Wedding Dress...what did you do with yours?

it's hanging in my closet. lol

 

There are organizations that will take donated wedding dresses to make into burial clothing for babies who are born sleeping or who pass away shortly after birth, who then donate them to hospitals/families who request one.

http://www.nicuhelpinghands.org/programs/angel-gown-program/

 

It looks like the one I sent you isn't taking donations at the time, but you can always keep an eye out for their next donation drive.

 

I had mine cleaned and sealed in the storage box. It cost $100, which wasn't too bad considering the dress itself was free but needed $300 of alterations. It's now sitting in the spare bedroom at my parents' house. I wouldn't mind if my sister wanted to use it and it would fit her fine.

My mom's dress she stored in a plastic bag in a chest with a bunch of moth balls! I got to see it a few times growing up. It was made by her cousin, very 80s, but pretty. That's one thing that I might regret about having the dress sealed up - future daughters won't be able to see it.

 

Sealed after my wedding. I plan to have baptismal gowns made out of it when I have grandkids.

 

I did the cleaning & 'preserved' in a box thing. The box is in the closet in our guest room. I'm not 100% sold on the preservation thing- as when I opened it to steal my veil out of it (a friend borrowed for her wedding)- there really wasn't anything special about the packaging except the box top folded in.

Lately I've wanted to pull it out & do a cute photo shoot with my daughter wearing it- but she's 9 now & almost too old for that I think? I don't know why I have kept it- My dress was super pretty but I doubt she'll want it when she's the marrying age- but who knows what will be in style then!

 

My mom made her dress into a christening gown in which me and my two sisters got baptized.
Which I think is an amazing idea.

Her mom had made her dress back in the day.

I'm not getting married anytime soon. First need to find that certain someone. And I will not get any children baptized if I ever get some. So I don't know what I would do. But I very much like the idea of making it into something that you will actually use. I do not like the idea of saving it for any future kids to get married in. I wouldn't have wanted that in my moms dress.

 

Mine's preserved as well! I don't know if I will do anything. If there comes an opportunity to give/share/donate to someone I know, i would do that. It's a beautiful dress and has wonderful bead work too!

 

I loved reading this thread! Mine's hanging in my closet and now I'm tempted to have it made into a dress for my daughters. Do I dare?! My mom's best friend (who is my namesake) made my wedding dress so I love that it's one of a kind.

 

I, too, enjoyed reading this thread!!!
I "trashed the dress" at the beach on my honeymoon.

Trash the Dress by klee73010 posted Feb 28, 2016 at 8:12 PM

Trash the Dress 2 by klee73010 posted Mar 26, 2016 at 7:57 PM

After this, I put the dress into a garbage bag, in order to catch all the beach sand before it covered our hotel, car, and subsequent storage areas. It's never come out of the garbage bag, sand and all! :O
I know it was in our apartment storage area and got some water on it from a leak in a water heater. I didn't pay much attention to that, since it was never cleaned from the beach. I honestly do not know what shape it's in at this point. I want to check it this summer and take pics of my daughter in it (as Amien mentioned) if it's still "good" - but then I'd like to do something else with it that will be useful. I'm not sure what. If the butterflies are salvageable, I'm betting my daughter would wear them as hair clips. She'd play dress up in it, if I let her. I know my sisters and I wore my mom's dress for Halloween some years.... our own version of dress up, I guess.

 

I rented a wedding dress so it was returned to the shop the next day.

 

Mine was never cleaned just put back into the bag from the dress shop and then I put it in my cedar chest. My girls did pull it out when they were girls to try it on. I was married in 1986 so the style was not something my daughter wanted when she got married.
We did use my mom's for a Christening gown, it was so pretty!
I only know of one person who worn a hand me down gown. My cousin's daughter wore her grandmother's dress. She was married in the early 2000's and her grandmother was married In the 1950's so it was a gorgeous retro/modern wedding!
I have seen on-line where daughters have taken their mother's dresses and have had them altered. You would not believe it was the same dress.

 

I love seeing pictures from weddings from the years past. So beautiful! Now, I want you all to post more!

 

Here's mine ... 20 years ago. And I'm so young! ha!

 

Mine was cleaned and boxed too. The box is on the top shelf of my DD's closet. I doubt she will want to wear it but I don't really know what to do with it as I haven't found anyplace around here that accepts bridal gown donations and I can't bring myself to throw it out.

 

I had mine converted into a baptismal gown that both my kids wore. It had a lace overlay so I had a lace jacket made for it if it's a girl using the gown and you can remove if it's a boy. I'm hoping that my kids would use it for their own children. I figured that was a bit more likely than any daughter wearing my wedding dress!

(it's also a lot cheaper to have a baptismal gown cleaned than a wedding gown! LOL)

 

I still have my wedding dress, but it's plain white linen summer dress from Banana Republic, so I didn't feel the need to do anything special with it. In fact, it's hanging in my closet with the rest of my other dresses right now.

I actually hadn't thought about it in so long that I decided to go try it on. 15 years later, and it still fits!

 

My purple satin & lace elopement dress is in my closet. Hubby won't let me donate it, thinks I'd regret it. My wedding ceremony (2yrs later) dress is a beautiful ivory satin Jessica McClintock strapless dress with trim & beading at the bodice. It is still in the quilted basket a friend made for me. I've taken it out a few times since. I've also lent out the earrings for a friend's "something borrowed". The handmade garter is in a shadowbox on the wall, also made by a family friend. Almost all the pieces of my ensemble were made by family friends so I like keeping it all in the basket that was made by a friend who has since passed.