Post wedding - What did you do with your wedding stuff?

wandajune6

Since some of the productivity comments reminded me of the hideous amount of cleaning/decluttering we need to do...

For the other OMHs (or those who were recently involved in weddings) here, what have you done with your old wedding stuff? I have bits and pieces of spare stuff that's taking up space. I'm happy to give lots of it away but would love to get a bit of money back on some of it. Craig's List didn't work out (too many no-shows and inconvenient scheduling. A lot of it is too heavy to ship cheaply or too cheap to be worth the cost of shipping so Wedding Classifieds seems a bit pointless. I've donated a few things to Goodwill (DollarTree vases, etc.) but it's not efficient.

A close friend just got engaged and I offered her whatever she wanted (so far, 150 extra envelopes and table numbers). Beyond that, what do you do with the odds and ends? Partial spools of tulle, odd numbers of leftover escort cards, card boxes, candle holders, LED candles, etc. I'm not super-sentimental so I feel no need to keep any of it unless I can see it being useful.

What did yo save? What did you keep? How did you get rid of it all?

(ETA more inclusive language)

cupcait927

I haven't gotten rid of anything yet - it's all sitting in our spare bedroom. My dress I will probably donate (I have zero sentimental attachment to it and kind of hate it) and the rest I plan on putting up on my local Facebook swap&sell pages. The people on those sites tend to be better about showing up and communicating than on Craigslist. I don't even care if I make any money back on any of it, I just want it gone and feel bad throwing it out.

climbingsingle

I left all of my centerpieces with my venue. I didn't have much left over. And pretty much everything else I've saved. I just wore my shoes again last week. My dress has been cleaned. I kept the extra invitations. My friend is making me a shadowbox thing with my bouquet and H's boutonniere. 

Lowell14

My dress was donated, my bouquet is in a box and the decor was left at the hotel.

My decor was gold votive and table diamonds and our venue was happy to keep them as the reception room is gold and purple. I didn't mind not selling anything because I only spent around £50 and knew I wouldn't make any money back.

southernbelle0915

Leftover stuff is in a few boxes in my basement. We've tried to come up with ideas for using the stuff in some super duper special meaningful way, but we've been saying that for almost 2 years at this point so..... probably not going to happen.

thisismynickname2

I actually JUST threw out our extra STDs and invitations. I kept one of each for the wedding album; that's sufficient. My dress is cleaned and in the closet. My headpiece is in the closet. 

Other than that, my mom took the (fake) flower bouquets and other minimal decor we had (card box, some vases) to re-purpose and reuse. I'm glad we didn't have to buy centerpieces or anything like that. 

novella1186

Is there a local consignment shop you could take the nicer stuff to? If you want to get a little money back on it but don't want the hassle of shipping, that seems like it could be a good way to go. 

The one here let's you set up a space and drop off the stuff. Then they take 10% of however much money you make, so it's really easy to deal with. 

emmaaa

Does your area have a yard sale page on Facebook? I have seen a lot of people in my area post their wedding stuff and has sold it that way.

Maggie0829

I kept one extra invitation.  I think I only had 2 or 3 left over so the rest just went into the trash. I kept the extra envelopes and used most for Christmas Eve party invites I made.  Any extra craft material I kept for future crafting uses.  My card box I sold at a yard sale.  I made a sign that said "CARDS" in wooden letters to place in front of the card box and after a year of it collecting dust I threw it away.  I had about 20 leftover Hershey bars that I wrapped up all cute for favors. Those ended up in my belly

As for my dress, it was cleaned and preserved and is now being used as a shoe rack in my closet.  My wedding shoes are still in my closet and I have worn them once or twice since.  My DIY veil is still in my guest room closet kind of rolled up into a ball (I should probably just throw that out).  My blingy headband is in a file cabinet waiting for me to have a chance to wear it again.

charcoalandblush

There may be a bridal consignment store in your area. We have one here that accepts basically all wedding decor, prices it and sells it for you, and you get 50% of what they get for it.

I'm also in 3 different Facebook buy/sell groups, although try to get one that's as specific in location as possible. Two of mine are for my entire state, so someone will post something I need and then I ask about it and find out they're 2 hours away. Not worth it for a $15 vase.

kvruns

I've been picking up things off of my local wedding FB pages so that would be a good place to check. Or any family or friends having a garage sale any time this spring/summer?

A friend gave me a bunch of leftover stuff from her wedding but I don't think we'll be using any of it so I'm going to see if she wants me to try to sell it for her on the fb page.

julieanne912

emmaaa said:

Does your area have a yard sale page on Facebook? I have seen a lot of people in my area post their wedding stuff and has sold it that way.

We have dedicated Facebook pages to sell wedding stuff locally too.  

I'm not married yet, but I already know I'll keep my dress and veil.  When I was a kid I loved looking at my mom's dress, so I'll keep it around for a hypothetical daughter to look at.  It's not a poofy dress so it won't take up a ton of space.  

My 'vases' are my MOH's collection of mason jars, so they'll go back to her.  Otherwise I won't have a lot of high value decor items... I will probably buy my tablecloths but I figure they'll be easy to re-sell, I'm doing chocolate brown, and they're only like $6 or $7 each to begin with so I can sell them for $3 and feel fine with it.  

jenna8984

I kept my dress (still need to get it professionally cleaned and preserved so the lace doesn't yellow).

But all the decorations, I sold online. I'm on 2 facebook groups that are just for local selling shit, and 2 that are just for residents' forum where you can talk about anything. I posted on those and sold everything pretty instantly. I also posted it here on the classifieds (the items that were small and cheap to ship) and sold a few items that way. Flat rate shipping boxes make it a breeze to add into the price.

 

 

ShesSoCold

I cancelled the original wedding about a month before and I was too sad to throw away my planning folder with all wedding-related stuff. I finally recycled that a few weeks ago. I don't know if I saved an invitation somewhere.

The vases and paper flowers I never used sat at my mom's house for a while, until a friend used them for a charity dinner she was helping with. I told her to keep 'em if she wanted 'em. I did save about a dozen of the flowers and they're in a vase on my nightstand. 

The dress (and veil, I think?) are in the bag, dirty on my mom's screened in balcony. I think my stepdad wants me to take it but I don't know what to do with it. I need to get off my ass and sell it. 

chibiyui

I kept two of my centerpieces, a few of the votives I made, and we kept the collectible stuff that H got to set around our cakes. I also kept a few of the cookie stands I made. Pretty much everything else was either given away or went to the trash/goodwill. 

Oh. We also kept all the lanterns hanging around the window. The lanterns hanging from the ceiling were rented

I've worn my shoes once I think, and my dress is still hanging on the closet door waiting to be cleaned. I'd like to wear my hat to the ren faire.

wandajune6

I took care of the dress already (preserved and stuffed in the back of the closet), bought shoes that I'd wear all the time and do, and gave my friend the hair piece for a formal event. Those were easy.

I stink with the Facebook sales groups. I'm a member of a few as well but my location stinks. When I had people interested, the distance was always too far. I need to find one closer to me!  Ditto on the consignment stores- great idea.

Great suggestions. Thanks!

theartistformerlyknownas

All my crap is still in the basement and attic. I'll use leftover fabric and paper in future crafting endeavors. I think my table numbers got thrown out, since they were just glorified paper tent cards.

I would check a local high school and see if they could use the vases/candles/etc for prom, maybe escort cards as place cards for career day or something.

jenna8984

@lolo883 Was it you that had the family member made the arbor and you were gunna keep it for your backyard? Did you end up doing that?

theartistformerlyknownas

jenna8984 said:

@lolo883 Was it you that had the family member made the arbor and you were gunna keep it for your backyard? Did you end up doing that?

Yes and yes! We haven't set it up yet since we're moving, but there's a great place for it at the new house!

jenna8984

lolo883 said:

jenna8984 said:

@lolo883 Was it you that had the family member made the arbor and you were gunna keep it for your backyard? Did you end up doing that?

Yes and yes! We haven't set it up yet since we're moving, but there's a great place for it at the new house!

Yaaay!! That's so fun

JennyColada

We didn't have much stuff leftover from our wedding: The rest of the thank you cards we just kept (they just have our names on it, not the date, so we can use them as generic thank you cards). My dress/accessories I donated (tax deduction yo!).

Let's see...I can't even think of anything else that we have.

We have a "just married" sign that we held up in some photos, and I want to hang that in our bedroom, but right now it's just in our "to scrapbook" box.

All the other decorations, flowers, chair covers, etc. were rented, so we didn't have anything to take home.

ETA: We had a small wedding, so we didn't even have a card box, table numbers, escort cards, or anything like that. So nothing to get rid of!

labro

I didn't have much DIY so I thankfully didn't have tons of stuff leftover after the wedding.

5 months later my dress is still hanging in my closet waiting to be cleaned.

I've reworn my shoes once, and I have plans to wear them again this year to some special events.

I sent my headband to a friend to wear for her wedding.

I did some crafty stuff with my extra invitations and STDs and other stationary. I made a couple ornaments, a shadow box with dried wedding flowers and stationary and some touristy stuff from the honeymoon, 

The rest of it all fit in to a small box that lives in in my home office closet. I don't know what to do with the guest book. I gave some baskets to a friend of my sister's who is getting married later in the year (that I used for programs and the flower girl and stuff). I re-used my sister's mason jars for some decor at my wedding and rehearsal dinner, so I suppose now we'll either give them to someone else (plus I plan to keep some for canning purposes since they gave with the lids and everything).

Cookie Pusher

What did I do with my leftover stuff besides send it do you? Umm... stuck what little I had in a 9 gallon plastic tub in my closet. My dresses are getting donated, my shoes I wore again, my centerpieces are currently being borrowed but will be getting donated after that, and my bouquet is in a vase in my living room. Even though I DIY'd so damn much stuff, I didn't really end up with that much leftover stuff that hasn't already been re-purposed.

wandajune6

Cookie Pusher said:

What did I do with my leftover stuff besides send it do you? Umm... stuck what little I had in a 9 gallon plastic tub in my closet. My dresses are getting donated, my shoes I wore again, my centerpieces are currently being borrowed but will be getting donated after that, and my bouquet is in a vase in my living room. Even though I DIY'd so damn much stuff, I didn't really end up with that much leftover stuff that hasn't already been re-purposed.

I learned my lesson from you--- I ended up doing 1/couple so I used one sheet of the packet of escort cards from the pack I bought and the rest came from you!

I wish I could toss everything into tubs. With no basement or attic, our storage space sucks. We're already fighting it out for closet space and I'm trying to get it out of our guest bedroom before we have an actual guest (2 weeks from now)!

Cookie Pusher

wandajune6 said:

Cookie Pusher said:

What did I do with my leftover stuff besides send it do you? Umm... stuck what little I had in a 9 gallon plastic tub in my closet. My dresses are getting donated, my shoes I wore again, my centerpieces are currently being borrowed but will be getting donated after that, and my bouquet is in a vase in my living room. Even though I DIY'd so damn much stuff, I didn't really end up with that much leftover stuff that hasn't already been re-purposed.

I learned my lesson from you--- I ended up doing 1/couple so I used one sheet of the packet of escort cards from the pack I bought and the rest came from you!

I wish I could toss everything into tubs. With no basement or attic, our storage space sucks. We're already fighting it out for closet space and I'm trying to get it out of our guest bedroom before we have an actual guest (2 weeks from now)!

Bed risers and under-bed storage boxes? That's the only way we could store all 89754687465465 pairs of oil-stained jeans DH insists are still good enough to wear.

wandajune6

Cookie Pusher said:

wandajune6 said:

Cookie Pusher said:

What did I do with my leftover stuff besides send it do you? Umm... stuck what little I had in a 9 gallon plastic tub in my closet. My dresses are getting donated, my shoes I wore again, my centerpieces are currently being borrowed but will be getting donated after that, and my bouquet is in a vase in my living room. Even though I DIY'd so damn much stuff, I didn't really end up with that much leftover stuff that hasn't already been re-purposed.

I learned my lesson from you--- I ended up doing 1/couple so I used one sheet of the packet of escort cards from the pack I bought and the rest came from you!

I wish I could toss everything into tubs. With no basement or attic, our storage space sucks. We're already fighting it out for closet space and I'm trying to get it out of our guest bedroom before we have an actual guest (2 weeks from now)!

Bed risers and under-bed storage boxes? That's the only way we could store all 89754687465465 pairs of oil-stained jeans DH insists are still good enough to wear.

That's where we store shoes and out-of-season clothes.

DH has a similar number of oil-stained jeans. We haven't figured out where to store them yet.

I've told The Kid that we're annexing his room for a bigger closet when he leaves

Cookie Pusher

I started throwing out DH's ratty old clothes when he's not home. It's not like he's going to miss a holey t-shirt that's been packed in a box since 2006!

wandajune6

Cookie Pusher said:

I started throwing out DH's ratty old clothes when he's not home. It's not like he's going to miss a holey t-shirt that's been packed in a box since 2006!

I do that all the time with his shirts and socks. I also buy him t-shirts I know he'll love when I see them cheap, or give them as gifts. That way, he never notices that his selection has decreased. He spends his life in t-shirts so he can justify a larger collection.

marie2785

For things you can't sell but don't want to trash--freecycle them, or the craigslist free section. You can be much more demanding about pickup times when your giving stuff away. I recently just left a box of yard sale stuff outside the house after placing a free craigslist ad and EVERYTHING was gone within 4 hrs. Including a few huge and slightly rusty file cabinets. 

KytchynWitche

Pretty much everything we used in the wedding was stuff we bought for the flat anyway, so it's all been returned to where it "lives". My dress is lying on the bed in the spare room, and the paper stuff (programs, table names etc.) is in a box in the spare room, where it will remain until I decide whether or not I'm going to do a display thing.

IrishPirate60

Local drama departments at high schools might be able to use some of your leftovers. Crafty things might be welcome at a daycare (for kids or seniors).