Nearly Newlywed Has Crazy Good Discounts on Designer Wedding Gowns and Party Dresses

1:00 PM, April 12 2012

By Alison Syrett

Brides-to-be have a lot of dress options to choose from. They can spring for a princess-worthy piece at a high end boutique, thrift for used items, and score wallet-friendly buys from mainstream stores. Or now, they can visit Nearlynewlywed.com, which pretty much combines all these options at once.

The bridal consignment website, which just launched this week, sells gently worn designer gowns for wedding and black tie events. And they are all really, really reasonably priced. Already, the e-tailer is filled with options from major labels such as Marchesa, Vera Wang and Oscar de la Renta, all of them marked between 50 to 70 percent off. (Which, on a 10 or 11 thousand dollar gown, is quite a lot. Like a "we can afford a band instead of a DJ now" lot.) In the "party" section, I spotted a lot of bridesmaid-worthy picks and this Rodarte dress, which is just begging for a night at the Opera. Or your rehearsal dinner.

The web store is also sympathetic to small closets. Every piece comes with a quoted "resell" price: the amount they will buy the dress back for—even with slight alterations! Items can also be consigned for 70 percent of the asking price, but no money is exchanged until it is sold.

In the slideshow below, I've included three especially stand out buys available right now. Click through to shop them and then visit Nearlynewlywed.com to browse the entire selection.