Bride knits her own wedding dress for less than $300 in 45 days: 'Thank goodness my idea worked out'

Editor's note: This article was originally published on November 4, 2022. It has since been updated.

When Veronica Lindberg Heino—better known as Kika through her social media presence—and her fiance purchased a house, they decided that they wanted to throw a housewarming party. As the two had been engaged for more than a year at the time, the occasion also seemed like the perfect opportunity to hold their wedding, she revealed in a YouTube Q&A video. Thus began the wedding planning. However, they soon discovered that weddings are extremely expensive, with the average wedding dress costing $1,800 in 2021, according to Knot. Veronica initially thought about making her own dress but quickly dismissed the idea. However, the longer she kept looking at dresses and their prices, she became convinced she should go with her original plan. She ended up doing something unheard of knitting and crocheting her wedding dress in 45 days with a budget of just $300!

Veronica, based in Helsinki, Finland, is known for her stitching and crocheting vlogs, with about 251,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel, and more than 147,000 followers on Instagram. To create her wedding dress, Veronica placed an order for about 50 skeins of pure silk yarn, which cost her less than $300. In the video detailing the dress creation process, she admitted that placing the order was a giant leap of faith. "I have no idea in three weeks' time if it’s going to be tears and frustration," she said, "and maybe it's not gonna go at all as planned. But right now I feel really good about it." Veronica video journaled the entire journey from start to finish in a beautiful, emotional 46-minute-long video on her channel.

Before jumping into the knitting part of the project, Veronica took the time to sketch up potential dress designs. As you can imagine, there were some tears along the way with this high-stakes project. She had to tear out a significant portion of the work a week before her big day because she was dissatisfied with how it had turned out. However, in the end, she miraculously managed to complete the dress a few days before the wedding. The end product was a stunning piece of craftsmanship, in which Veronica used many genius crochet stitch techniques, birthing a special and completely unique dress. 

She posted a sneak peek of her wedding dress on Instagram on her big day, writing: "Somehow I managed to knit my own wedding dress in 6 weeks?!?" She proceeded to thank all her followers and supporters for being there for her throughout the emotional journey. "I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's been following along my journey of making this dress," Veronica wrote, crediting the success of the dress to her well-wishers on social media. "Every comment, DM, and like has given me the energy to keep knitting all throughout moving homes and planning this wedding in only 1.5 months' time, thank you."

She shared that her favorite thing about the dress was the frill at the bottom of the dress, writing: "The last frill at the bottom of the dress gave it that final 'wow!' effect that I was going for, thank goodness my idea worked out!" She added that she feels grateful for the day and the dress. "Yesterday was a day filled with so much love and laughter, tears of joy, good friends, dancing, hugs and kisses, bubbles and cake, and I'm filled with so much gratitude today," she wrote.