A bride found a $25 wedding dress and turned it into the gown of her dreams

Bradley and Jennings, both 26, first met in middle school when Bradley dated Jennings's friend.

They didn't keep in touch when her middle school relationship ended, but they both attended the University of Arkansas for college.

"We didn't know that each other even went there until our junior year, and then we happened to meet in a bar," Bradley, who now lives in Berkeley, California with her husband, told Business Insider.

Soon after their serendipitous meeting, they became an item and were engaged by December 2022.

Bradley, who works in social media marketing, wanted their wedding to have a vintage, Italian feel.

"I'm big on vintage," Bradley told BI. "I just love antiques and thrifting, so I wanted to bring that personality to the wedding."

She also hoped her wedding dress would fit that vibe and daydreamed about finding a one-of-a-kind dress.

"I'd always thought growing up it would be cool if I designed my own wedding dress and made it, but I can't sew anything," Bradley said.

She decided to shop for a dress at boutiques, as many brides do, but struggled to find a gown that fit her vision and budget.

In September 2023, Bradley was visiting her family in Texas, and her sister-in-law, who had also just gotten engaged, wanted to go thrifting to look at wedding dresses.

"We just went to a thrift store in the Dallas area, and we were just kind of looking at the wedding dresses and messing around," Bradley said. "I didn't go there with the intention of finding one."

"I just started pulling them out for her to put on, and then we both were like, 'hello,'" she said of her reaction to pulling out a dropped-waist ball gown.

The 100% silk dress was in a plastic bag and shoved into a corner of the thrift store. Still, Bradley saw its potential.

The off-the-shoulder gown featured floral rosettes on the neckline, a dropped waist silhouette that formed a point on the bodice, and a full skirt.

Bradley said the gown featured the silhouette she had been gravitating toward when she researched dresses.

"The structure of it was too good to pass up, and it fit perfectly," she said.

She decided to buy the dress, especially after seeing its price tag.

"It was only $25," she said. "So I was like, 'What do I have to lose at this point?'"

The dress was stained from wear on the skirt, and it was yellowing under the armpits.

Bradley got the dress professionally cleaned, but the flowers on the neckline did not survive the process and the yellowing did not fade.

"It lightened a little bit, but it wasn't gonna completely come out," she said.

Bradley started working with a seamstress in Berkeley in December 2022 to prepare her dress for her wedding.

She considered taking fabric from the skirt to cover the staining on the bodice, but she didn't want to lose any of the skirt's fullness.

"I went to a fabric store in San Francisco," Bradley said. "I brought one of the flowers with me, so I was trying to match it the best that I could in a silk fabric that they had."

She found a fabric that was almost identical to the rest of the dress.

"I bought a yard or two of that fabric, and that's what they used to cover the entire top," she said.

The new fabric covered the bodice, making it look new.

Bradley also brought the neckline down a bit once the flowers were removed, and she added a lace trim, which she also bought at the fabric store.

"I had debated doing lace over the whole bodice, but then I just added it peeking out around the top of the dress," Bradley said. "That was really nice."

She also added rope trim to the bottom of the bodice to frame and accentuate the point at her waist, sourcing the rope from the same fabric store.

Bradley said she spent around $75 in fabric on the dress.

Bradley eventually found the perfect veil from Etsy, but it was stark white.

"I was worried about the color of my dress because it's not white," Bradley said. "It's kind of more cream."

"But the Etsy seller hand-dyed it for me to match the pictures that I sent her, and it ended up matching it almost identically," she told BI.

"I was just kind of indecisive about it," Bradley said of why she decided to add detachable sleeves to the dress.

"If I changed my mind on the wedding day, I could take them off," she said.

She wore the sleeves during the ceremony and some of her reception, but removed them for the dancing portion of the evening.

Bradley's dress featured a corset bodice, which she said ended up providing clues about its history.

"I think it had two lives before me," she said. "It was handmade, no labeling or anything. It had metal boning in it, which they don't do anymore, but then there were two things of boning in the back that were plastic that someone added in."

"I think it had its original life, and then someone added more boning, and maybe they added the flowers," Bradley added. "I love both of its journeys."

The bodice was lined with pearl buttons, which gave the back some texture.

But the skirt was simple, and after it was cleaned, Bradley left it as was.

Bradley told BI she loved pearl drops in dresses she saw online, and she thought a pearl pin would be a perfect addition to her wedding gown.

"I didn't want to add something too overwhelming," she said. "We had talked about lace sleeves and gloves and a lot of other elements. But then it just became too much for one eye to look at."

She thought a drop pearl pin, which she sourced on Etsy for $18, would strike the ideal balance.

"I just thought it was the perfect little touch to add something more to the bodice and give it that regal look without completely covering it in pearls or lace," Bradley said.

Bradley said both the pin and the rope fabric on the dress were among her favorite parts of the gown.

"I feel like both of them added more of that texture so the dress wasn't visually as flat," she said.

"I love the dress, but the second I put the drop pearl on it, I was like, 'Okay!'" she added. "It really took it to the next level."

Bradley said she struggled to find the right shoes to go with her dress.

"It was hard to find shoes that matched the tone of the dress," she said, adding that she was also encumbered by the fact that the dress was perfectly hemmed when she found it.

"I couldn't wear really tall heels because it would be too short, so I had to find a short heel that also matched the color and match the look," she said.

She ended up buying the Studio Josephina Rosette Heels from Anthropologie, which had rosettes on the toe.

"It's one big flower out of the same silk material sitting on the top of them, and they were little kitten heels," she said. "I felt like it was cute, tying back to the flowers that were on the top of the dress originally."

Bradley kept her wedding jewelry simple, only adding pearl earrings to her ensemble.

The earrings, which she bought on Etsy, had a vintage look, matching the tone of the rest of her bridal look.

"They're dainty but still matched the vibe of the dress just to pull the look together," Bradley said.

The dress was finally complete after a deep cleaning and seven appointments with a seamstress.

"I felt happy with my choice," Bradley said, saying that she was proud she customized a dress for her wedding.

"I was really excited to be in it. I felt really pretty and gorgeous," Bradley added. "I felt like I had someone's piece of history with me on my wedding day."

Bradley said the gown's alterations cost $2,912. After sourcing the fabric, buying the pearl pin, altering it, and getting the dress professionally cleaned, the gown cost her $3,330 in total.

Her budget was $4,000, so she still spent less than she hoped she would.

Jennings, who works in tech sales, didn't see Bradley's dress until their wedding day, though he knew his bride-to-be was working to customize it.

When he finally saw it, he was so proud he told everyone about her work on the dress.

"My husband was going around after we got married, and we were talking to everybody," she said. "He would just be like, 'She designed her wedding dress!'"

Jennings wore a custom-made brown suit with a green tie to their wedding instead of black, which also fit the feel of their nuptials.

"It almost felt a little vintage," Bradley said of her husband's suit. "It felt a little unique and wasn't as typical. It looked really good up there."

Jennings and Bradley selected Gramm Vineyards in Sonoma County for their wedding.

Bradley said they picked the venue because it had the Italian feel they hoped to capture on their wedding day.

"We actually originally planned to have our wedding in Europe, but because of family reasons, we decided to do it in the States," Bradley said. "So I was just trying to match that energy."

"We were very intentional with keeping it around 50 to 60 guests just so that we could have that intimate feeling with everybody," Bradley told BI of her wedding. "I feel like that was like the best thing we possibly could have done."

"We got to spend enough time with everybody and also with each other and have fun," she said. "It just felt so wholesome and like everybody was truly there to celebrate us and felt genuinely very happy for us."

Jennings and Bradley's touches were all over the wedding as they thrifted much of the decor, including the china and candlesticks they used for their tablescapes.

They also made some of the floral arrangements for the day, which was photographed by FotoGems, themselves.

The couple rented some decor from Heirloom Events, and Dragonfly Floral provided flowers to line the aisle during the ceremony.

Libations Unlimited provided drinks for the event, while Di Filippo Wood-Fired Pizza catered for the wedding.

She swapped her custom gown for Aston Bridal's JAC dress, which retails for $593.42.

The strapless dress had a corset bodice, bubble skirt, and pearl detailing on the back.

"I just wanted something fun to dance in and jump around," Bradley said of why she wore a second look.

She also paired platform shoes and lace gloves with the look, allowing her to show off another side of her style.

Bradley has been reflecting on her process of transforming her wedding dress, which she documented on TikTok.

"A lot of people told me you're crazy when I first found it," she said of her dress. "If you believe in the dress and you see it, definitely go with your gut."

If you want to customize a dress, she says it's best to start looking for one early.

"It takes time to decide what you want," she said. "If you're doing that vintage dress journey, as soon as you get engaged start looking. It's like thrifing. You never know what you're going to get."

Bradley told BI that brides who want to customize vintage dresses should consider the gown's original state when making changes to it.

"Be open to flowing with the style of the dress that you pick," Bradley said, saying it can be a mistake to try to blend too many different styles of dress.

"Understand the style of your dress and lean into all of those elements, and it'll end up being beautiful regardless of the direction you go because it's just what it's meant to showcase," she added.

Bradley, who has been married for a couple of months, shared what she loves most about her new husband.

"I love his laugh," she said of Jennings. "I feel like he has a very infectious laugh. It's very goofy."

"We're very goofy together, and it's just very genuine," she said.

If you wore an eye-catching wedding dress and want to talk to Business Insider for a story, contact sgrindell@businessinsider.com.