How to Find a Sustainable Wedding Dress in the UK

Your wedding is something you should be anticipating, excited for, something you almost can’t sleep at the prospect of it. It’s your day. Your friends and family will be there. The person you want to spend the rest of your life with will be there. You’re going to look fantastic.

There’s just one thing that keeps nagging at your mind. That article that you read - or maybe just saw the headline for and then sent it to someone in shock - about the environmental impact of weddings. The waste they generate. The emissions they cause.

Try not to let it overwhelm you. We’ve written previously about how to make your wedding more eco-friendly, about venues that operate sustainably, and now it’s time to handle that one item that you keep thinking about. The wedding dress.

Don’t worry, brides-to-be, it is possible to sustainably source a wedding dress, and look good doing it.

SECOND HAND

I can understand if the notion makes a couple of you wince. I just said this was your day, why am I now suggesting you wear someone else’s dress?

Well, the sustainability of a whole new dress not having to be made aside, what’s so wrong about a second hand wedding dress? It having belonged to someone else first being something that filled them with happiness and confidence at being beautiful walking down the aisle doesn’t mean that you will be any less beautiful wearing it, or that you won’t be filled with the same happiness and confidence. And before you even say it, no one is going to say “hang on, isn’t that the same dress Sandra wore last year?” You’re buying second hand, not borrowing from a friend (although honestly? If you are doing the latter, fairplay to you. Well done saving even more money and time than second hand dresses already do).

If you’re feeling so inclined, after your special day, you can use the below websites to sell your wedding dress on, paying it forward and getting money back in the process. We’ve decided to skip the more general, more obvious ones (your eBays, your Etsys, etc.) and dive straight into the wedding-specific sites.

OnceWed.com

Launched in 2008, Once Wed started as merely an online marketplace for buying and selling second hand wedding dresses, but has since grown into an online publication, that as well as offering brides-to-be around the world the opportunity to buy a wedding dress second hand also has articles upon articles of wedding inspiration to get the marital gears turning, as well as DIY advice. After you’ve bought a beautiful dress and gotten hitched, you can even send your photos to Once Wed for a chance to be featured in their “Real Weddings” section.

StillWhite.com

With over 56,000 second hand gowns currently for sale on a website with almost 20,000 five star reviews, Still White’s varied selection of dresses seems to be doing something right. Even a quick scroll through their site will show you that they have not only a range of styles and sizes, but also dresses for every budget, whether you’re looking to conserve your resources, or splurge on your big day.

BorrowingMagnola.com

Aiming to end the trend of wedding dresses being both the most expensive item in a woman’s wardrobe, but also the only item she’ll only wear once, Borrowing Magnolia believes that a bride’s perfect dress may be waiting untouched at the back of someone else’s cupboard. They market themselves to the environmentally-conscious bride, and if that sounds like you, why not let them show you what they have on offer?

NEW, BUT SUSTAINABLE

Someone else’s dress isn’t the only option for the eco-minded bride, and more and more businesses are sprouting up offering dresses where the bride, and not the environment, is the only one that pays for it. Sustainable fashion is becoming so readily available, and these sites are here to bring that sustainability to your special day.

IndiebrideLondon.co.uk

For the “the free-spirited and environmentally conscious brides” (oh hey! That’s you!) Indiebride London combines styles of bohemian (of which Hidden Botanics customers will be well acquainted) and vintage. These dresses are handcrafted and made to order in their London studio, meaning that what you wear down the aisle will be uniquely yours as well as being made of sustainable materials, with Indiebride London promising that brides will know not just who made the dress, but where the materials they used came from. Any cutoffs from the dresses they make are either used in their range of sashes, veils and headpieces or sent to be used in projects by students or other organisations. Never wasted and thrown away.

SisterOrganics.co.uk

Not only are Sister Organics’ dresses custom, made to order pieces boasting varied and unique styles but they’re made in the UK with beautiful organic and sustainable fabrics. They make dresses for weddings of varying types, whether your wedding will be a special occasion, a bit more a casual affair, although Natalie - the one-woman-show running the Sister Organics, says that the dresses’ simple and feminine style is best suited to outdoor, festival, and casual weddings.

RollingInRoses.co.uk

Founded in York in 2012, Rolling In Roses makes it clear that as well as being sustainable (or “minimal impact, maximum love”) and made with eco-friendly, organic, or recycled fabrics, their intention was always to make inclusive wedding dresses for any type of bride, catering to every personality, hair type, body type, skin colour, sexuality, gender identity. All will be able to order their dream dress, custom made, from a company that at every level tries to make the ethical choice - even who they bank with!

If you’re able to find the perfect sustainably-sourced wedding dress - and we hope you are - why not browse Hidden Botanics for a bouquet or flower crown? We sell beautiful dried flower pieces for a range of personalities - you can even order custom - and we are committed to becoming as sustainable as we can! You can find out Etsy shop here.

Alex x