Nottingham Trent University Sports Ball - Second hand DIY dress

So Friday night was my uni's annual Sports Ball. It's basically the biggest event of the year where all the sports clubs come together for an awards night to celebrate our success throughout the year. I'm on the committee for Dance so I went with them but there were tons of other clubs there including football, rugby, american football, tennis, cricket, swimming, lacrosse, cheerleading, equestrian, athletics etc. There was a live band playing all night, a three course meal and it was held in an amazingly posh wedding venue. Let's not forget the 5 bottles of free wine per table they supplied us with! It was so lovely seeing everyone dressed up... a bit like Prom! Obviously I wanted my dress to be perfect so I put a lot of thought and effort into what I was going to wear.

I opted for a simple black dress from Motel. Initially, the last colour I wanted to wear was black. Last year, I wore a gorgeous mint green dress from missguided.com which tied in perfectly with the lovely summery weather. I quickly realised that it was probably going to be impossible to find a pastel coloured dress that I loved equally as much as my dress last year. So I ended up going for the complete opposite to what I wanted. But hey, you can never go wrong with black right?

I'm not one for following the crowd so I went for something a bit different with the off the shoulder style (which thankfully no one else was wearing!!) When the dress arrived, I was gutted at how short it was. I couldn't physically wear it because my bum was on show!! I fell in love with it so I didn't want to buy a new one. Thankfully, my mum came up with the ingenious idea of sewing lace to the bottom to make it longer. Not only did it make my dress longer so I could actually wear it, it suddenly went from being a boring black dress to a vintage style cocktail dress. Right up my street! I couldn't have been happier with it. I also loved the fact that no one else there would have the same dress as me. It was completely unique. Even better, the lace only cost £2 and the alterations £11.50... pretty cheap I think! Altogether, the price of the dress (including the £22 I paid for it on ebay) came to £36.50, which still works out cheaper than the £38 I would have paid if I bought it directly off of Motel's website. It just goes to show that you don't need to spend £100+ on a dress for a special event. Bargain hunting/DIY is the way forward!

Trent Dance.

Motel dress/Topshop heels/Primark clutch

Trent Dance Committee 2012/13

moi at the Sports Ball last year

So sad that my hair isn't that long anymore :(

Have a lovely week guys

x