Brides wanted: Northeast Ohio woman looks to give away wedding dress
CHAMPION TWP. – Calling all brides-to-be!
A Northeast Ohio woman wants to give her $3,000 wedding dress to a woman who cannot afford the dress of her dreams.
"I'm not a flashy person, but the day of my wedding I felt like a princess, a queen, anything. I just felt amazing. I just want someone else to feel (that way)," Gwendolyn Stulgis said.
Any woman with a wedding date set in the next six months can message Stulgis on Facebook and tell her in a few paragraphs why she deserves the dress.
Stulgis will read submissions until June 2 and will announce the winner via Facebook Live at noon on June 4.
Stulgis posted notices about the contest on community Facebook pages around Northeast Ohio, including the Alliance Talk page.
Stulgis lives in Champion Township and works in Boardman. She married her husband, Frank, on May 6. She doesn't wear wear dresses often, she said, so she didn't want to spend a lot on a wedding dress.
"It made no sense to me to spend a lot of money on a dress that you were only going to wear one time," she said.
But that changed after she went dress shopping with her daughter, bridesmaids and soon-to-be mother-in-law and found a dress that was "exactly what I envisioned in my head."
It was more expensive than Stulgis had hoped, but her family and members of her bridal party convinced her it was worth it.
Stulgis had no intention of letting the dress sit in a box in her closet after the wedding.
"For months now, I was like 'I'm gonna give it away.' I didn't have any idea in my head of how I was going to do it. I just knew I wanted to give it away to somebody who would look just as beautiful in it as I was," she said.
She decided to put out a call on Facebook for women who might be interested. Her post was met by a flood of positive comments from users who said they appreciated Stulgis' kindness and generosity.
"What a nice thing to do. We need more people like you in this world," one user wrote.
Stulgis said so far she has received messages from two women interested in the dress, and she wants to get the word out to more people.
Her goal is for the dress to be worn, dry-cleaned and then passed to another woman. She hopes for this cycle to continue for as long as the dress can stand.
"I just don't want someone to hold onto it, and I don't want them to resell it," Stulgis said.
Her Facebook post said the dress will be given to a woman with a wedding date set within the next three months, but Stulgis said she will also consider submissions as far out as six months.
She said her hope is that the dress can be used by as many brides as possible.
Those interested in submitting for the dress can send their stories to Stulgis through Facebook, under the name Gwendolyn Stulgis.
Reach Paige at 330-580-8577 or pmbennett@gannett.com, or on Twitter at @paigembenn.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Northeast Ohio woman to give wedding dress to a bride in need
