She “accidentally fell in love” with the wedding dress of her dreams – and then, it’s safe to say, the people of the Tamworth region fell a little bit in love with her.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Set to be married within months, Larina Zell happened across a beautiful gown she knew was out of her reach, despite her working 50-plus hours per week.
But then she wrote these words on social media: “Hi Tamworth, I’m Larina and I’m recycling to pay for my wedding dress”.
Just a few days later, she and daughter Lilly have recycled 10,604 items – and she will now be married to Lilly’s dad Dylan in the dress she thought she’d never have.
“After I put the post up I had an overwhelming response,” Ms Zell said.
“My daughter and I picked up ute loads of recycling and cashed it in for three hours every day after I had finished work.
“It was hard work in this heat [but] my beautiful little girl helped and had a lot of fun.”
She said they both “got a lot positive lessons and met a lot of wonderful people on this journey”.
Read also:
“My dad always tells me; ‘If you want something enough, you will work hard for it’, and that’s something I need to show my daughter.
“One, not to give up on dreams and two, work hard for what you want; nothing comes to you easily.”
‘I ugly-cried my heart out’
Ms Zell said she’d been determined to not spend thousands of dollars on a dress she’d wear for just one day, so started her search early for preloved and budget gowns at no more than $500.
She soon realised that was “going to be impossible”, due to the cost of alteration and dry-cleaning.
“I came up with the idea of recycling – anything over $500 had to be paid via recycling. Clean up Tamworth and not go over my budget,” she said.
After visiting Ferrari Formalwear and Bridal, she found “the one” – but it was $2500.
“I ugly-cried my heart out,” she said.
“I knew I couldn’t afford it, so I tried my hardest to hate it or find something I hated about it.”
But the dress continued to play on her mind, until she saw the shop was having a sale and “hesitantly” posted on a local social network asking to collect people’s recycling for the Return and Earn machines.
“I thought, ‘It can’t hurt to ask the question – I’m either going to have internet trolls be negative towards me, or I might come across some friendly locals who would be happy to let me cash in their recycling’.
“[I knew I was] not going to get my dress by sitting around crying about it.”
A flood of responses followed, and a friend also created a Gofundme page, people only too happy to help achieve the dream.
A lot of kindness
Ms Zell said she wanted to thank all those who had backed her.
“There is still a lot of kindness in this town, which we don’t hear enough about,” she said.
“I’m still collecting recycling and hoping to pay off my bridesmaid dresses with it.”
Shop manager Rachael Flood said she’d helped Ms Zell try on her dress, and there was only one word for how it had looked: “Princess”.
“The dress wasn’t the right size, but it still looked amazing,” Mrs Flood said.
“We have it on order now in the right size for her.
“She worked really hard to accomplish her goal and is just going to look amazing in it.”
Carolyn Millet
Based at The Northern Daily Leader, Tamworth, and Namoi Valley Independent, Gunnedah. Covering general news and features on community, council, arts, business, health, education, entertainment and rural matters.
Based at The Northern Daily Leader, Tamworth, and Namoi Valley Independent, Gunnedah. Covering general news and features on community, council, arts, business, health, education, entertainment and rural matters.
