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Bride? Or clotheshorse?

Fellow brides to be out there, have you noticed that along with all the various wedding-related festivities comes the pressure to buy new clothes? Lots and lots of new clothes?

clueless-1
{Death Wears Diamond Jewellery}

Let’s see, you’ve got the engagement party, the engagement pictures, at least one bridal shower, a bachelorette party, a rehearsal dinner, and for all these you need to look fabulous. Because you are the bride. And all eyes will be on you (oh, and that fellow who’s also involved with the wedding, I believe they call him the groom.).

Now a few new outfits over the course of say, nine months, would usually be no problem for me. Par for the course, actually. But lately I’ve been acting a little, well, cheap.

I’ll admit it! I’m cheap. And the wedding has only exacerbated that quality of mine. As I find myself thinking about bridesmaids gifts and parents gifts and gifts for the groom and all the other little things I’m dolling out the cash for these days, the thought of spending more money on all these new outfits is nerve wracking for me.

For our lovely engagement pictures, yes. That dress is new. So are the shoes. But I felt like I had to get new stuff to achieve the style I was going for for the e-session. But for other things, I’m having trouble coming to terms with spending more money.

Like for example, our family and friends down in Maryland are throwing a big shower for both A and I this weekend, which is so wonderful and I’m so excited to go. But I’ve been brainstorming for weeks what to wear and up until this morning, was still low on ideas. I bought a pair of these lovely Bermuda shorts in white from Martin + Osa (on sale! half off!) a few weeks ago and had since been hunting for a fun summery top to wear with them – with no luck.

I also worried that the Bermuda shorts outfit wasn’t dressy enough, not bride-y, shower-y enough. So I was planning on just wearing one of my regular everyday dresses as a plan B when this morning, as I was getting dressed, I reached all the way back into the depths of my closet and discovered this:

graddres

Behold, the dress I wore once two and half years ago for my graduation from college (pardon the blurry old picture).

Note: the dress I wore once. Two and a half years ago. And pretty much the entire time I had it on, it was covered by a cheap red robe. It’s really cute (which I don’t think you can really tell in this picture but it is) and I got it for a song from Filene’s Basement in downtown Boston (RIP). I always loved this but never found the chance to wear it again, until…

That’s right, until this weekend. I’m resurrecting this baby for the shower tomorrow! I figure it’ll look really adorable with a cardigan and nice sandals. I almost worry that it’s too nice for a shower at my parent’s house but I think I’ll dress it down with the shoes and it will work.

So, lessons learned:
1. You’re probably going to have to buy some new clothes for these various events, but you don’t have to buy new for all of them.
2. Go shopping in your own closet first. You’d be surprised what you can find. And remember that you can always re-arrange old things in new combinations, which is pretty much like buying a new outfit, in my book.
3. If you have to buy, check out used clothing options. I went to an estate sale in my neighborhood last weekend and got a crazy white sequined dress for the bachelorette party (I’m talking crazy. This thing is tight. Very tight. And very short.)
4. If you must buy new, think sale rack and coupons.

Happy shopping!