Something Old? Everything Old! How I Thrifted My Entire Wedding Outfit

The biggest tragedy of my wedding planning was when someone else bought my wedding dress. Or, more specifically, when someone bought the Valentino dress I was obsessively looking at on vintage dealer Shrimpton Couture‘s website and was considering mine — even though my then-boyfriend Gustavo was months away from proposing. When I saw that the dress had sold, my heart broke into a million pieces.

So when Gustavo popped the question a few months later on a mountaintop in Mallorca, I wasted no time setting up alerts on eBay, Vestiaire Collective and The RealReal for white dresses in my size. I read about it two years earlier Chloe Kernaghan’s beautiful Azzaro wedding dress and since then I’ve been following a handful of vintage designer boutiques on Instagram, waiting for the moment when I’d start hunting for a treasure of my own.

Shortly after my search for vintage bridal fashion, I realized two things. One, I had to be realistic about what I liked and what looked good on me, instead of just looking for certain brands. Even though I was drawn to silk slip dresses and form-fitting strapless dresses, I felt most comfortable in higher necklines and A-line skirts. Second, while I enjoyed looking at dresses online, in reality I had to try things on. It was this last insight that prompted me to book a vintage bridal appointment with Happy Islandswhich had just opened an outpost in New York.

The night before the appointment, a wave of anxiety started. I’ve done vintage shopping before. With the ever-changing inventory, it can be completely hit and miss. This shopping trip came with an added layer of pressure, because I had turned it into a full-on pilgrimage: My mom and I flew from Michigan for the $280 appointment. What if I couldn’t find anything I liked? Or, on the other hand, what if I did? This would be my first bridal appointment and while I wasn’t 100% sure I was ready to buy a dress at the first place I went, I knew it was necessary. As the Valentino dress taught me: good vintage waits for no one.

My mother and I came to the Happy Isles showroom, which looked like Carrie Bradshaw’s closet, only better: electric with nerves. The two incredibly friendly sales associates immediately put us at ease and the overflowing racks of cotton candy-like tulle made it clear that a lack of options wouldn’t be a problem. I filled my dressing room with 10 beautiful dresses to try, and as soon as the sales associate pulled up the zipper on an ivory midi dress with pleated shoulder pads, divine pearl cuffs and a lace skirt, I knew this was the dress for me. The added bonus? The dress didn’t even need any changes.