Thrifty Wedding Dresses from Etsy: 6 Dresses Under $1K

I'm all about living on a budget and when it comes to planning a wedding, I don't see it any differently. After all, I want to start my married life debt-free and well, as not broke as possible!  That's where cheaper wedding dresses come in.

Etsy is always a treasure trove of unique items in any price range.  Unfortunately, there's an increasing amount of crap to wade through, but there are some real gems to be found if you look.

So, I present to you.... six wedding dresses from Etsy under $1,000!

Dress 1: Lace and Chiffon Wedding Dress with Beaded Cap Sleeves by Grace Loves Lace, $902.39

This Australian designer is fairly well known off of Etsy and to get one of her beautiful designs for less than $1k seems like a deal to me. I love the skirt and pretty sleeves. Check it out here.

I mean, look at those sleeves!

Dress 2: Lace and Chiffon Wedding Dress by LaceBridal, $259.00


I'm in love with the gorgeous top and skirt of this dress... and the price can't be beat! Check it out here.

THRIFTY WEDDING DRESSES: Neiman Marcus

When I think of Neiman Marcus, "thrify" isn't exactly the first word that comes to mind.  So I was super surprised that while browsing through their formal dress section (just for the fun of it), I came across a $350 dress that looked almost exactly like a Pnina Tornai dress (from Kleinfeld's of Say Yes to the Dress fame).   

If you're not familiar, here's an example of one of Pnina Tornai's dresses:

Pnina Tornai

Most definitely not my style, for the record.  Still though, I was pretty excited when I found something like that for so cheap.  It wasn't this exact dress and I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture, but here's a similar one:

Jovani 1531

This dress is no longer available online, but inspired by my find, I starting hunting through the Neiman Marcus website for other evening dresses that could work as wedding gowns.  It's no secret that tacking "wedding" onto anything instantly increases the price, but it's still shocking how many thousands of dollars cheaper white evening gowns can be. (Edited to add: While hunting around the website, I did notice that some of these dresses were also included in a "bridal" section, but I don't think these were manufactured to be bridal gowns, hence the lower price.)