A bride who tried on nearly 60 wedding dresses without finding ‘the one’ discovered a $25 thrift shop dream dress – and shared the creative journey of how she refurbished it for her big day. For Adrian Bradley, 26, from Berkley, California, thrifting a wedding dress was never her original plan – though it had always been her childhood dream to make her own wedding dress. Adrian, like the majority of brides, had instead settled on booking in wedding dress fittings at different boutiques, but as she tried on dress after dress, Adrian felt the magic simply wasn't there. Given the finances involved in such a purchase, she said she also felt a little pressured, only to then settle on a dress from a designer based in Los Angeles. Adrian was about to send the deposit, but a gut feeling told her to hold off and wait until she’d paid a visit to North Dallas, where she used to live. Accompanied by her sister-in-law, who she has been thrifting with on many occasions, Adrian visited one of their favorite resale spots, where she used to find home decor items. On a whim, Adrian headed to a section of the store that contained wedding dresses, where she found a garment with the exact cut she was looking for – and only $25. Adrian had a few concerns, such as some discoloration and fraying, but for $25, she thought, there was nothing to lose. The bride-to-be initially put the challenge off for a few months, but having cleaned the dress, she then realized the task she was facing. She bounced ideas back and forth with her grandma and headed to various stores to gather swatches. Slowly but surely, the 26-year-old's design came to life, with Adrian adding silk to match the skirt, roping around the waist, and a pearl drop to make the dress truly unique. Then, on June 22, at Gramm Vineyard, in Sonoma County Wine Country, California, Adrian was ready to show off her creation.
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00:00I had already tried on nearly 60 dresses, and none of them really felt right.
00:05There was always just something missing.
00:06I just felt like the magic wasn't really there.
00:09After getting engaged, all Adrienne wanted was to say yes to the dress, except…
00:15A lot of the places we were going to, I mean the dresses, though they were beautiful and
00:19stunning just weren't exactly what I was looking for.
00:23She almost bought one of them too, but her gut told her the one was still out there waiting
00:30I was visiting family and my sister-in-law, and I went to one of our favorite thrift stores
00:34that was in the area, and I wasn't even originally looking for a dress.
00:39And then we pulled this one out, and it had just the exact silhouette that I had pictured
00:44for myself and for the dresses that I was trying to find.
00:47The flowers were destroyed, the underarms had staining.
00:50I did just like a funny little video just trying to see what it looked like, and FaceTimed
00:56my mom, who was like, girl, no.
00:59She was like, that has so many stains on it.
01:01It ended up being on sale for $25, so I was like, what do I have to lose?
01:05So she cleaned it, got some fabric together and designed it, then took it to a seamstress
01:10to finish the look.
01:11I added silk to match the skirt, roping around the waist, and a pearl drop in the center
01:17to just really make it unique.
01:19And months later, she still hadn't seen her finished dress before the wedding.
01:24But I was still kind of nervous, like, did I make the right choice?
01:27Was this actually what I wanted?
01:29Is my vision going to come to life?
01:30I put it on, and I feel like that was the most confident I'd ever felt about it.
01:34I looked in the mirror, and I was like, oh yeah, I definitely made the right choice.
01:38This looks beautiful, amazing.
01:39We put the pin on with the pearl drop that day as well, and that just brought the whole
01:45dress together and really kind of completed my vision.
01:48Walking down the aisle in the dress was truly a dream come true.
01:52It felt like it was just meant to be.
01:53I was really proud.
01:54The dress meant so much more to me.
01:57Having gone through the whole journey with it, it felt so special already in itself,
02:01having someone else's history there on my wedding day.
02:04I love antiques, and I love history, so that being replicated into my dress just felt really
02:11perfect.
02:12Everyone was so surprised and impressed.
02:14It was really a perfect day.
02:15I'm so glad that I trusted my gut and took a chance on the dress.
02:20It was an amazing journey.
02:21I hope my story inspires other brides to embrace their creativity and not be afraid
02:26to do things differently.
02:28There's a lot of pressure for brides to have the perfect day and the perfect dress or the
02:34new trend of what's going on, and so I just wanted to share that.
02:39You can really be creative with your wedding, and you don't have to maybe do what everybody
02:45else does, and you can still end up with something that's beautiful and gorgeous and fits within
02:50your budget, and to just take a leap and do something different and unique because
02:55it really was a fun process.
02:57I also would love to find out who the dress belonged to.
03:01I think that knowing its story and where it came from and the wedding it was involved
03:05in previously would just be the cherry on top.