I Do. I Did. Now What?! Life After the Wedding Dress

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Life after the wedding dress - columbia sc moms blog

After my wedding, I was still so in love with my wedding dress. I was trim, tanned and toned. Having it professionally fitted did wonders for me and I never felt more beautiful in my life.

After my wedding my mom had the dress cleaned of all the dirt, beer and food from the bottom. It was stored in a way that would prevent aging. Not wanting it to go to waste, I had a plan to wear it on weekends, while doing housework, while entertaining guests and even re-create the episode from “Friends” where Monica, Rachel and Phoebe try on wedding dresses in the privacy of their apartment. What else would a girl do on a Friday night with her besties?

But for years, actually more like a decade, the dress just sat there in the box. I’d open it every now and then but I never had a desire to put it back on and vacuum. It just didn’t seem right to have this beautiful dress collecting dust and getting zero use — but what can you do with a wedding dress you cherish the memories of, but is doing no one any good by taking up space in your attic?

Here are three things you can do with your dress that are more creative than just sitting in an airtight box like a mid-century fancy shmancy painting. Side note: Are mid-century paintings fancy?

Donate It

There are so many organizations that can use a donated wedding dress. Organizations like Brides Against Breast Cancer will sell dresses and use the profits to support programs that help breast cancer patients. Angels Unaware will take your wedding dress and create Angel gowns, capes, tuxedos and bracelets for babies who were stillborn or miscarried. Seamstresses volunteer their time to create beautiful outfits so parents can remember their child in a meaningful and special way.

Wedding dresses can be made into burial gowns for babies gone too soon.

Create It

You can take your dress to a seamstress and have it turned into a christening gown, first communion gown or just a play gown. It’s a great way to repurpose your wedding dress. After my mom’s passing, a friend graciously offered to turn my mom’s wedding gown into decorative pillows for all of the granddaughters in the family. These keepsakes are so loved and cherished and we were lucky to have someone in our lives that could donate their time. Otherwise, this may end up costing more than your actual dress.

A wedding gown can be re-purposed.

Trash It

I’ll admit it … it makes a great photo op. Maybe Prince Charming turned out to be a less wealthy, less attractive version of Charlie Sheen and the mere sight of the dress has your left eye twitching. You get to put that dress back on and do what.ev.er. You can play paintball, roll around in the sand, let the kids draw on it, sit in mud, douse it with gasoline and light it on fire. It’s probably one of the few times in the life of an adult woman that you can make a decision and not have to answer to anyone about it. Cherish that moment and Instagram the beading out of it.

Trash It!

Whether the dress and that day was a reminder of how far you’ve come as a couple or how far you’ve come as an individual, anything is better than just leaving it boxed up in the attic next to the holiday decorations (and hey, even those get to come out once year).

2 COMMENTS

    • Hello! Angels Unaware will take a cleaned wedding dress and re-purpose the gown for burial gowns for premature babies. They have a facebook page that you can get in touch with them!

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