I ditched my fancy wedding dress for a $10 frock from Kmart

I wasn’t one of those little girls who dreamed of what their wedding dress would be like.

But if I had been, I probably wouldn’t have envisaged myself in a $15 Kmart sundress on the big day.

Sometimes life throws you curveballs.

That’s just part of the fun.

My partner and I had been together for eight years when I fell pregnant unexpectedly.

Over the years, countless people had asked when we would be tying the knot, and I had always changed the subject or run away.

arriage wasn’t something that was particularly important to me.

But when I found out I was going to be a mother, something shifted. I decided that I would in fact like to have the same last name as my partner and our child, and to make it “official”.

Finding the perfect dress

After my partner proposed, we had a small window of opportunity to organize the wedding. Luckily, my mom and sister were amazing and pretty much did everything, while I continued to work full time and battled morning sickness.

I couldn’t help but feel a little bit excited when the day arrived to go shopping for the wedding dress. Initially, I thought something very simple and elegant might be best. 

However, after trying on a few different styles, I ended up choosing something completely different: an A-Line ivory wedding dress with a sweetheart neckline, crystal beading and longish train. It was spectacular, and so was the price tag!

When the big day finally arrived and I put on my dress, I felt like a million dollars. It had a lace-up back, so that it could accommodate my expanding belly. By that point I was over five months pregnant.

The service was magic. We said ‘I do’ at a vineyard and winery on Tamborine Mountain on the Gold Coast, surrounded by family and friends.

I ditched the dress for a $10 Kmart one

Everything was going well until the speeches began and I started to feel really unwell. The dress was too tight and I felt like I was going to pass out. It was the middle of summer in Queensland and hot as hell, which didn’t help.

I fled to the bathroom and asked my sister-in-law to help me get the dress off. As soon as she unlaced the back, I felt so much more comfortable. The dress had been so tight, it had left a mark across my baby belly.

There I was, sitting on the toilet in my underwear, wondering what to do. I could hear my sister, who was the MC, making jokes and asking where I had disappeared to?

My sister-in-law knocked again and I told her there was no way I could put the $1,434 wedding dress back on. I asked her to check my parents’ car for something else.

All she could find was a very simple $10 sundress from Kmart. I think it still had sand on it from the beach earlier in the week.

I slipped it on and emerged from the bathroom, feeling a little silly. 

It ended up being the best decision I could have made because I felt completely comfortable for the rest of the evening. I ended up dancing and dancing until the venue closed.

It was one of the happiest, most memorable nights of my life, Kmart dress at all.

Often brides get so caught up in the details and making sure that everything is perfect, that they forget to actually enjoy the moment. 

At the end of the day, your wedding is not about how fancy the table centerpieces or the favors are, or even about how stunning your dress is. It’s about celebrating your love story and making memories that will last a lifetime.