How to Sell a Wedding Dress Fast in the UK

They can take up space in a wardrobe, and often cost a lot of money; this guide is everything you need to know about where & how to sell your wedding dress quickly.

There are many reasons you would have a wedding dress to sell and want it gone fast. Some are more upbeat than others. Whatever the reason, you just don’t want the thing anymore.

Thankfully, these days it’s easy to sell your wedding dress quickly and help a bride feel beautiful walking down the aisle.

This blog post is going to run you through the ways you can sell your wedding dress quickly: online or in person. It is also going to end with information about various charities you could donate your wedding dress to, should that be something you are open to doing instead.

Selling Online

God bless the internet. It brings chaos and unhappiness but is fantastic for instant messaging, breaking news, and selling things you don’t want anymore. Even making this choice there are two big directions you could go: a site dedicated to second hand wedding dresses, or a more standard resale website.

What to Know When Selling Online

It is worth your time to get the dress professionally cleaned. The extra cost may be a pain, but it decreases your chance of having the item returned or trouble starting between you and the site you’re going through if a buyer complains.

It is also better to use pictures of the dress being worn as opposed to just hanging up. If you are selling a dress after a wedding, then you will probably already have photos by a professional photographer. If not, then getting good photos of the dress being worn by someone will increase your chances of getting a sale, so it is worth your time.

Be upfront about the dress's condition. If there are imperfections you are aware of, it can save you a lot of trouble down the line if you are honest and open about them with potential buyers, even if you’re worried it will hurt its chances of selling.

Be realistic about listing price. I know you want to make back what you believe this dress to be worth and nothing less, but one way to ensure that your dress is likely to take a while to sell is to make it an expensive dress. The lower the price, the more chance it will be snapped up fast.

Generic Resale Sites

There are plenty of reasons you may choose to sell on a site not exclusively dedicated to the sale and purchase of second hand wedding dresses. You may have sold on one of these sites previously, for instance, and not want to learn a new interface. An advantage is that more people will generally be using these services. A disadvantage is that most of the people using this service will not be looking for a wedding dress, so you may get lost amongst the swarm, and brides-to-be may head to dedicated sites first. However, that does not mean people have not successfully bought and sold wedding dresses on sites like these before.

Depop

Depop is generally a place for under 30s to swap the same pieces of vintage clothing back and forth, but people can and do sell wedding dresses through the app and website.

Bear in mind that depop takes a 10% commission off of every sale, however, there is no fee for the listing itself, and if your item gets returned, Depop will refund the 10% it took. You can get a “Ship with Depop” label if you intend to post through the app, but the cost of that label will be deducted from your take as a shipping cost, and regardless of whether payment goes through Paypal or Depop there is a transaction fee of 2.9% plus £0.30 (although this can vary from region to region).

It’s an easy enough platform to use, with contact between seller and buyer straightforward and easy.

Etsy

Not primarily known for second hand items as opposed to handmade and specialty pieces, contact between seller and buyer on Etsy is similarly straightforward.

Etsy has a listing fee of $0.20 and this fee is subtracted from each item for sale, not each type of item (not that you will have to worry about this, selling a one-off item like a wedding dress). If your dress doesn’t sell in 4 months, Etsy automatically renews a listing for $0.20. Given that you want to sell quickly, that probably won’t be a problem (also when selling something like a wedding dress, pocket change may not be the biggest concern). Etsy takes a 5% transaction fee, and you can also advertise through Etsy, setting your own budget.

eBay

Being the most well-known, eBay is definitely gonna be the site the most people are using, so there’s more chance your dress will be seen. Auctions will also mean that your dress might go for more than you were willing to ask for initially. Be prepared that eBay is known to generally side with the buyer over the seller, so any undisclosed imperfections could come back to bite you later.

For clothes, eBay takes a “final value fee” of 11.9% plus £0.30 per item sold.

Dedicated Websites for Selling Second Hand Wedding Dresses

This option is appealing because the platforms are expressly made for the buying and selling of second hand wedding dresses. A plus to this method is that - unlike more generic sites - all the people looking at your wedding dress will be explicitly looking to buy a second hand wedding dress. There are many sites offering this service, but for ease, we’ve narrowed it down to three recommendations.

Once Wed

This site has been operating since 2008, so have experience you may benefit from, with 40,000 wedding dresses listed on the site. With a “recently sold” section, you can see that brides-to-be are using Once Wed to buy dresses of a variety of different styles and price ranges.

Once Wed takes no commission from the final price of your dress, asking instead for a $19.95 one time listing fee.

If you’re looking to sell other aspects of your wedding, from bridesmaid dresses to bridal accessories, Once Wed can be similarly helpful, with each of these items having a listing fee of $5 per item.

StillWhite

The largest second hand wedding dress website in the UK, StillWhite has over 56,340 dresses currently on sale, and boasts that it has made brides a collective £40,000,000 across their site and app (which has almost 20,000 5 star reviews). It allows you to easily communicate with buyers, and like Once Wed it doesn’t take a commission, having a listing fee of £17. If you want to gain their premium benefits (they will show your dress on their homepage and allow you to include up to 8 photos and 1 video) that will cost a £27 listing fee. Neither of these fees renew. Typical transaction fees via paypal will still apply, as discussed above

Borrowing Magnolia 

This final option, Borrowing Magnolia, markets itself as being part of the second hand wedding dress industry for eco-friendly and sustainability reasons - which makes sense, given that weddings can have a massive detrimental effect on the environment.

A $15 standard listing fee with no commission, the site also offers a $22 premium listing option, which includes the ability to upload 10-20 photos, and your dress being listed on their homepage, as well as their Instagram and Facebook shop listings - which mean your dress is much more likely to be seen by a potential buyer. Either way, Borrowing Magnolia does promise that 40% of your fee will be put into the promoting and marketing of your wedding gown.

Whichever of these sites you use, understand that it may take time to sell your gown. Wedding dresses are a large industry, sure, but they are often once-in-a-lifetime purchases. If speed is of great importance, then decreasing the price of your listing is a great shout, although this profit-cut may dampen your spirits. Dresses in current trends will obviously sell more quickly than others, as will dresses in more common sizes, which is important to recognise.

Selling In Person

If selling online isn’t preferable, then there are plenty of in-person options throughout the UK.  We have collected a handful below. A plus of selling to a physical store is that there will be less selection than on somewhere like eBay, so your dress is more likely to be seen proportionally out of all the available options in a given business, however by existing in a specific and limited physical space, there will probably be less overall eyes on your dress (a wedding dress store also often requires your dress to be professionally cleaned).

Bridal Reloved

Bridal Reloved has 15 stores spread around the United Kingdom - from Glasgow to London to Devon - they frequently refer to themselves as the only chain selling second hand wedding dresses. There are two options for brides looking to sell their dress through the company:

Either they will sell your dress in-store and make a commission off of the sale (the company website does not specify what this commission is), alternatively, they also offer an online selling service for a fee of £25.

The Little Bridal Boutique

The Little Bridal Boutique in South Oxfordshire is a bit pickier when it comes to the dresses they accept, asking that the gowns are less than two years old, clean, in pristine condition, and with minimal alterations.

It is not clear from their website whether they take a commission on sales, nor whether they charge a listing fee.

Your Little Secret Bridal Boutique

From name alone, you could assume that this Surrey-based boutique is merely a slightly more secretive version of the boutique above it in this list. Not quite.

Similar to it, Your Little Secret Bridal Boutique does ask that any dresses are in immaculate condition and professionally cleaned, however they do not appear to have any strict rules about your dress being less than two years old.

While the site is explicit about the fact it will be a commission-based resale, they do not specify what percentage a commission that is.

We hope that one of the methods and options above has helped you make a decision on how to sell your wedding dress and that you are able to do so quickly!

Where to Donate your Wedding Dress

If you’re open to the idea of donating instead of selling your wedding dress, then the organisations below are ones we believe would be well worth supporting.

Brides Do Good

Most of the dresses Brides Do Good sell are new or sample gowns donated by designers, and they can be picky with the dresses they accept. However, should they accept your donation, they will collect your gown from your door at no extra cost to you.

They are an ethical and sustainable organisation that works to end child marriage, help children living in poverty, and empower girls all around the world, with ⅓ of profits supporting these causes. They have already funded the equivalent of almost 2,000,000 school days for children who may not have otherwise had them.

The Red Cross

The international organisation The Red Cross, that offers humanitarian international aid, has a bridal shop in Edinburgh and also sells a range of weddings outfits online and throughout their UK shops. They also accept donations of shoes and bridal accessories, if these are things you are looking to get rid of. Not only would your donation be supporting an organisation that does great work around the world, but you could also be helping someone who may not ordinarily be able to afford a dress like yours.

The Gift of a Wedding

The Gift of a Wedding gives weddings and vow renewals to those with terminal illnesses around the UK, and if you donate your wedding dress to them, you could play a part in helping bring joy to a couple who may not have long left together. They only accept dresses a maximum of three years old, so ensure that before contacting them that your dress matches this criteria.

Cherished Gowns UK / Dresses for Angels

With the incredible work done by these two charities (Cherished Gowns UK & Dresses for Angels), it would feel wrong to exclude either, so while they do similar work, we will be mentioning both. These charities use the wedding dresses donated to them to make beautiful funeral clothes for babies who were stillborn or died not long after being born. These clothes are provided to families free of charge.

For Cherished Gowns UK, your gown can be donated to their preloved bridal boutique, in which case they must be less than 10 years old, in good condition, and you handle postage costs. To be donated to be made into the gowns the charity opens donation windows around March of each year and asks for white or ivory dresses in good condition without full tulle skirts.

Should you be in a position to, these organisations would be very thankful for any donations of wedding dresses. We understand that this is not realistic for everyone, but it would feel remiss to leave out this option, just in case.

Alex x