A yound woman from Alabama found the bargain of a lifetime during a recent shopping excursion to Goodwill.
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Emmali Osterhoudt, 21, is a student in Birmingham, Alabama. On Labor Day, she went to Goodwill with her roommate — her first visit to a Goodwill in the area — to find picture frames for a gallery wall, she told Insider.
Osterhoudt was able to find the picture frames she needed, and she had already checked out when she and her roommate spotted a section marked 50% off that they hadn't seen yet.
"After we checked out, we wandered over there, and I was in the purses and she was over at the dresses," Osterhoudt said of her roommate, who then called her over to see the wedding dresses.
Osterhoudt said she wasn't expecting to find anything she actually liked.
"I thought it was gonna be like the '80s, poofy sleeves dresses because we've always wanted to reenact that scene from 'Friends' where Monica, Rachel, and Phoebe are sitting on their couch in '80s wedding dresses," Osterhoudt told Insider. "So I go over there, and she shows me this dress and it was so pretty."
Osterhoudt isn't engaged — though she and her boyfriend Nick hope to get married someday — but she felt so drawn to the dress that she decided to try it on anyway.
"It looked like it was my size," she said. "So we go and we try it on, and it fits like a glove."
Osterhoudt said she fell in love with the dress, which turned out to be a Galia Lahav design.
The mermaid dress had a low neckline and back, and it was covered in an intricate lace pattern from head to toe. Galia Lahav designed the gown for its Gala line.
"I immediately fell in love with it," Osterhoudt said of the dress. She also fell in love with the price, as Goodwill was selling the gown for just $25.
She decided she had to buy it, and when she left the store, she did some digging into the gown and discovered it typically retails for around $6,000.
"My mind was just blown," Osterhoudt said of how she felt after finding out how much she could have paid for the dress if she bought it at a bridal boutique.
Osterhoudt decided to post a TikTok about her experience finding the wedding dress on September 6, and to her surprise, the video amassed over 3 million views.
The lucky girl said that she is not interested in selling it as she plans to keep for when she and her boyfriend will actually get married.
