Community Corner

Military Brides Get Free Dresses

Mount Pleasant dress shop gives donated dresses to say thanks for service.

Like many military brides, Kaleyah Smalls is planning her August wedding on a budget.

So when a friend told her about Brides Across America, a national program that gives free dresses to military brides, she jumped at the chance, even though it meant a 10-hour drive from her Dayton, Ohio, home to Charleston Bridal House in Mount Pleasant.

"Saving this money is going to help a lot," said Smalls, 26, whose fiance is in the U.S. Air Force stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base outside Dayton. "We can use it for vendors for the wedding or for a honeymoon."

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Roughly a dozen women had been through the shop just after it opened Tuesday morning. Shop owner Yvonne McCullough was offering about 45 free dresses for the event. She estimates they are worth about $1,000 each.

Many of the brides come from the Charleston area, but others from Savannah, the South Carolina midlands and Fort Bragg were at the event. Roughly 35 shops across the country will offer free dresses in July.

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McCullough gets the free dresses from her designers as donations. She also offers used dresses for the event.

Today's giveaway is the third year McCullough has participated in Brides Across America. She got involved because her parents rushed their wedding just before her father deployed to Vietnam.

"They chose to get married before he left," McCullough said. "This would have been a great event for them to partake in."


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