Cat Wilkinson
Cat Wilkinson is a resident of Liverpool. In 2012, she enrolled in the city’s university, where she student where she studied Environmental Science. Three years later, she graduated from college. In 2019, she returned to college, but this time she was there in a different capacity. This time, she would be working at the college. She signed on with John Moores University, where she would be a senior lecturer.
Cat Wilkinson and Mike Purves
Cat Wilkinson and her boyfriend Mike Purves were dating for a few years before getting engaged in August 2018. The couple went out to celebrate on the evening that they got engaged. They enjoyed a wonderful evening in York and discussed heading back to the city in the morning to start searching for the perfect dress for Cat to wear on her wedding day.
The Wedding Dress
For most women, the dress that they wear on their wedding day is by far, the most crucial detail. Many women try on several dresses in many different stores before finding the one that best suits them. In Great Britain, the average wedding dress costs around $18,000. Many women are willing to pay this extraordinary amount of money because the perfect dress is so important.
Secret About Her Dress
Cat got lucky while shopping for her dress, it’s the secret about her dress. She went out the next morning and fell in love with the first dress that she tried on. It was a long-sleeved white dress, and it was the dress that she had always dreamed of wearing on her wedding day. What was even more surprising was that she found the dress of her dream hours after becoming engaged in a charity shop.
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5 The Sue Ryder Charity
The store where Cat found her dream dress was part of the Sue Ryder Charity. This was an organization based in London, England, and it was established in 1953. The charity was born when Sue Ryder set up home are in Suffolk. After she started the charity, people with various illnesses turned to the foundation for help. Today, there are Care Centers all over Britain, but other countries have benefited from the organization. The organization set up facilities in Malawi and Albania to help those in need. Because the organization helps so many, they rely on money from the public to keep running.
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6 Fundraisers and Shops
The Sue Ryder often holds fundraisers to earn money to keep the organization running. They also have hundreds of stores where people donate goods for the organization to sell. Each year, the shops bring the organization over $40 million. This money is essential in helping those in need.
Giving Back
Cat wanted to do her part for the charity, which is what brought her into the store in the first place. While shopping, she found the perfect wedding dress. She was upstairs, and Mike was downstairs browsing. She called him and asked him not to come upstairs because she didn’t want him to see her trying it on. Also, she asked him to send up a shop volunteer so that they could take her photo wearing the dress. When she saw the picture of herself wearing the dress, she made the bold decision of buying it right there without checking out other stores first, and that’s the secret about her wedding dress.
The Price
When Cat looked at the price tag on the dress, she was shocked. The shop was selling the dress for £35, which is $43 in the United States. She had to make a few alterations to the dress before the wedding. She had the zipper removed from the back of the dress and added buttons. Also, she moved some of the flowers to the front of the dress. The alterations cost about $250, making the total cost of the dress $300. Because she bought the dress at a donation shop, she wanted to know a bit about the dress’ history, so she did a little bit of digging.
Vintage Bridal Store
Cat took her dress to a vintage bridal store to learn more about it. She was told that is was made in the 50s, and it was made at home, and not at a bridal store. The expert told her that the flowers were older than the dress itself. This told Cat that the flowers on the dress were likely passed down from generation to generation. She posted a photo of her dress and her story on Facebook, and it quickly went viral. The post was liked over 7,500 times. It was shared over 1,000 times, and there were over 200 comments. When the post gained attention, the British newspaper, the Metro, ran a story about Cat and her dress. During the interview, she mentioned that she bought it at the Sue Ryder charity store.
What To Do After
Cat says that she isn’t sure what she will do with her wedding dress after she gets married. She is thinking about turning into a christening gown for her future children. She says that she is also thinking about donating it back to the charity shop so that another bride can enjoy it. A beautiful bride tied the knot, but a secret about her dress has left people dumbstruck. Cat is proof that you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on the perfect wedding dress. The ideal dress could be sitting in a charity shop, just waiting for a new bride.
