Zaria Anderson, 28, had a vision for her wedding day: a beautiful gown that wouldn’t break the bank. She and her husband, Sahil Lalji, 27, decided to elope in July 2024, with a more intimate celebration on September 28, 2024. For Zaria, that meant finding a creative solution to avoid the high costs typically associated with wedding dresses.
In October 2023, Zaria’s sister attended a Bridal Expo hosted by the thrift store Vinnies Waverley in Canberra, Australia. The event featured discounted wedding gowns from a now-closed bridal store, and while Zaria couldn’t make it to the expo herself, her sister was on a mission to find the perfect dress. Facetiming her sister for approval proved challenging due to Zaria’s busy schedule, but her sister made the call and purchased a $300 gown she felt would work.
Though the dress wasn’t a perfect fit at first, with lace detailing and excessive tulle that Zaria didn’t want, the silhouette and material were exactly what she envisioned. “For $300, I was happy to give it a go,” Zaria says.
What followed was a bit of wedding dress magic. Zaria turned to seamstress Kathryn Lemin, who transformed the gown into her dream dress. With $600 worth of alterations, the final cost of the dress came to $900, an amount that Zaria says was worth every penny.
The transformation of the gown shocked those who saw it on her big day. “Everyone’s jaw hit the floor when they saw the final result,” Zaria shares. The dress was a stunning success, and the look on her husband’s face when he first saw her was priceless. “He cried as soon as he saw me, and again when I walked down the aisle,” she says.
The intimate ceremony took place at Zaria’s family property in the Blue Mountains, where only 60 guests—mostly close family and friends—witnessed their vows. While the bridesmaids knew about the dress beforehand, the groomsmen were blown away by the transformation.
Zaria’s journey to her dream wedding dress serves as a reminder that creating a memorable wedding doesn’t always mean spending extravagant amounts of money. “We really wanted our wedding day to be special, focusing on love and laughter, and didn’t want to spend hundreds of thousands,” she says, expressing how happy she was with her final choice.
