A wedding is almost always an expensive undertaking, but one savvy bride has revealed how she saved thousands of pounds on her wedding gown.
Alice Bolster, 30, from London, who has been buying secondhand for most of her life, urged brides-to-be to check Vinted before splurging on a high-end dress after she found her ‘dream’ Vivienne Westwood gown on the resale app.
Not only did it fit her like an ‘absolute glove’, the dress was heavily discounted from its original price – down to £2,500 from £6,000.
Alice said she also gave her bridesmaids £30 each to find a secondhand outfit for her wedding – with most finding their dresses on the popular secondhand fashion app.
Explaining that she has always loved pre-loved fashion, Alice shared that she had her heart set on getting a secondhand wedding dress from the second she started planning her wedding.
Alice, who married her now-husband George Bolster last June, spent a long time curating a Pinterest board of antique and vintage style ideas while hunting for her perfect gown.
She ended up buying a secondhand £700 Charlie Brear dress – originally worth £2,200 – from a charity bridal store but still wasn’t sure it was ‘the one’.
In the meantime, Alice continued to look on Vinted and couldn’t believe it when she found a her ‘dream’ Vivienne Westwood dress that retails for around £5,000 to £6,000 when new.
A wedding is almost always an expensive undertaking, but one savvy bride has revealed how she saved thousands on her ‘dream’ Vivienne Westwood gown. Pictured: Alice Bolser and her now-husband George Bolster on their wedding day
Alice on her wedding day in the Vivienne Westwood gown she managed to score for £2,500 – down from £6,000
Alice grew up with her mum, Ruth Darby, 63, who advocated for secondhand and vintage fashion while she was growing up. She is pictured here looking radiant in her Westwood bridal dress
She couldn’t believe her luck when the seller agreed to sell Alice the dress for £2,500 – meaning she got a £3,500 discount.
The graphic designer from Teddington said: ‘I never felt it was an option to get a new wedding dress. It wouldn’t have felt authentic. I would have felt guilty.
‘I clicked on wedding dresses and put in the brand in as Vivienne Westwood and this one came up for £2,800
‘I thought “Oh my god, I love it so much”.
‘I messaged asking about measurements and asked “Would you do it for £2,500?”‘ Alice continued. ‘It’s literally my dream dress. It just fit like an absolute glove.
‘It was meant to be.’
Alice grew up with her mum, Ruth Darby, 63, who advocated for secondhand and vintage fashion while she was growing up.
‘She’d be grumpy with me if I had an ASOS order arrive,’ Alice esxpained, referring to the fast fashion retail giant.
Alice also gave her bridesmaids £30 to buy their dresses for her wedding on the resale app
Alice’s bridesmaids all picked their outfits from Vinted
Alice now shops primarily pre-loved herself and her wardrobe is 95 per cent secondhand – comprising finds from car boot sales, charity shops, and Vinted and Depop.
In October 2021, she set up her own business We Go Full Circle where she sells vintage pieces she finds and styles.
When her now-husband, George, also 30, a consultant, proposed in June 2023, Alice knew she wanted to find a secondhand wedding dress.
Alice set herself a top budget of £2,500 to £3,000 but initially struggled to find the ideal dress for anything less than £4,000.
‘I kept torturing myself looking on Vinted,’ she continued, until she stumbled upon the Vivienne Westwood design last January – six months before her and George’s wedding.
She said: ‘I knew I loved it. I had a vision.
‘It fit perfectly,’ Alice continued, adding, ‘It was quite a steal.’
Alice’s mum, who works in Oxfam, wore a 1920s vintage blouse and green satin trousers that she already owned for the ceremony.
Alice now shops primarily pre-loved herself and her wardrobe is 95 per cent secondhand – comprising finds from car boot sales, charity shops, and Vinted and Depop
Her dad, Andrew Darby, 65, a retired accountant, wore a suit he has had since the 1990s.
Reflecting on wearing the wedding dress for her vows, Alice said: ‘It just felt like it was the one – the one I dreamed of.
‘It made me feel special and beautiful.’
Alice is now looking into renting her dress so others can wear it – but hasn’t quite made up her mind yet.
The resale app isn’t just great for scoring big discounts on premium and one-of-a-kind designer buys; Vinted can also help users rake in thousands of pounds by selling garments from their own closets.
Chloe Chandler, who is from the UK, often shares Vinted fashion hauls she has bought with her 18,000 TikTok followers – and she has also had a lot of success selling on the app.
Chloe, who has over 500 five-star reviews, revealed she buys and sells on the pre-loved clothing app every day and has made £4,415.34.
Offering up some advice for those who want a quick sale, the 24-year-old highlighted the importance of updating your bio with a picture so people trust you are legitimate.
Alice’s girlfriends on the bride’s big day last June
When transacting on Vinted, she explained, it’s crucial to check the account you’re buying or selling to because of the rise in the number of ‘spam accounts’ on the app.
She said: ‘The first thing that you shouldn’t be doing on Vinted is not checking accounts.
‘I call this “account vetting” and if I’m buying or selling to somebody, I will go to their account and check their reviews, check their bio, check everything that there is to do with their account.
‘If something feels a little bit dodgy, then I just either don’t buy from them or I don’t sell to them,’ Chloe continued.
Meanwhile she also claimed spraying perfume on your clothes before posting them is a big mistake.
‘I’m such a strong believer that you should just leave the item, don’t do anything with it like that because people have allergies, people have sensory issues, some people might not like the smell of your perfume,’ she shared.
‘It’s also a waste of your own perfume as well, don’t waste your nice perfume on your Vinted items, just leave it, honestly.
‘And if you think your item smells, warn the buyer. I would much rather somebody say that to me than absolutely drown it in perfume.’
Meanwhile, another pro Vinted seller, Hannah Bevington – who has made £6,000 from the app – urged fellow users not to undervalue the price of their items, while sharing her own tips to maximise earnings.
In a clip posted on TikTok, she said that, despite the app’s reputation for cheap sells, you must know the value of your item and price it accordingly.
‘Stop selling things for £10 on Vinted,’ Hannah said.
‘Even my friends do this. They’ll have an item which is worth something like £40 and they list it for a tenner.
‘What will happen is someone will offer them £8 because the person who’s buying the item thinks ‘oh, they’re just selling it for a tenner and clearly desperate for money’.’
Vinted has a feature that allows buyers to make an offer of up to 40 per cent less than the original asking price.
This means that pricing items according to their value, and even leaving some wiggle room to accept lower offers, will pay off.
‘You should only be accepting offers that are ten to 15 per cent of what you put it on for,’ Hannah said, urging buyers to be patient.
‘If they don’t buy it, that’s okay. Sometimes it can take months for certain items to go but people will pay it – trust me.’
Although the difference in price could seem marginal, it could amount to an extra few hundred pounds by the end of the year.
