St. Anthony's Bridal has served over a hundred local brides since its inception in 2004 (first wedding in April of 2006), including low income brides, brides on tight budgets, military brides, brides with small children, brides with expensive medical conditions, student brides and simply frugal brides.
CLICK HERE to see just a few of our many beautiful bridal gowns. If you meet our simple qualifications, you may borrow one of our gowns for free. Scroll down for details. PLEASE REVIEW THIS WEBSITE CAREFULLY BEFORE COMING IN TO SEE US.
We also sell our wedding gowns to members of the public (no pre-qualifying, this helps us pay our bills!) at a flat price of $100 for a size 10 gown and $200 for all other sizes (plus 6% sales tax). We carry sizes 2 to 28.
To buy from us, just come by the Bridal Center on any Saturday from 10 am to noon (check our Announcements button to make sure we are there that Saturday). Please note that a few gowns in our large inventory, which were donated on the understanding that they would only be loaned out, are not for sale.
In a nutshell, we are a one-stop bridal non-profit. We are as close to a bridal co-op as one can probably get. Donations gratefully accepted: click here! We are a member of DONATE MY DRESS.
What do we offer? We offer FREE USE of fashionable and contemporary bridal attire, including wedding gowns, veils, and slips. We also offer for your free use other items you may need in order to have an affordable church wedding or other traditional wedding celebration: bridesmaids' gowns, flower girl dresses, silk flower bouquets and arrangements, centerpieces, tablecloths, plates, silverware, glasses, serving dishes, a wedding cake display, a hoopa for a Jewish celebration, and many other bridal related items.
We are an all-volunteer staff and we stay afloat through generous monetary donations and donations of gowns and reception goods.
Our bridal center is located in a doggy daycare building, which is great for a laugh, but don't get the wrong idea. Our wedding gowns are lovely and contemporary fashions. Our gowns are nothing less than stunning.
We are here to serve frugal brides who seek to avoid wedding debt so please do not be shy about contacting us! You pay nothing to use these items and we only ask that you return them, clean, the first Saturday after your wedding between 10 am and 10:30 am for our next bride to use. No monetary donations are accepted from our brides.
Who qualifies?
First, please note that we do not offer our help to brides who have employed wedding planners. We make no exceptions and brides with wedding planners are also not eligible for our Wait List.
If you are not using a wedding planner, and you are a local bride (your wedding and reception are both located in Maryland, Virginia or the District of Columbia) you qualify if:
1. You are having no more than 100 guests and spending $5,000.00 or less in total on your reception.
2. You will be either borrowing or buying one of our gowns to wear in your wedding. Borrow or buy, it is up to you and makes no difference to us.
If you don't qualify, try our WAITLIST: What if you are having more than 100 guests? Or you have more than $5,000.00 to spend? You can still buy a gown from us at a flat price of $200.00. If you are not using a wedding planner, and you are having both a local wedding and reception on a budget of $10,000 or less, you may still be able to borrow reception items from us through out WAITLIST: click here for details. We help many brides through our WAITLIST so please do not be discouraged! You will find out 90 days in advance if we can help you through our WAITLIST.
There is a deposit. You will be asked for a $200 DEPOSIT in the form of a check or postal money order made payable to St. Anthony's Bridal. For weddings occurring in 2010, we are asking for a $300 Deposit.
The Deposit is our assurance that that you will return the items on time and clean. We depend upon the timely return of our garments and goods because the next bride depends upon us. You will get your deposit back if you bring everything back on time and clean on the day and put all items back on the shelves where they belong.
You must also sign an agreement confirming the conditions specified herein (click here for the Agreement). And. to get on our calendar, you must bring us a letter from your Celebrant on your Celebrant's letterhead confirming the ceremony (we reserve the right to contact your Celebrant to verify this).
Please bring the signed agreement, your deposit check and the letter from your celebrant to our first meeting. There is no need to make an appointment. Just check our announcement webpage before you come to make sure we will be there that particular day.
Naturally, you do not have to give us your Deposit, Agreement and Letter if you decide you do not want to borrow one of our gowns.
If you prefer to come in and just look around first, that is fine too but it will not reserve a space for you on our calendar.
Is St. Anthony's a business or a non-profit? We are a local non-profit qualified with the I.R.S. as a 501-C-3 (this means we are a recognized non-profit and donations to us are tax deductable). Our mission is to help brides on tight budgets achieve beautiful and affordable weddings. We are an all volunteer staff. Our tax ID number is 52-2191053. St. Anthony's Bridal is a legal trade name for St. Anthony's Bread, Inc.
We joyfully serve brides of all faiths and beliefs. Each of our brides is a great blessing.
If you are curious why we do this, click here.