Courtney Soberal is originally from Michigan, but has lived in Los Angeles for five years. She is currently a preschool teacher and college student at CSU Dominguez Hills, working toward a degree in Child Development. Courtney and her husband met on Tinder, bonding over Taco Tuesday nights, and eventually tying the knot in 2018. They hope to expand their family with a puppy very soon.
Call me cliché, but after my now-husband proposed, we almost immediately knew how and where we wanted to exchange our vows: an intimate beach ceremony in Hawaii. Just like many other young couples, we also quickly realized that a dream destination wedding can come with a nightmare price tag, so we wanted to figure out ways to cut other costs, particularly with our bridal fashion.
Did you know that the average cost of a wedding dress is $1,631? If my husband and I wanted to say aloha to our new life together, I knew I couldn’t spend anything near that price for one dress. I also didn’t want my bridesmaids to have to invest in a dress with a staggering retail price when they were already jet-setting across the Pacific.
This is where Poshmark comes in. I had been using the app for nearly two years when my wedding rolled around, and had ample success buying and selling clothes and accessories on the app as a side hustle, so it was really a no-brainer to browse the platform for bridal looks. I started sifting through their millions of new-with-tags (NWT) and pre-loved listings in hopes of finding my bridal party’s looks, and of course, the beachy glam wedding dress of my tropical dreams.
In reality, I had already found the perfect dress, but it had an unfathomable retail price tag (it would have cost the same amount as two round-trip tickets to Hawaii, which was something I couldn’t justify). After about two weeks of searching on the Poshmark app, I found the exact same dress NWT in my size for ONLY $200 (pro-tip: buy one size up if you’re debating because you’ll likely get it altered anyway and will want the fabric). It was delivered to me in a few days, brand new and beautifully wrapped. My only added expense was getting a few alterations done.
Inspired by my wedding dress haul, my bridesmaids and I went on a wine-fueled shopping spree for the rest of the bridal party dresses. We found two flower girl dresses for $40 a piece and three bridesmaids dresses for $75 each in a single evening. Again, all of these finds were new and wrapped better than a department store would wrap your Christmas shopping. And we looked incredible, if I do say so myself.
Thanks to the profits that I made from my Poshmark side hustle and the discounted prices of our apparel (an estimated $4,000 in savings), I was able to set aside about $6,000 for wedding expenses. My hubby and I were able to comfortably pay for the intimate, tropical wedding of our dreams in Hawaii AND a reception back in California (where we live) for our extended family and friends. At our California ceremony, I even wore a second dress that I bought on Poshmark for $200 (NWT, originally $1,600).
But it gets even better: after the wedding shenanigans were over, I sold everything back on Poshmark for the original Poshmark-listed prices, meaning I sold my $200 dress for $200 (disclaimer: Poshmark takes 20% of each sale so my total earnings in this case was ~$160). But still!
Moral of the story: don’t let anyone tell you that BHLDN or Vera Wang are your only options. There are some incredibly beautiful gowns available for less than half the price on resale platforms like Poshmark. Happy shopping!
Images: Courtney Soberal (4)