If you’d like a vintage dress for your wedding day, be prepared to search. Finding the perfect dress that you simply love to bits is a task only you can perform and could prove as troublesome as finding Mr Right himself. Yet, as most vintage-lovers will tell you, part of the satisfaction of finally coming across that diamond in the rough, is the chase.

The great thing about a vintage wedding dress is it’s likely to be a fraction of the price of a modern dress, as good quality and the only one of its kind. Where to start?

Well, start by explaining your mission to vintage retailers. Be patient and listen to their suggestions as they know their stock well. Next, think creatively. Don’t allow specifications, pre-conceived ideas or expectations to turn into unnecessary restrictions. You can always dye, take-in or take-up, remove lace, shorten sleeves, add a crinoline, swap the collar of one dress for another, join beaded bodices to skirts, attach bows, embroider etc etc. If you can, get a crafty friend or someone with a bit of skill behind a Bernina to advise you. Better still drag her along on a shopping trip. She may have some great solutions you’d never have thought of yourself.

Wedding Cafe NZ only really has intimate knowledge of the Auckland vintage scene. But it’s a wide, creative and amazing scene. So, maybe a trip to the business capital is worth considering. Our insider knowledge should provide you with enough insights to help you unearth the perfect vintage dress. However, we don’t doubt that Wellington and some of New Zealand’s small towns out are full of vintage gems too – Waihi, in the Coromandel, has a great little store, for example.

Cream of the crop

Tango, located off a little arcade in Durham Lane, in Auckland’s CBD, is positively Auckland’s best vintage store in our writer’s view. Ask for Driese – he’s there most days. He’s wonderful and loves to dress his clients in chic, kooky or luxurious looks. He has vintage bridal dresses from the Edwardian era, as well as from the last century – lace, chiffon, tulle. This would be the first place Wedding Cafe NZ would check out. Driese always has half a dozen amazing ideas. Let him work his magic. There’s a good chance you’ll return to Tango at the end of your vintage search.

Jet Set Bohemian, in Grey Lynn, has all sorts of interesting little vintage pieces, a lot of which come in from overseas. Jet Set’s style is more suited to a casual, beach or, indeed, ‘boho’ wedding, but it really depends what stock the store can get in. You’ll be very lucky if the shop has any bridal dresses in stock if you just go wandering in, although they do crop up from time to time. However, it’s well worth calling ahead or leaving them your number to call you if anything comes in.

Situated along Ponsonby Rd is Tattys. In truth, it just circulates a-few-seasons-old designer wear, not really vintage at all. However, it does stock some stunning cocktail dresses, evening gowns and bridal wear. They’re the pieces that adorned the mannequins at the front Yvonne Bennetti’s or Karen Walker’s stores in, say, 2005, but they’re heavily discounted. Do go and see what’s there – just because you’re looking for a wedding dress doesn’t mean you won’t find a cool honeymoon dress or bridesmaids’ dresses.

Passionata may well be the most ornamental, charming store you’ll ever enter. There are antique cabinets, colonial bed-heads, regal light fittings – all adorned out in sequins, silk and jewels. Stock is for decoration and for adorning people’s heads, bosoms, wrists and more. Owner Shannon adores her stock, and nothing pleases her more than to sell something gorgeous and special to someone who loves it as much as she does. Auckland doesn’t lack for passionate retailers and talented stylists, and Passionata’s owner and staff are in the top ten, in our writer’s opinion. You’ll find the store in Highbury, Birkenhead, over on the North Shore. Take a look at the Passionata website too. It’s one of the few stores listed here that has one, and its pretty good.

Quite as breathtaking as Passionata is Victorian Gilt, in Remuera. It deals mostly in antique stock, dating as far back as the eighteenth century. These are delicate, exquisite, one-and-only pieces reflective of an era when every woman could – and often had to – sew. Even so, only a smidgen of the fine embroidery and attire from those days can still be found – Victorian Gilt delivers what it can. Do visit the lovely ladies there.

Trademe gets wed

Trademe isn’t a bad place to shop for a vintage wedding dress. No, you can’t try it on – unless the seller agrees – but you can quiz the seller. Pretty detailed responses are likely if you come across as being serious about buying, as a couple of hundred dollars means it’s well worth the seller’s while dedicating some time to answering your questions.

K Road bridal gems

St Kevin’s Arcade, off the Karangahape Rd, has several little vintage stores worth taking a look at. Namely, Vixen and Fast & Loose. These stores stock a lot of eighties and nineties clothes, but a few earlier pieces too. Given that everything’s vintage and one-off, you’d probably have to get anything you find altered. A lot of stock is quite tiny-sized though. Further along the K’Rd there’s This Is Not A Love Shop and in the other direction, heading towards Symonds Street, a set of colourful stairs lead you off the street and down into the Fuzzy Vibes Junction.

All these little stores are a teeny bit crazy but hoard absolute bridal gems. Their dresses are a little bit glam, very exclusive, beautiful and quite dramatic. Finally, there’s Peachy Keen, at No. 374, which has a pretty big range of women’s vintage clothing, including evening gowns. It’s worth a peek. You could probably take a look at all of the K’Rd’s hot spots in one day and have a little lunch at one of the nearby yummy Turkish or Asian food joints – so fresh and great prices!

The Paper Bag Princess, on K’Rd, and the Recycle Boutique, on Darby Street, in the CBD, aren’t really worth looking in for that special dress. They’re more op shops than vintage retailers. The stock tends to be rather pricey for what it is – exhausted rather than pre-loved.

However, there’s an interesting vintage store on Kingsland’s main strip, New North Road. Wedding Cafe NZ hasn’t actually seen a bridal gown there, but the store has stockists with whom they deal exclusively and they treat special customers well. The staff may be able to seek something out for you via their exclusive channels.

Salvation wedding

Lastly, don’t discount the humble Savemart, hospice and Salvation Army stores around Auckland (and out of town) in your search. Our writer has picked up a vintage glo-mesh Oroton wallet in Birkenhead’s hospice shop for two bucks; crazy, cute silk blouses in the Salvo’s Thames store – in the Coromandel – for a dollar apiece, and a genuine, polka-dot fifties dress from Savemart for $15. These humble second-hand stores come staffed with teams of adorable grandma volunteer assistants who would be really excited to help dress a bride.

The thing about such stores is great garments are hiding there among all the junk. Generally, the grandmotherly assistants, lovely as they are, haven’t a clue about the value of some of these pieces. A lot of vintage stores pick up the real gems at Vinnies and the Salvos and sell them with a 300 to 400 percent mark-up at their own stores. With a lot of luck, and a little magic, your vintage wedding gown could be lurking in an Auckland op shop, wearing a tag that says, “Love me, wear me, buy me” or, more, likely, “$20”.

We’re not saying it’s likely you’ll find your wedding dress at Savemart, but there are magical tales of New York bride-to-bes stumbling across original Vera Wang dresses for $50 in dusty, off-the-strip op shops and, every now and again, a 100 percent silk slip or crinoline appears in an op shop.

It’s these kinds of tales that inspire the treasure-hunter in all of us. It’s one of the reasons people love to op-shop and love vintage wear. Seasoned op-shoppers all have a magical tale or two. Maybe a little magic will happen to you. Remember Carrie, in Sex in the City? Didn’t she end up marrying in a vintage two-piece, after kicking Vivienne Westwood to the hills?