What Do I Do with My Wedding Dress Now?

mine's in the closet, although I'm thinking of having it professionally preserved. I made it myself, so I've been reluctant to let anyone else mess with it, but I know I wouldnt be able to preserve it as well as a professional would.

I never got my dress preserved since I know it will never be worn again. It was too trendy. So what I do plan to do is have a few handkerchiefs made out of it. One will be for my daughter on her wedding day. And one for me on that day, too. I have to admit, I will probably put it on one last time before I let it go...

Have a trash the dress photo session :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trash_the_dress
http://www.cheslerphoto.com/trashthedressgallery.htm

Mine is in a box in my attic, never got around to having it cleaned and I *think* my cats might have torn up the bottom when it was still hanging in a dress bag in the closet. I know that realistically my daughter won't want to wear it any more than I wanted to wear my moms. Wish they had had trash the dress photo sessions after my wedding - I totally would have done that!

My wedding dress is currently hanging in my closet. It's been almost 11 years and I still have not had it preserved. I know that is what I should do in order to keep it from turning yellow. I just never think to take it. So, occasionally I put it on and sit in the middle of our bed and watch tv like R. and Pheobe from Friends did. Just for a laugh...and to see if it still fits!
Sorry I could not give you a serious or helpful answer!

I had mine professionally cleaned and boxed, but I take it out every year on my anniversary to make sure it still fits! 8 years and counting....!

I got married in 1975 and had my dress put in a preservation box. We opened it in 2005 when my daughter was looking for her wedding dress. It was as white then as it was the day I wore it. My daughter loved the dress but since I had gotten married in winter and she was having a summer wedding it wouldn't work for her.
I don't recommend storing it in plastic. Plastic doesn't breath and if any moisture gets in there it could mildew.

Parts of my wedding dress are hanging at my parents house in the closet of my old room, parts of my dress are hanging in the closet in the spare room of my house. Never did anything but clean it. Of course I didn't go with a traditional dress and it's made out of different materials, the parts hanging here are simply 100% cotton. The rest is brocade. We're about to celebrate our 16th year of marriage next month and there is nothing wrong with it at all. I would recommend getting it cleaned very soon at least. If it's made of traditional wedding dress materials you're going to get set in muck very soon. It's amazing how soon sweat stains etc start to show!

I had mine drycleaned and put into a special box. It has been 24 years and it is starting to slightly yellow along the bottom seams. I have heard a really cool thing to do with the wedding dress. IF... you don't want to save it for a daughter to wear ....most won't want to lol but just in case. But if you are not set on saving it for that have it cut down and made into the christening outfit for the first baby and then use it for all of them that come along and all the grandchildren etc. it makes a wonderful tradtion. you can also depending on how big the skirt was also have a skirt and hood made for the bassinet.

My wedding dress was a $90 black flowy dress from Victoria Secret....It was a size zero..because I weighed 100lbs when I got married. So, since I had spent the first four years of our marriage PREGNANT, It hung up sad in a closet. I had thought a few times to give it away. Something told me to keep it though.

I am glad I did. I got to wear it again last December when we went to my hubby's SUPER fancy Christmas party. It was at this five star hotel down town. We got to stay for free at the Hotel. Penthouse room...Holy cow. I bought these black sating High Heels..you know the super sexy kind:) I felt like a million bucks. Anytime I am having a bad day or feel like I am a hot mess..I think back to that night and how I felt like a Princess...It was awesome:)

So, I will forever keep it...if not to wear it again...keep it as a memento of the two best days of my life(this description is loosely used...I have many best days of my life).

YOur picture looks fabulous. Dress looks wonderful and you looked beautiful! If you were really want to keep it you shouldn't have to have it dry cleaned first. The place doing the preserving can do that. Mine did. Otherwise try to make a few bucks and sell it or donate it.
My was way too darn expensive so I had it preserved...perhaps my daughter will want it or not.....

I dry cleaned mine and its hanging in the dress bag in my closet.

I never got mine "preserved". I just put it back in a garmet bag & sealed it up good. Still looks good as new. I ended up giving mine away recently to someone who was very poor/on fixed income & couldn't afford to buy one for her daughter. Since I never could sell my dress (no one was interested in mine I guess) so I did a good deed w/it instead. If you can't find someone who needs it, there is an organization that helps breast cancer survivors have a good wedding by accepting your donated wedding items, i.e. wedding dress, veils, pillows, anything like that you want to donate, it's called Making Memories Foundation. The website is: http://www.makingmemories.org/ I also know that some use their dresses & make quilts out of them or frame them for I guess decorative reasons just to keep them but if you don't need it or want to hang on to it in the event your daughter(s) wouldn't want to wear it some day...aka they want their own dress...then perhaps donating it would be consideration?? I was going to donate mine to that organization but ended up finding someone local that was in need of a dress. Hope this helps, good luck.

I had the same question a couple months back. I now have boys, so I don't have need for it, but couple suggestions someone made

1. Donate it
2. Take picture of it for memories
3. Save it for your daughter (something old, new, blue type thing)
4. Keep it - you might know a friend getting married who could use one.

hmmm put it on and jump on the bed like a little kid...thats what i did...lol
cant u have it shortened it looks so pretty..you could keep it as a hot summer dress for a party if it were short

I had mine dry-cleaned and is hanging in a garment bag in my closet.

I used the skirt part to make a Christening dress for my daughters. I did save the top so if they wanted to wear it they would only need someone to make the skirt part.

R.,
I have been married 15 years....after my wedding my mom had it cleaned because it was filthy! She then bought several yards of unbleached muslin fabric and wrapped the dress in it and put it in a cardboard box - a nice, brand new one for storing clothes. I don't think leaving it in a plastic garment bag is a good idea.
My daughters and I got the dress out not long ago and it looked exactly the same as the night I wore it. We wrapped it back up and hopefully it will look the same in 15 more years.
Congrats to you on your wedding!

Mine wasn't overly fancy, very plain and elegant. My mother and I cut the train off of it so it looked like a white evening gown. We then used the fabric from the train to make the christening gown I've used for all six babies.

Every year on our anniversary, I wear my wedding dress. Wherever we go (or don't go) or do (or don't do), I put it on again.

Mine is hanging in a bag - uncleaned and unfixed (the pickups fell out of the dress before the night was over)... didn't do anything special. My dress is the type that can be worn again - if I ever have a super special event to go to, and may still be stylish enough in 15 years... who knows!

I wore my moms. We got it drycleaned and hung it up. She ended up having it redone to be a nice dress to wear for her 40 year reunion.

I had mine preserved. They did an awesome job. They clean it and fix any problems that you had. My friend stepped on my train and broke the loops to hold it up. It was much easier to store once they put it in the box then to just hang it up. It was too big and bulky to just hang up. They some how compress it to fit it a box and it has a blue colored window so that you can see it. It also came with gloves so that if you open the box you won't get it dirty again. I would spend the extra $ and have it done prefessionally. You won't regret it.

I had mine cleaned and preserved, although I'm still not entirely sure why other than it was "the thing to do". I doubt my daughter will ever wear it, but I suppose you never know! My biggest fear is that I get it out of the box in about 20 years and realize that they never got the red wine stains out of it (a friend of mine was dancing next to me with a glass of red wine and spilled some on the bottom of my gown) and that it's pretty much useless anyway. But, I don't want to take it out of the box yet to find out or I'll have to have it done again! LOL! So, for now, it is sitting in the preservation box in the top of my closet.

I had my old one dry cleaned and then preserved. You can't leave them in the bag because the stress on where ever it is hung from will cause the fabric to break down. The other thing that effects it is light and any stains that remain. Sorta like when you pull out an old christening gown and realize you didn't get all the spit up out. Nothing you can do with it at that point.

Anyway I gave it away after my divorce. Part because of the divorce, part because my daughter said it was the ugliest thing she ever saw after she was done laughing. Yeah, not sure what we were thinking in the 80s.

All of my friends have daughters around the age of thinking about marriage. None of them want to wear their mom's dresses. Just something to think about, unless you went with something very traditional chances are very slim a daughter will want to wear it since the styles will change.

Our wedding was almost 17 years ago and I'm an Irish/Italian Catholic so my dress was very old school traditional including the full cathedral length train. If I recall it was 8 or 9 feet long. I had the dress professional cleaned and preserved and it is still in the same box in my closet. I had originally planned to have christening gowns made from the train but hubby talked me out of that in case one of our daughters want to wear it when they marry. I highly doubt they would but as he said they may want to incorporate parts of my dress into theirs so it remains in the box.

I had my dress dry cleaned--almost killed the girl that threw it into a basket. She thought it was my prom dress. Yeah, a long white ivory gown (hate that bridal white) to prom. I got a manager of the place to take it back out and mark it as a wedding dress. They cleaned it and stitched anything that needed to be fixed. then we used acid free paper to wrap it up and boxed it. If you just hang it up, it can lose shape or turn yellow. If you want to use it for something else, you could have a seamstress turn it into baptism outfits when you have kids-if you do that.

I've been married 14 1/2 years, and my wedding dress was never cleaned. It's still just hanging in the closet! I actually looked at it the other day and it looks like it did 14 years ago. Maybe I'm just lucky. I have 2 girls but I doubt either one will want it. I got married in the mid '90's - big puffy sleeves, etc! Yuck. Was joking with a friend the other day that I want a new wedding dress so I can take pictures all over again!!! I don't know, I guess I'm just not too sentimental about material things.

R.:

I kept my first wedding dress - my best friend wore it at her wedding and then another friend wore it as well (unfortunately, she never gave it back!)

I would get it cleaned and boxed up...then put it away..in the attic or at the top of your closet....

My dress to Bob? I actually donated it last year...we don't have any girls together and my daughter had no interest in either of my dresses....oh well...

I got my dress cleaned at the cleaners and never got is preserved. I didn't see the need to, but it's a personal preference. I don't know how it will look in YEARS to come when my little one is old to MAYBE want to use it, but I don't see her wanting to use it. She'll probably want to have one that reflects her own style, but one never knows.

Mine was cleaned and it's hanging in my closet.
It is an informal dress without excess embellishment, train, etc....

You don't "have" to do anything! If it's "filthy" though, why keep it if you're not getting it cleaned?

IF you get it cleaned you could:
$ell it.
Keep it for a daughter.
Keep it for the memory factor.
Give it to someone to use.
Donate it.

If you don't get it cleaned:
Keep it hanging dirty in the closet.
Trash the dress!

I'm turning mine into part of my kids' baby clothes quilts. Once we knew we were finished having babies, I found a quilter as excited about my idea as I am. She's splitting the dress, and a blanket I loved during both pregnancies, in two and using it in the quilt along with our special outfits from the baby's first year. I'll get Baby One's back this month. We'll start on Baby Two's after her first birthday. I am SO excited and frankly, I am feeling a little extra clever about this idea. My dress was lovely but wasn't something that would really be wearable again because of its construction.

Mine is hanging in the garment bag it came in at the back of my closet.

I did get it professionally cleaned and preserved. It was like $150 to do. It is in a box in my closet. I think it will help from fading now that I did that. Its never too late...

I made my own dress from ivory satin brocade and my M. took it to the cleaners after the wedding. I think she just asked them to wash it, so they threw it in a washing machine with a bunch of other stuff and when I saw it a month later, it was greyish lavender and limp as an old bed sheet. It had shrunk about 9 inches in length too. The sleeves were too short and the zipper was purple. Obviously someone messed up. Without thinking, I left it at my parents house and when I was back visiting a couple months later, it was gone. M. said she thought I didnt want it and she tore it into squares and gave it to the quilters at her church. Thanks ma... I am glad I had the scraps from it. Years later I made a cute baby dress for my daughter for a Mothers Day fashion show. And a wedding dress was made for her Barbie when she was 5. We still have those dresses in my hope chest. I wish mine had been dry cleaned. Im sure it would have come out better.

A friend of mine puts hers on every year on her wedding anniversary. She locks the doors to the house so her husband has to ring the bell to let her know he's home. Then, she greats him at the door in her wedding dress and they dance through their living room. She's been married at least 15 years and has done this EVERY SINGLE YEAR. Sometimes, she said, it's been a little difficult (like when she was pregnant and didn't have a prayer of getting that puppy zipped. When she was nursing, shall we say she filled the top a little differently than when they were married. But every year, she greets her man at the door in her wedding dress and they dance.

Wish I thought of that...

Hi R.-

I wore my mom's dress...it had a cathedral length train...and had been preserved in a sealed box for over 30 years before I became engaged...we were afraid when we opened the box that the whole dress was not in there...or WHEN we opened it, that it might just disintegrate before our very eyes! lol

It was fine...it was no longer a 'bright' white...but a lovely cream/bone colour...just what I had wanted! Post wedding, had it cleaned and re preserved. I doubt any of my girls will choose to wear it though...as I am divorced...BUT it sure was/is (?) a beautiful dress...

Best Luck!
michele/cat