Occasions like this are so special, getting dressed up in posh frocks and suits and celebrating love and longevity.

We don’t get to do it every day and for that reason we like to make the extra effort with our outfits. But its always felt a bit strange to me to spend a lot of money on a brand new dress only to be worn once or twice.

I bought my own wedding dress from Oxfam (brides-to-be, if you haven’t discovered Oxfam Bridal yet, check it out) and so I have no qualms about getting an outfit from there for other weddings.

In fact I got my little blue empire line dress from Oxfam and the cute white shrug from The Children’s Society.

The shrug had a small printed motif that I wanted to cover and so Margaret, our Stitched Up crochet queen, made a white crochet flower brooch for me and it was just perfect.

My necklace and bracelet came from the gorgeous Bambi Vintage shop in Nottingham. On my feet I wore my trusty little gold strappy sandals – sourced from my wardrobe.

All in all my whole outfit cost less than £15. More importantly it was all pre-loved so no new materials or energy was used to create it!

Of course, saving money on the wedding outfit means more pennies for more charity shop bargains. Here are a few other recent goodies:

Funky 70′s curtains

Green polka dot dress and a pretty green and purple print shirt.

I won’t list all of the things I’ve bought because some of them need alterations and will come up in later posts but here are a few particularly nice finds.

A trilby to keep the summer sun from burning…

A gorgeous folky skirt with applique flowers…

A slinky silky top….

A cute little empire line dress.

None of these things cost me more than 5 quid!

Despite what silly Mary Portas’ programme ‘Mary Queen of Charity Shops‘ might lead you to believe charity shops are not necessarily dingy, cluttered places selling useless bric-a-brac, far from it. The Oxfam shop in Nottingham city centre is a veritable retro boutique!

Often times charity shops are  portrayed as sad little places run by out of touch and grumpy old ladies – also wrong. The ladies and gentlemen who work in charity shops are of all ages. A couple of the shops I frequent are staffed by teenagers and some of the others have younger people who are responsible for dressing the shop windows. One particular shop in Sherwood has a new item in the window that I covet nearly every time I go by. Sometimes I pop in and buy it before someone beats me to it!

The workers in charity shops are nearly always volunteers, giving up their free time to support a charity. So treat them nicely and be polite, they don’t have to be there!

Finally, charity shops are not a dumping ground for for rubbish. So often donations that are taken to the shops are not suitable to be sold. The shops do care about the goods and only want their customers to have good quality items. If you’re donating to a charity shop check that the items are clean and not damaged, make sure they’re in good enough condition for you to want to buy them yourself. Unsuitable items have to be thrown away and it costs the charity shop money to dispose of them.

The virtues of charity shopping are not all selfless. Yes, you’re giving your hard earned cash to something worthwhile but in return you get lovely new (to you) goodies at a very low price and guilt free. Don’t bother with the budget high street shops, hit the charity shops instead.

I bought this cardigan in a local charity shop and the picture here is much more flattering than it looked first hand. I liked the shape more than anything else. It was a pale blue but very tired looking, from lots of washing I guess, and beginning to become more grey-blue.

After wearing it a few times I realised that the colour did nothing for me at all, plus I have far too many pale blue things in my wardrobe. So I thought it needed a sprucing up to a much warmer purple and the addition of these cute buttons from the fabulous Brinsley craft fair I’ve mentioned before.

Fabric dyeing tip: Wear gloves when handling dye, oh yes, and make sure they don’t have any holes in them! I did not take my advice and now I have one purple left thumb. It looks like something from an old Tom and Jerry cartoon.

Whilst I’m talking about charity shop finds, check out these two bags I found today. I just couldn’t resist them.