Sourced from NPR | July 22, 2022 by Michael Levitt and Justine Kenin
The two most important things as Gwendolyn Stulgis shopped for her wedding dress were the price and the cut.
After trying on a few different options at the local bridal shop, nothing stood out to her. And just as she was about to leave, the saleslady offered to show her one more gown.
“It was champagne in color. It had long sleeves, and sparkly lace all over it. It had these buttons that literally started down the middle of the back, all the way down into the train, which I absolutely loved. I stood there and kind of got tears in my eyes because it really was the dress that I really wanted.
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The dress was a bit over her budget but after some encouragement from her mother-in-law, she pulled the trigger and bought it. After her wedding, she decided it deserved better than sitting in her closet collecting dust.
She ended up putting the dress on Facebook marketplace. Once the listing was up, she had received more than 70 messages, some from future brides describing what receiving the dress would mean to them.
Stulgis eventually decided to give it to a woman who lived nearby — and thus a movement was born: soon after, she began receiving messages from other women who also wanted to donate their dresses as well as those looking for a dress for their own wedding. So inspired by the outpouring, she ended up creating a Facebook group called "Shared Dream Dresses." Stulgis estimates that since June, over 200 dresses have been exchanged, and the impact of the group continues to grow.
Diana Bowman, one of the women who donated their dress through Facebook, said that it gave her an opportunity to help someone else with the stress she had experienced during her dress search.
“For me, it’s also a different experience because I’m a plus-sized woman and finding a wedding dress in plus sizes is really, really difficult,” she said. “So if I could take that stress away from somebody by passing along a beautiful plus-size gown, I was like, I have to do it.
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Bowman donated her dress on one condition: that it continues to get passed on. "I hope that this dress gets passed from bride to bride to bride, and it just gets worn out and it tatters at the end of its life because of all the celebrating that's been done it," she said.
