Whether it is from the 1920s, 1980s or 2000s, the staff and volunteers at Shop on Carroll want to see your wedding dress.
The shop is holding a four week ‘‘wedding series’’, starting next month, to encourage Dunedin people to share their wedding stories.
Shop on Carroll sells recycled clothing and collectables and the money raised is used for Presbyterian Support’s Family Works programmes.
About 30 dresses have already been donated and many will be put on display, while bridal items will be available to buy.
Shop manager Fiona Dodds said most of the dresses donated to the shop would be for sale, but others had been loaned and would not be for sale.
Mrs Dodds said she hoped to get a wedding dress from each decade and hear the stories behind them.
‘‘We don’t know what to expect, we just want to engage with people — to hear their stories.’’
The oldest dress donated so far was one from the 1920s.
Shop on Carroll volunteer Lisa Borthwick will lend her wedding dress to the shop. She bought it from Harrods, London for her 1996 wedding in Wanaka.
She was living in the United Kingdom at the time and had seen the Catherine Rayner dress in a magazine.
Her sister and bridesmaid took some convincing and tried to talk her out of buying it, but she still loves it even now.
Mrs Borthwick bought some material in the same colour as the roses and had her bridesmaid’s dresses made in the same style dress she had seen the late Princess Diana wearing.
While picking the perfect dress was seemingly straightforward, getting it to New Zealand was a bit harder.
Before leaving the United Kingdom, Mrs Borthwick called the airline to find out the maximum size of carry-on luggage and had her dressed packed in a box but she was not allowed to take it on board with her.
She had to take it out of the box and put it into a garment bag, while a New Zealand rugby team touring the UK had her husband ‘‘in a huddle so he could not see the dress’’.
The Catherine Rayner dress was one of about four she tried on and cost about £1500 ($NZ2660).
‘‘It will probably sit in the wardrobe for another 40 years,’’ Mrs Borthwick said.
The wedding series at Shop on Carroll will start on September 18.
