Green Bride Short-List: Bridesmaid Dresses
Kim Le photography for RecycledBride.com.
How many bridesmaids’ dresses are sitting in the back of your closet? If you’re like most of us, the answer is “too many!” With over two million weddings per year in the United States and an average of four to five bridesmaids per wedding, about eight million bridesmaids’ dresses are purchased annually. And over 80% of these dresses are worn once and discarded—no matter how many times the well-meaning bride says, “You’ll totally wear this again!”
Wearing a dress once isn’t just wasteful; it’s expensive. With bridesmaids dress costs averaging from $150 to $400 a frock, wouldn’t it be nice to save cash, the landfill and leave extra space in your closet for the clothes you really love? Now you can. Little Borrowed Dress is the Netflix of bridesmaids dresses, letting ‘maids to rent their wedding-day attire for as little as $75. It’s a genius concept, truly revolutionizing the way we look at bridesmaid’s dresses. After all, men have been renting tuxedos for years—why shouldn’t we have the freedom to rent and return?
LBD’s line of gorgeous, colorful bridesmaids frocks to flatter any figure, and with trunk shows nationwide, you can try before you borrow. After the wedding is over, simply drop your dress in a prepaid envelope and put it in the mail. Reduce, reuse, recycle and get the pink section out of our wardrobes? Sign us up!
Little Borrowed Dress (rentals from $75)
WEEK OF 6.7.11 ONE ECOSTILETTO SUBSCRIBER WILL WIN A $100 TOWARDS A LITTLE BORROWED DRESS RENTAL!
Want more? Our essential green bride guide to rings, accessories, shoes, bridesmaid dresses and gifts might just sweep $1,400 in swag down your aisle. Check back here next week!
Tracy DiNunzio is the founder and CEO of RecycledBride.com, the world’s largest wedding marketplace. The site promotes resale as a sustainable action, encouraging brides and their friends to buy and sell new and gently used wedding dresses and other wedding items. She also runs RecycledTyke.com and the forthcoming RecycledStyle.com. Tracy is a regular editorial contributor to various publications on the topic of green weddings, and also works as a business consultant for sustainable web startups.
