After a relationship of several years, Cat Wilkinson, Professor of Education at John Moores University in Liverpool, decided to marry her boyfriend Mike, and although everyone would expect the big wedding with guests and a dream dress, she opted for something cheaper. The 32-year-old teacher found the perfect dress for her one day after she got engaged and did it at a charity shop. In white lace, with long sleeves and fitted to the body, Cat knew that the Sue Rider store in New York was the one to buy what she would wear to her wedding.The Daily Mail said that Wilkinson visited several vintage stores but could not find anything, until that the $40 piece convinced her and she decided to buy it without hesitation.
She was later told that it was from the 1950s and was most likely made by hand. Cat herself altered a few things on her dress, she wanted to add buttons on the back and on the sleeves, as well as some floral details on the front. As her story became quite well known, Cat shared a little behind the scenes on social media. “The day Mike proposed to me, he took me to York for a night. The next day I was looking at the charity shops (which I often do) and saw the dress in one of the windows.It was a two-story charity shop, offering second-hand clothing. I was upstairs and called Mike to tell him not to come up because he was trying something on me and asked if the store volunteer could come up and take my picture,” she wrote. She also declared in Metro that she never imagined that her dress would fit so well, but even the lady who worked in the store told her that everything indicated that her dress was made for her. Her touch-ups and changes cost $240, so in the end, her wedding dress cost less than $300. Not bad for a used dress.
