a consensus. I loved the ivory color of the Ava dress, while Amelie was a latte/ivory shad that looked questionable on my skin tone. But the trumpet shape of the Amelie dress really flattered my figure (and somehow created an illusion of curves on my stick figure body!), whereas the A-line silhouette of the Ava dress was...just...okay. I started having major regret about both dresses, wishing I could combine the two, creating a curve-hugging trumpet shape ivory dress. My thoughts started to wander back to the Lia dress, the dress I fell in love with on my first wedding dress shopping trip!

Remember me?

I thought to myself, here I have these two georgeous gowns. But if I have even the smallest misgivings about either one of them, I shouldn't hold on to them! Other brides-to-be would jump at the chance to own these dresses, so if I wasn't 100% in love with them, I should probably let them go.

I hadn't yet made up my mind about selling the dresses, but I listed them on oncewed.com and preownedweddingdresses.com to test the waters. Right away I started getting offers--generous offers. To the tune of about $3,000--per dress. After mulling it over for a few weeks and emailing back and forth with lots of perspective buyers, I decided that I had to sell the dresses. I was already doubting my devotion to them, and now I was getting offers for triple what I had paid?! It seemed like a no-brainer! I knew what I had to do! So I decided to sell both of the dresses. It was bittersweet--exciting because I had just made a ton of money, but sad because I really loved both of those dresses, yet neither of them was "the one."

Source

"The one" was the dress I fell for at the outset, the Melissa Sweet Lia dress. I found a used one in near-perfect condition on Preownedweddingdresses.com for less than half the retail price. Yay! My wedding dress indecision has paid for a substantial chunk of our wedding expenses! My only regret is not buying more dresses at that amazing sample sale!