Woman Who Found $6K Designer Wedding Gown at Goodwill for $25 Is Engaged: 'I Can Finally Wear My Dress!'

Mar. 15, 2025

Emmali Osterhoudt.Photo:Emmali Osterhoudt

Emmali Osterhoudt

A woman who paid $25 for a $6KGalia Lahavcouture wedding dressshe foundat her local Goodwill will finally get to walk down the aisle.

When she stumbled across the gown earlier this year, Emmali Osterhoudt, 21, was not yet engaged, but she bought the dress anyway.

Now, she’ll get to walk down the aisle in the designer dress of her dreams.

On Wednesday, Osterhoudt shared a clip of her recent engagement to boyfriend Nick Gould. Her fiancé popped the question in front of Buckingham Palace in London. In the video, Gould can be seen down on one knee before he pulls out the diamond sparkler. Osterhoudt – in disbelief – covers her face with her hands. After saying “yes” the couple shared a kiss.

“I can finally wear my $25 Galia Lahav dress!!!” she captioned the video of the proposal.

Speaking to PEOPLE, the bride-to-be says she couldn’t be more excited to start planning the wedding. The couple hopes to tie the knot on June 6, 2025.

“The wedding is going to be small and intimate, but I do have plans to wear the dress nonetheless,” Osterhoudt says. “I knew he was proposing on the trip to London, but I wasn’t sure when. So when I told him I wanted pictures in front of Buckingham Palace and then saw he was down on one knee my jaw dropped.”

Emmali Osterhoudt.Emmali Osterhoudt

She continues: “It was the most beautiful moment ever. I’m very excited to start the wedding planning process with my dear Nicolas.”

Osterhoudt first went viral in September after posting aTikTokexplaining how she stumbled across a designer dress at her local Goodwill in Birmingham, Alabama. In the video, she said she had gone into the store in search of some picture frames for a gallery wall she was putting together.

“I had already checked out, I was about to leave and I saw a section that we hadn’t hit,” she recalled in the TikTok. “And so we went over there and boom, it was beautiful and it was there.”

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Although she was not engaged at the time, Osterhoudt decided to buy the dress. It cost her $25. Later she discovered the dress was a Galia Lahav couture design worth a jaw-dropping $6,200.

Galia Lahav is go-to choice for A-list celebs with a long list of stars includingSimone Biles, Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé, and Katy Perry who have tapped the designer for one-of-a-kind pieces.

After her original video went viral, Osterhoudt made a follow-upTikTokanswering questions she’d gotten on her first video. In the new video, she explained how she didn’t plan to sell the dress. Instead, she planned to save it for whenever her special day came.

“I really don’t know how I got so lucky. I would like to say thank you to the girl who donated it to Goodwill because it made my whole entire year,” she said. “And little Emmali, who has loved weddings since she was probably 5, is kicking and screaming right now because she’s so excited.”

source: people.com