H&M's £60 wedding dress: Would you?

With my extreme fear of wedding dresses and anything lace or beaded, the discovery that there's a new high street wedding dress on the block made me feel a bit more optimistic about the whole thing.

Even if I don't decide to go for H&M's £60 gown, I could still buy it just in case and practise parading around my flat wearing white (much like that scene from Friends) without worrying about spilling anything down it. A starter wedding dress, if you will.

H&M is the latest high street store to bring out a cheapie wedding dress and while I abhor the idea of spending a fortune on a dress I'll only wear once, my gut reaction is that I probably wouldn't. But why not? Who wouldn't want to save over a grand on a dress you're never going to wear again?

The dress is floor length and white in a 1930s style, with a floral beaded design at the neckline and gathered in at the waist. I imagine it would be rather flattering and it's tasteful and elegant, which isn't bad for £59.99, when you consider dresses with a few more noughts don't manage these things.

[Topshop's budget designer wedding dress range]
[Wedding blog: Why the bride ends up doing everything]

It makes a lot of sense to buy a wedding dress that's under £100. The average cost of a bride's dress is more than £1,300 now, which is a good tenth of the Don't Tell The Bride budget and even if you're stretching to the average wedding cost of around £20k, it's still a hefty chunk. Imagine all the canapes you could buy with the £1,240 you'd save.

Mention the idea of buying your wedding dress off-the-rack at your local fashion store and you get slightly sad looks. There's something mystical about the idea of going to boutiques and trying on extravegant dresses. There's a sense of occasion to it. This is for most of us the only time we will expend this much energy (and cash) on finding a dress that makes us feel a million dollars.

It's not like we're celebs who get the chance to wear something fabulous to every film premiere. So picking it up with the rest of my spring wardrobe seems a bit of an anticlimax.

But perhaps the key here is a combination approach. I should (and probably will) check out the dresses in boutique wedding dress shops, try on a few designer style (it may be the only time I touch a Vera Wang gown, let alone wear one) but then when I've had my fun, perhaps I will head to H&M, bag my £60 dress and be done with it. I bet no one will even notice.