The Very Fun and Mean­ingful #7:    Heritage: Is there a dress in your family that you would like to wear? You can wear it as is, or modernize it (if that’s allowed!). There is some­thing wonderful about wearing a dress with history.

Tip: Talk to your family. Is there someone (at least vaguely shaped like you) who had a memo­rable and wonderful dress? Is there a tradi­tion in your family of wearing someone else’s dress? Do you want to start one? You’re going to have to pay for cleaning and alter­ations, but this might be just the ticket!

Fabu­lous Way #6 to choose a wedding gown:

Go Vintage: You can look in specialty boutiques or on line. If there’s a certain look you’ve always wanted, you just have to start looking for the silhou­ette! You might want to look in someone’s attic!

Tip: If there’s an era and its clothing that make your heart beat faster, go find your­self a gown from that time. If you’re a dili­gent on-​​line kinda girl this will be a great way to search. Some of us (ahem) are not. And we’ll do better befriending the owner of a vintage store who might be able to help us find the perfect gown!

Tip #5.    Resale: On line and in stores. Someone I know got the most amazing dress from, are you ready for this, the Salva­tion Army. She had to have it cut down and even had it remade, just slightly. She paid $200 for a name brand dress and $150 for alter­ations. People were gaga! Nope, she wasn’t too proud! BravoBride.com is doing some really inter­esting sales on line.

Tip: You need to be an incred­ibly dili­gent shopper if you want to do this… but you can do it! And some­times it’s worth it to step outside your comfort zone for the savings. And you can prob­ably find a friend to help you. Friends actu­ally like helping you with your wedding. Some people like plan­ning weddings! Go figure!