I Actually Bought This $53 Wedding Guest Dress (& Didn't Regret It)

Liz here, R29's lifestyle market editor. I'm taking a break from my usual home to food and travel programming for a departure into fashion land — because I actually bought the dress (that's me on the left in this photo) on final sale for $53.29, wore it to a wedding, felt chic without trying too hard, and now need to shout it from the virtual rooftops. Warning: if you aren't here for a good shopping success story, no harm no foul — we've got plenty of other shopping content for you.

As a market editor on the Shopping team, I live and breathe picking product for others. Shopping dilemmas get me fired up. And hunting for the sweetest deals? You better believe I'm game. However, when it comes to fashion, I surprisingly tend to overspend and under-search. With one of the many weddings I'd attend this summer creeping up, I started my search for THE perfect dress (an elegant, careless-romantic number). I scrolled the site depths of trending brands and Instagram accounts. I lusted over and bookmarked my dream (read: bank account crushing) options. But nothing felt quite right and I was running out of time. Mid-workday moaning about my troubles caused a fellow R29 editor to steer me towards a site I hadn't considered: Need Supply. I took a fateful scroll through its stocked summer sale section and stumbled upon a dress from one of the site's more affordable private label brands, Farrow. On surface level, it was a high-risk shopping decision: final sale, non-returnable, and tight next-day shipping to make it in time for the wedding. But somehow pulling the impulse-buy shopping trigger felt strangely right. Was it the ethereal print, the one-shoulder ruffled cut, or the 68% off price that enticed me? Whatever it was, I succumbed to its siren song — and I did not live to regret it.

Not only did the package arrive promptly at 10 a.m. the next day, but I was shocked at how light and luxe the seriously affordable fabric looked in person. It felt and fit better than the pricier options I had unsuccessfully tried before it. To make matters even more unbelievable, it somehow remained wrinkle-free post 6-hours in a suitcase and awed other wedding attendees with its unexpected low price tag. Through searching a site I wouldn't usually consider, opting for a silhouette I already knew flattered my figure, and choosing a tapered midi-length that wouldn't require alterations, I had serendipitously stumbled on the ultimate score: a quality dress for $53.29.

Scroll on to shop my look (along with my two roomies' too!) and a few other surprising sale finds for the upcoming onslaught of fancy summer occasions. Discover your own best dressed wedding guest destinies and share the, "I actually bought this," love with us below.