SIX THINGS TO DO WITH YOUR WEDDING GOWN AFTER THE BIG DAY

1. Preserve professionally. Preserving your wedding dress in a box is definitely the traditional and probably most common thing to do. Sealed or unsealed? Box or bag? These are the questions you begin to ask today. And there are many sources around the web with all the pros and cons of each!

For me, I’m not so sure I want to box mine away for 20 or 30 something years. My mom had her dress preserved in a box and sealed professionally. She has moved it from apartment to condo, from condo to house, and from house to house. It was so special to be able to take her preserved gown out of its box only weeks away from my wedding and both play dress ups. And let me just say, it was made for my Mom.  It still looked good on her to this day. We aren’t sure if it is from age or possibly before acid free boxes were made, but despite the professional preservation, Mom’s dress still ended up with yellow stains. I can’t help but to ask myself, is preserving my dress worth the cost, effort and time? Or is there something better I can do with it?

2. Sell online. A bride wears her dress on her special day. She has photos to prove it. She may love her dress, but now she doesn’t need it anymore. No reason for it to take up room in a closet for the next bundle of years. Today there are many tools such as etsy, ebay and blogs, throughout the internet that make it easy for you to sell your wedding dress.

I just love this bride’s dress above! She had an amazing day, married her best friend and did this all in a completely beautiful gown!And on top of that, she announced that she was selling her dress. Why not?! She used it and loved it and then made a little money back on the expensive gown she had picked out.

3. Make a family heirloom. Take a piece of your dress and put it in a pendant. Pass it down from generation to generation and each time add a piece of that generation’s wedding dress.

This is such a great way (and more realistic way) to hold on to your wedding dress and pass it through each generation. Your daughter may want her own wedding dress 20 or 30 years from now, but everyone loves a piece of jewelry with a little piece of history!

4. Re-purpose it. A wedding gown comes with a lot of fabric. If you are a practical kind of person, you can choose to use pieces of the dress practically.

Imagine your wedding photo album decorated with strips of tulle or lace from your dress! Or you can be even more practical and imagine seeing pieces of your dress around the house! Decorate pillows or make sachets for potpourri to keep in your dresser drawer. Or add it to your practical wardrobe! Remove the bodice from the dress and shorten the skirt to create a piece you can re-wear again and again. Ideas are endless!

5 Donate the dress. Many little girls dream about their wedding their whole young life. However, when it comes time for the wedding, it isn’t just a dream anymore. It’s reality and excitement! It’s a little girl’s fairytale! But it’s also a lot of money and sometimes it’s compromise. The budget has to be cut somewhere. Your dress could be a special bride’s dream dress!

How wonderful would it be for your dress to find a bride who loves it just as much as you did! Not that your dress is a person, but if it has such a sentimental value, it’s kind of fun to think of it this way! And it’s reassuring to know that the life of your dress didn’t end at the farewell exit from your reception!

6. Restyle! For a good little Catholic girl, there is one other time aside from her wedding day, when she needs a white dress. Her First Communion. Take your wedding dress and redesign it so that your daughter can wear it for her First Communion.

I just simply love this idea! Such a special time for your little girl, and to see her wear the wedding dress you wore for your sacrament of Matrimony, can really only make it even more special!