Why keep the wedding dress?

Mzarob16 · June 2014

I absolutely love my wedding dress - I don't want to let it go, but I'm trying to figure out why I should hold on to it..

What do people eventually do with their wedding dress?

Is it worth keeping?

raissyrais · June 2014

I know most women have the dress cleaned and keep it as a souvenir. Now the trend is the "trash the dress" sessions, where photos are taken while the bride dives in a lake or has paint thrown on her dress, sets it on fire or even rolls around in mud with the dress on. I personally think it's sad because there are so many women out there who can't afford dresses and would love to get a dress like that at half price or less! You can either hold on to your dress as a keepsake or sell it for charity (this is what I'll be doing). If it is still in very good condition after your wedding you can just sell it for some cash that you can put towards your new home?

emmyg65 · June 2014

Because you want to? That's why I'm keeping mine. Plus, it's hot pink so I couldn't donate it to one of the organizations that collect used wedding dresses. I'm keeping it until I know what to do with it. It may very well end up becoming a dress up dress for our baby-to-be.

climbingsingle · June 2014

I want to keep mine. I can't imagine selling it or trashing it.

ShellD13 · June 2014

I think I'll be donating mine, I can't imagine my stepdaughter wanting to wear it and DH and I won't be having any children so I really don't see it serving any purpose in my closet other than taking up space and I like the idea that someone who may not be able to afford a dress could use it for their wedding.

JoanE2012 · June 2014

I kept mine. It's cleaned and preserved in a box with a seal so I can't even see it. The box is too big really for any of the closet shelfs. I'm really questioning why I saved it. Though I know if I got rid of it or donated it, I'd be questioning that decision too and disappointed that I no longer have it. Sometimes I can't win with myself.

[Deleted User] · June 2014

Styles change so much from generation to generation. I've heard of some traditions on how to "reuse" the dress. This pertains more to if you have kids. T

Take a portion of the dress and make a baptism hat for your child out of it.
Take a portion of the dress to wrap the base of the bouquet of the bride (your daughter or futher DIL)

One of my friends is starting a tradition of instead wearing her mom's dress, she is wearing her veil. That is after the veil portion was removed from the 80's head piece & sewn onto a simple comb. They are hoping to pass the veil on through generations now.

IrishPirate60 · June 2014

My mother's wedding dress spent years folded up in a brown paper sack in a cedar chest. I was never going to wear it (she was darn tiny in those days). Years later, a friend of mine took the dress and some photos of my mom (from her wedding, from her parents' 60th anniversary). The photos she turned into fabric and then she created a terrific wall hanging that is in my living room. I got a big print of it and it hung for several years above Mom's bed in the nursing home. Long after she no longer remembered who those people were, she still liked looking at the arrangement.

MrsMcCaw · June 2014

My daughter had a beautiful ball gown. After her wedding she had it made into a quilt. The person that did the quilt also made a purse that my granddaughter will be able to use for her wedding.

mrsjhodge · July 2014

While I loved my dress, I have no attachment to it at all. I left it with my mom and asked her to get it cleaned and brought to a wedding consignment store. I hope someone else gets to love it.

All my other wedding decor is being sold as well.

I'd rather have money than stuff that will just sit in boxes or take up closet space.

princessleia22 · July 2014

My mom still has her dress sitting in a chest after 43 years. I think she may have hoped that maybe one of her daughters would wear it one day. Both me and my sister are getting married this summer. We both tried it on, but she agreed that it was dated and didn't fit either of our styles. So, it will continue to just sit in a box for the rest of her life. My wedding was a couple of weeks ago. I wish I had thought ahead and me and my sister could have used some part of mom's dress at each of our weddings (either sewn into the lining, used as accent, or on bouquet). But, I also couldn't bear the thought of even asking my mom to cut up her dress.

I have seen people have the dress made into baby clothes.

I plan to get mine cleaned and sell it or donate it. I had searched for this dress used and couldn't find it, so ended up buying it new and paying more than I had wanted to. So, I figure I can give someone else the opportunity to wear it for a cheaper price. Or if I were to find the right person, I would consider donating it to someone who can't afford a dress. There are charities that you can donate the dress to, but most of them sell the dress and just use the money purchase new dresses or pay for other wedding expenses. I'd rather just donate the dress in whole to someone who wants to wear this dress.

kns1988 · July 2014

I thought I was going to donate mine, but I think I'll keep it because FILs are giving us a beautiful cedar chest that I can store it in. If it ever became a nuisance to store, I'd donate it. I really don't like the trash the dress trend either. It's so wasteful.

My mom had her dress, my aunt's, and my grandmother's stored in the attic when I was a kid. She let me take them out once and try them on when I was older, and it's a really good memory that I have. I like that she didn't treat them like some sacred garments that I wasn't allowed to touch.

larrygaga · July 2014

I'm the type of person that would preserve it and take it out every once in awhile to look at it. I would also want to dress up my possible future daughters in it like some weird psycho mom. Just for a minute, then they can choose their own dress.

Fairyjen1 · July 2014

I am not very sentimental, and my mom does theatrical costuming, so my dress will end up in a show somewhere, probably. I will probably also chop off the train and add wings to make a fairy costume for Halloween. Unless FI perfers we preserve it. He's far more sentimental than I!

aggiespartan · August 2014

If I were getting a long dress, I would consider seeing if there was a way I could make it into a short dress. My dress is going to be short, so my plan for the moment is to save it and have it dyed, so I can wear it again, maybe save it to wear on our first anniversary.

RedJacks25 · August 2014

I will be donating my wedding dress to here: http://www.nicuhelpinghands.org/lend-a-helping-hand/angel-gowns/

vh2014 · August 2014

As a photographer who did a trash the dress session or two, it doesn't really have to trash the dress. There are so many shots you can get that you wouldn't dare try knowing she was going to need it for the wedding day. One of mine went in water- beautiful shot of the bride that I actually used for competitions and she blew up as a portrait for her wall.

What did we do with the dress afterwards? She gave it to me to use in the studio or whatever I wanted to do with it. I took it home, washed it (yes... in the machine... and it did just fine) and saved it. We used it in the studio a few times for fun shoots (to give people the idea of photographing their daughter playing dress up).Now that I no longer have a studio I still couldn't throw the gorgeous thing away. So I gave it to FSIL, whose mother is a seamstress, and they planning on using it as the base of another new dress. So all trash the dress doesn't have to literally destroy it and make unusable. I don't think I could actually destroy one either.

I will NOT be doing a trash the dress because I got what I wanted as far as "different" shots at my bridal shoot and don't want anything else. I'm keeping mine for now. My Granny kept hers and we all wore it through the years. She cut off parts and used it for some dance one time. If she wasn't so tiny I would have tried to wear it for my wedding. She also put it on and I photographed her in it with a cousin in her dress before she passed. These are my favorite pictures... she's so happy. So I'm going to have mine cleaned and who knows... maybe at 70 or 80 I'll put it back on and someone will take my picture in it... I think it would be fun to do for one of the big anniversaries...

plainjane0415 · September 2014

I'm planning on getting my gown preserved in a clear shadow box type thing to display in our closet. I'm very into fashion, and all things girly, so I thought this would be a neat way to always have it around and keep it looking nice in case I have a daughter one day that wants to wear it.

Knottie59641725 · October 2014

im keeping mine.. it is (still in process) being custom made and i love it so much.. i have a 20 year old daughter so maybe she will wear it. I also have a 21 year old son and maybe when he gets married his FW will want to wear it..

theartistformerlyknownas · October 2014

I'm keeping mine, but will likely repurpose it somehow. I'm considering cutting off the bottom to make it a nice cocktail dress - it's a mermaid style so it would come out like a sheath dress, and it's champagne, not white. I don't want to save it hoping to have a daughter who will share the same size and taste as me. I'm hoping to pass my handmade veil down as an heirloom (or a "something borrowed" in the near term) instead. Then there are lots of other heirlooms I could make from the cut off skirt material - a christening gown, Christmas tree skirt, ring bearer pillow to hand down to someone else, edge a baby blanket with the satin from my sash, etc. I think those things would have a lot more sentimental value than the dress itself anyway. And I love it too much to let it go to waste in a box.

drina0218 · October 2014

I've been married for almost 2 months. Still in the trunk of my car lol.

vh2014 · November 2014

@drina0218 popped over here from TheBump and this is the first post I opened... got married Aug 30- so over 2 months and yep... mine is still in the trunk too. LOL Keep saying I'm going to get it cleaned but first price was $120... not for preservation, just cleaning. But I'm thinking since the first post I opened was this one it's a sign. Though I can't decide if it's a sign that it's ok or that I should do something about it.

chelamarie09 · November 2014

We've been married for two weeks now. The dress is hanging in my closet. Haven't washed it (yeah yeah whatever) or preserved it in any way. After I changed out of it, I hung it up and brought it home. I'm not sure what I'll end up doing with it. It's a pretty dress, but it's not "classic" and I'm not sentimental; I don't think I could wear it again in its current state, though, because it is my wedding dress after all.

canadianhearts · November 2014

I think there are a few reasons to keep the dress versus sell or donate it: preserving it for a sentimental memory, doing a trash-the-dress shoot (not sure if that's exactly "preserving", haha!), and re-purposing fabric/beads for things like an anniversary dress or child's baptism gown, passing it on to your daughter if it's her style. I have no idea what I am going to do with mine next year. I want to keep it, but don't want it to end up at the back of the closet or in storage forever.

txbandwife · November 2014

I was keeping it "for my daughter" that I never had. then one day I realized it was taking up all this space in my closet and if I ever DID have a daughter she probably wouldn't have wanted it any more than I wanted my mom's dress.

So I gave it away to someone who needed a dress but was on a tight budget.

Jen4948 · November 2014

I think my mom still has her dress (her older sister also wore it) but according to her it hasn't been wearable for some twenty to thirty years even though she did her best to take care of it.

I don't think I'd want to keep mine, but I would never jump into water in it, get mud on it, or otherwise "trash" it. I see absolutely no point in wrecking an expensive outfit that someone else might appreciate wearing in the future.

Knottie13257900 · January 2015

I'll be sad to get rid of mine because I WISH I could wear it again (I think I could...just have no idea what I would wear it to)...so in reality it will probably just sit there in the closet while I get sad that I no longer have the body to wear it anymore (joking...sort of). So I think i'll sell it. I love it too much to part with it for less than half price though...even though I have no reason to keep it either way.

Fairyjen1 · February 2015

I do community theater and my mom is a professional costumer. I am planning on chopping off the train and my dress will end up in a show somewhere most likely. I'm also thinking of adding fairy wings and wearing to the Halloween party at Disneyland, it's sort of a fairy looking dress. We are going to Disneyland to celebrate our first anniversary.

Knottie13257900 · February 2015

Now that my wedding is over, I'm actually really excited to sell my dress. The thought of someone else wearing it makes me really proud (as if I designed it myself haha)--i'll probably ask the buyer to send me pics of her wearing it!

SP29 · February 2015

Trying to sell it.

I thought about keeping it, but couldn't come up with a good enough reason to. Not like I'm going to put it on again. Part of me is surprised I didn't get it preserved and boxed, cause I'm usually sentimental like that, but I just don't feel that connection to it- I think the photos I have of me in it are enough of the sentiment. That and it takes up a lot of space! I also figure styles change so often, my potential future daughter can pick her own dress.

Why keep the wedding dress?

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