Bride ties the knot wearing a £35 dress she found in a charity shop the day after getting engaged

The average cost of a wedding in the UK is £14,740. Quite a sizable sum, we think youll agree.

The pressure to spend on every little detail – the placecards, the bridal lingerie, the flowers – can make what should be a happy occasion deeply stressful.

But you dont have to spend a load of money to have a wonderful day.

Thats the message Cat Wilkinson wants to share.

Cat, a 29-year-old senior lecturer in education, recently got married to her boyfriend of five and a half years, Mike. For the wedding day she chose to wear a dress that shed bought in a charity shop for £35 – and it was a huge hit.

After being asked by guests where the gorgeous dress was from, Cat decided to share the story of how she and the dress met.

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On the day that Mike proposed to me he took me for a night in York, Cat wrote on Facebook. The next day I was looking in the charity shops (as I often do) and saw the dress on one of the rails.

It was a charity shop on two floors and I was upstairs. [I] 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.

What was pretty magical was that the dress fit perfectly.

Cat tells Metro.co.uk: When I first saw the dress hanging on the rail I couldnt believe it, I loved the lace design and it was bright white.

I had often spoken to my sister and friends about my dream wedding dress (long before the proposal) and my key criteria were long sleeves and a high neck.

I never expected the dress to fit me – my main reason to try it on was to see if the image of what I wanted that I had in my mind for so long was correct – and it was!

Myself and the lady who worked in the store couldnt believe that the dress fitted me perfectly, it was as if it was meant to be.

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The lady kindly took a photo of the dress and I excitedly sent it to my sister and mum who gave me the reassurance I needed to buy the dress. Although with the £35 price tag I didnt need much reassurance!

I was so pleased and couldnt quite believe that I had found my wedding dress the day after being proposed to.

There was no need to make any alterations, but Cat made a few small tweaks to make the dress absolutely perfect for her big day, replacing a zip for buttons, adding buttons to the sleeves, and moving the placement of some flowers on the front.

In total the alterations cost £200, bringing the total spent on her dress to a very reasonable £235 – but Cat is quick to clarify that she just as easily could have worn the £35 dress as it was.

Intrigued by how the dress had made its way to that charity shop at just the right time in just the right place, Cat took the gown to a vintage bridal store to find out more about its history.

There she was told that the dress is from the 1950s, and had been made at home rather than by a bridal store. The flower embellishments are even older, meaning they were likely passed down from an older relative.

Finding out the history of the dress made me love it even more, Cat tells Metro.co.uk. I would really love to find the person who donated the dress to Sue Ryder in York to show them photos from my wedding day.

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Cat would love to connect with the original owner of the dress and find out more about its history, so if you know anything about how it ended up in the Sue Ryder charity shop in York, do contact Cat through Facebook.

Cat also hopes that by sharing her story, shell show other brides-to-be that their perfect dress could be tucked away in a charity shop, and that a wedding dress doesnt need to be expensive to be perfect for you.

I shop in charity shops weekly, Cat tells us. I would say 95% of my clothes are from charity shops, and our entire house is kitted out in charity shop furniture. I often donate to charity shops too.

I think buying from charity shops is such an amazing way to give money to charity, and I also love the buzz of finding lovely preloved items of clothing.

I had no doubts about getting the dress, I knew it was exactly what I wanted. I may have missed out on theRead More – Source