SCOPE’S staff in Devizes showcased the charity shop’s array of donated wedding dresses last week, promising savings for any bride-to-be.

A brand new wedding dress can easily set a bride back anywhere between £500 and £10,000 or more. But dresses donated to Scope sell for between £30 and £250, which is quite a contrast to any standard price tag.

The focus on wedding dresses has come from a noticed increase in Scope’s sales of them. Karen Carr, Scope’s store manager in Devizes, who organised the event, said: “In the past few years more wedding dresses have been donated and bought right across all our shops. More people are catching on to the positives.”

Mrs Carr told the Gazette some of the donated dresses are brand new. “53 per cent of all our donations as a whole have never been worn.

“When you buy a wedding dress from us, obviously you save a lot of money and we do have some really nice quality dresses here. You could use the money you’d save on other things like your wedding, your honeymoon, or your life together; so it just makes financial sense.

“You can always have a dress altered to suit your own taste and make the dress your own. You don’t necessarily need to buy it and wear it as it is; although you could do that if you wanted to.”

Scope in Devizes currently has ten donated wedding dresses in store. Their showcase received huge support from volunteers and community members. One individual has even been volunteering there since 1988.

Mrs Carr continued: “Our community has been very generous, very supportive, both at donating and helping. But we are always on the lookout for more volunteers. If anyone would like to volunteer with us, we can fit in around their schedules.”

The area manager for Devizes, Sarah Fisher, said: “The wedding event had been so much fun for everyone involved.

“People coming here to buy their wedding dresses helps them out because they aren’t massively expensive for them. It really helps someone who will receive the benefit from other people buying a much higher-priced item.”

Since being established in 1952 by three parents of children with cerebral palsy, Scope has grown into a national charity with 225 stores across the country. It works towards giving any person with any disability the best chances of living the life they choose. Its store in Devizes has been supporting disabled people for the past 30 years.

With that in mind, when a bride-to-be buys from Scope, knowing what her money goes towards ensures that ‘something blue’ on the big day is definitely not her mood.