Are you sure you want to buy your wedding dress?

I did a blog a few weeks ago about not buying your wedding dress. So many people forget that the option is there for hire instead. Wedding dresses can be so expensive to buy and really who wants to spend that much money on a dress which is going to be worn once? This led me to thinking about what other options there are for wedding dresses to enable you to save money...

Hire
Why not hire your wedding dress? You're only going to wear it once and what will happen to it after your big day? Perhaps it's will sit in your wardrobe and you may pull it out once in a while to reminisce about how slim you used to be. Perhaps you'll show it to your children and grandchildren in the hope they'll want to wear it; but its likely it may never be worn again.

Buy vintage or second hand
Vintage dresses can be beautiful, and are incredibly fashionable at the moment, so why not buy (or hire) a vintage dress. Often vintage dresses have a price tag to match the "vintage" label so why not look into second hand wedding dresses which are newish as well. This may be good if you don't like the vintage look. They're much cheaper than buying new and will have probably only been worn for one day!

Borrow
Staying on the vintage theme, why not ask your Mum, Aunts and Grandmothers about their wedding dresses. You may get lucky and find a dress which doesn't look dated, which in fact looks beautiful still. And if you're fortunate enough to fit into the dress (or be able to have it altered to fit you) then why not borrow a dress from a family member and give it a new lease of life.

Make
If you're lucky enough to be skilled on a sewing machine you may be able to make your own dress. I know this wouldn't be an option for me; it would end up looking like a wonky pillow case most likely. However some of you may be able to follow this route and end up with the perfect dress for you.