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Winnipeg Dress Collective helps facilitate 'small dream' for brides-to-be

What started as a way to help one bride-to-be get a special wedding dress has turned into a community effort to match brides throughout Winnipeg with the dresses of their dreams.

"The response has been overwhelming and a very rewarding experience," said Hannah Pratt.

Over the summer, Pratt posted her unworn designer wedding dress on Kijiji for free after buying it on sale for $1,300, about half of its original price. She asked brides to submit some information about themselves and ended up having more than 50 people reach out.

She chose a submission from Jasmine Doolan, who survived a sexual assault and battled a meth addiction.

But the other submissions from deserving brides stuck with Pratt.

"I found it really difficult to say no them," she said.

Fortunately, other women with wedding dresses just hanging in their closets also reached out to Pratt, asking how they could donate them as well.

When Pratt looked online for options, she saw a website for donating graduation dresses but not one for wedding dresses.

"There just seemed to be this gap," she said.

She decided to create the Winnipeg Dress Collective. Through the collective, donated wedding dresses will be matched with brides who apply for them through the website, submitting a story explaining why they need a free dress.

Pratt said it's been a powerful experience hearing from women about what they are going through and what the dresses would mean to them. The collective is her way to help "facilitate a small dream that they have," she said.

"They are asking for something so small — they are asking for a wedding dress," she said. "[It] just happens to be a really expensive item."

So far, 30 wedding dresses have been donated to Pratt, but she's asking for more. The dresses should be no older than from 2010 but they do not need to be dry cleaned, Pratt said.

"I'm also asking for other submissions right now. I want other brides out there, or brides-to-be, who have their wedding date planned who feel their story might resonate with me," she said.

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