Wedding dresses are known to be expensive. For many brides who want the quintessentially white dress, it is probably the most expensive dress they will ever buy. However, there is now another option – renting.

Currently, the average British bride spends around £ 1,300 on her wedding dress. That’s pretty steep for a dress that most brides wear only once in their lifetime. Repurposing a beautiful white dress for a different occasion is not always that easy.

However, renting is becoming increasingly popular as the middle ground between spending on a designer dress and opt for something cheaper. A study by BusinessWaste.de reveals that 4 out of 10 future brides would rent a wedding dress for their big day. Respondents to the survey said they would instead use the money to fund their future.

Many bridal sites, both online and in person, are slowly adding rental options to their offerings. This wider range of rental options also means a wider range of styles, colors and sizes of dresses. It’s also where most brides are most fortunate to find genuine vintage wedding pieces that are prohibitively expensive to purchase and difficult to replicate using modern dressing techniques.

Unfortunately, as with most things, it has already been shown that renting a wedding dress has both positive and negative effects. We’ve outlined some of the ways you can save on renting, as well as the cost of this route for your big day.

What you save

The first thing you save is money. While buying a designer dress may never have been an option, renting it makes some of the most elaborate dresses more accessible. Dresses for thousands are available at half or even well below half the price.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s wife Carrie Symonds made a splash this year when she rented it Costarello‘s dress for only £ 45 a day. The dress would normally cost £ 2,870 if bought new. Even if you’re not interested in snagging a high-end dress, renting a cheaper dress (think about $ 17!) Cuts the overall wedding budget significantly.

The next thing you save is place. When you buy your wedding dress, you need to keep it for the rest of your life. Storing a wedding dress is not always as easy as tucking it next to your jackets. The delicate fabric, the size of many skirts, and the preservation of the dress can be a drain on your wallet and closet.

This is especially great if you want a lovely princess-style ball gown that calls for petticoats galore or an item with a distinctive train. When you rent these dress models, you no longer have a dress that you will really never wear again, that takes up almost all of your closet or storage space.

You could finally help the environment. While these are still just estimates, used or rented wedding dresses save the environmental impact by making a brand new dress. Wedding dresses are particularly damaging to the environment because of the details that are normally required in their manufacture. From tiny beadwork to disposable patterns, wedding dresses, due to their unique nature, don’t have much room for truly sustainable manufacturing practices.

Website for used wedding dresses Still white says they have resold over 20,000 clothes – saving over 200,000 kg of CO2 emissions and using 180 million liters of water in the manufacture of new clothes.

What does it cost

Although the choice is growing, pre-loved and hired means unadapted. This limits you to the styles, shapes and sizes offered.

There is a loss of sentimentality that comes with a dress that is not entirely your “own”. This is especially true if you are someone who thought they wanted to pass their dress on as an heirloom. However, the lack of an individual design or family heirloom are minor considerations. Often the greatest costs are still environmental costs.

While a pre-love dress will save the environmental cost of making a brand new dress, it cannot completely fix this problem.

Shipping a dress to you is a major contributor to CO2 emissions. This is especially true if you order a dress from abroad. The price of flying over the dress, driving it to your location, and packing it all up adds up.

The packaging itself is also a minefield when it comes to waste. Due to their delicate nature, wedding dresses require additional packaging to protect them during transport. As a result, there is a significant amount of recyclable paper and plastic that contributes to landfill around the world.

What that means for you

Renting a second-hand dress is still the more sustainable and affordable option for your big day.

Even if it is impossible to avoid all negative environmental impacts, it is possible to minimize them. When considering a pre-loved dress, try choosing a local business to reduce the carbon footprint caused by shipping. Also speak to the company you are hiring from about their packaging. Many companies are already using recyclable packaging and alternatives that allow you to do without plastic altogether. Also, if you are a true environmentalist, it is wise to ask the company what they do with clothes that are no longer available for rent. This will help you understand whether the company you are supporting fully reflects your values.

Overall, the benefits of renting a dress and the variety of places you can find incredible designs mean that a bride should give it a serious and thoughtful consideration. Check out some of our favorite wedding dress rental services: Hurray, My closet HQ, By rotation, Rent the runway, The volte, All clothes.