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Original poster

Do you still have your wedding dress??

128 replies

OrangeTulips · 21/08/2025 11:01

So that’s it really. We’ve just moved house (again!). Regular occurrence due to DH’s job. This house has less storage than we would like so we are being really ruthless with what we are keeping. Does something fill us with joy? Is it useful? Do we actually use it?

AIBU to consider not lugging my wedding dress around for another move (or 100)? I know it’s a very personal question, but suddenly thought I could ask you guys why you’ve kept or not your wedding dresses.

My daughter has much wider shoulders than me so she wouldn’t wear it - during Covid she tried it on in our anniversary. No way would I ever fit back into it! 🤣. Nearly 25 years and 2 children and life have said goodbye to that figure forever! 😫

So why am I keeping it??! Yes its memory fills me with joy but I have photos of me in it which also fulfil the feeling of joy associated with it.

Anyway, let me know why you’ve kept or not your dresses!

ps DH is very happy for me to keep it. This is entirely me battling with I feel I ought to keep it but why??!

OP posts:
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Original poster
OrangeTulips · 22/08/2025 08:02

It makes me smile that the wedding dress dilemma is a common one! I love it going into dressing up boxes. Wish I’d thought about using it for christening gown - although we already have a family one and it was too soon after our wedding to consider cutting it up back then!

Anyway I’ve decided to delay the decision for another move! 🤣. Thanks all. 🥰

OP posts:
Ellen1990 · 22/08/2025 09:16

No mine has gone to angel babies.. wanted to do it since I was a child.. I have pictures and memories and now it’s gone a good cause… I also haven’t moved since

ApolloandDaphne · 22/08/2025 09:26

My wedding dress is still in my mum's attic along with her wedding dress. I was married 40 years ago and she was married 65 years ago! No idea why we have kept them as no one will wear them. My DMs dress is beautiful but she was tiny and very slender. No one in the family would fit into it now. Mine was a distinctly 80s dress. I loved it then and would not have changed a thing but it's a very dated look.

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Clothing
whysorude · 22/08/2025 09:27

Still have mine. Every anniversary I put it on (veil & shoes too) and swish about the house for a while.
I love it so much and would like to be buried in it. Though not sure if that's a bit weird, or not.

FrenchandSaunders · 22/08/2025 10:10

Sort of .. a friend made it for me. A few years later she cut it up and made it into two gorgeous little christening gowns for my twin DDs, which we still have. Married nearly 30 years.

Mere1 · 22/08/2025 18:06

OrangeTulips · 21/08/2025 11:01

So that’s it really. We’ve just moved house (again!). Regular occurrence due to DH’s job. This house has less storage than we would like so we are being really ruthless with what we are keeping. Does something fill us with joy? Is it useful? Do we actually use it?

AIBU to consider not lugging my wedding dress around for another move (or 100)? I know it’s a very personal question, but suddenly thought I could ask you guys why you’ve kept or not your wedding dresses.

My daughter has much wider shoulders than me so she wouldn’t wear it - during Covid she tried it on in our anniversary. No way would I ever fit back into it! 🤣. Nearly 25 years and 2 children and life have said goodbye to that figure forever! 😫

So why am I keeping it??! Yes its memory fills me with joy but I have photos of me in it which also fulfil the feeling of joy associated with it.

Anyway, let me know why you’ve kept or not your dresses!

ps DH is very happy for me to keep it. This is entirely me battling with I feel I ought to keep it but why??!

I have kept mine and have worn it two or three times in 48 years. It’s a silk day dress tho-not a bridal gown.
I am storing my daughters’ white wedding dresses!

ImagineImagine · 22/08/2025 18:13

I gave mine to charity. I have no regrets. I loved it, but I have the photos. So it’s not really gone, I can still see it, and someone else gets to enjoy it. I’m glad I made this decision as it prevents leaving the problem with my children when the time comes.

canyouseemyhousefromhere · 22/08/2025 18:13

I still have mine though I would never fit into it now as I was size 6 then!

Reading this thread has made me want to dig it out of the loft though.

its very 90’s puffy but I absolutely loved it, bought it in a sale. Aw I loved our wedding day 💖

Do you still have your wedding dress??
Frillysweetpea · 22/08/2025 18:16

Deliberately sold it less than a month of the wedding via a specialist pre-loved wedding dress shop. I'd bought the dress at a massive reduction anyway (bought the shop try-on) and got 40% of that so was quite happy. I knew if I didn't sell it quickly it would just hang around in a bag for years and what's the point of that?

glammymommy · 22/08/2025 18:18

I still have mine. It was an old family dress, from the 1920s and I'd love for my daughter to wear it, or pass it on to her offspring if she has any. It doesn't take up any room

glammymommy · 22/08/2025 18:18

I still have mine. It was an old family dress, from the 1920s and I'd love for my daughter to wear it, or pass it on to her offspring if she has any. It doesn't take up any room

TheTruthWillSetYouFreeMaybe · 22/08/2025 18:46

Thought I did. It was stored at parents house as theirs was big and we don’t have much room or a loft. Mum asked me a couple of times why I wanted to keep it - I said, I just do. Roll on many many years later when she passed, dad remained in house and didn’t want anything touched. 3 years later he passed and when brother and I were clearing - I said ‘look out for my wedding dress in a black garment bag’. It was never found and we did look hard. She had a habit of taking anything of mine down to the charity shop and not telling me. TBH I was really upset - I’d always thought it was there

TheTealBee · 22/08/2025 19:02

I don't have my wedding dress, I did keep it for 30 years in the hope my dd would wear it but she wasn't interested. When my dh left me I decided it had to go. I donated it to a charity that made gowns for babies that were still born or died shortly after birth. They sent me photos of the gowns which were absolutely beautiful! No regrets what so ever.

Yerdug · 22/08/2025 19:09

Yeahhh, its in a bin bag in the loft, covered in ketchup and vomit. I'll probably just leave it there for the kids to sort when I die.

Violinist64 · 22/08/2025 19:26

I still have mine - we celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary on Tuesday. I loved it but, like many others are saying, it’s very much of its time with puffed sleeves and a big skirt with ruffles all down the back. As l was a small size 12 then - probably more like today’s small size 10 - and had a 25” waist, my chances of ever getting into it again are somewhere between, fat chance, slim chance and no chance whatsoever!

Cazz1953 · 22/08/2025 19:47

My first marriage ended in divorce, so I threw away my wedding dress. However I still have my wedding album and I don’t really want to throwaway photos as a lot of the people in them are no longer with us.

helenlsmith · 22/08/2025 21:08

Mine is in it's box in the loft. my wedding was 48yrs ago.

MasterchefMeansRiceKrispiesFor · 23/08/2025 06:40

mine’s gone. I really struggled with it for ages, but I’ll never wear it again, like you say, have the pictures, have the memories. My daughter thought it was dated and my son was entirely meh about it. I gave it away to Oxfam so they could sell it in their wedding dress shop, someone might get some joy out of it????

I don’t regret losing it or the space back in the attic!!

Sandflea9900 · 23/08/2025 07:27

I still have my dress, but don’t have and will never have children of my own, so no daughter who may want to wear it. We are now renovating our home and will have a storage issue, so I’m thinking of getting rid of it. Not sure if I can bring myself to do so though. Currently on a huge diet and thinking to keep it until I can get back in it again. This has become more poignant since I’m waiting for a big health diagnosis. If it’s as bad as I fear, I was thinking I might renew my wedding vows with DH and would want to wear it again. Is that weird?

MovingBird123 · 23/08/2025 07:46

I didn't have the opportunity to wear mine beyond my own living room, long story, so have kept it in the hope that I might whack it out on an anniversary for a laugh and get a bit more wear from it... Been a bit busy making babies so haven't been the right shape it again for yet.

opencecilgee · 23/08/2025 07:55

What a waste. People spend thousands for one day, then lock them away in a loft for 30 years

strange custom

Caterguin · 23/08/2025 08:09

Mine is just a cocktail dress, vaguely 50s in style. 20 years ago. It still fits, but i don't have the boobs to hold it up anymore and the zip has to do some extra work.
I wondered if dd might like it as her prom dress, but she follows whatever everyone else wears. And she's even more slight than I was.

AgeingGreycefully · 23/08/2025 09:31

I still have mine, 25 years on. Professionally cleaned and boxed and layered with special tissue paper. It’s a classical Empire line dress so does lend itself to being altered if either of my daughters wants it so I’m keeping it, for now! I take it out every few years give it a shake and refold it. I can still get into it quite comfortably. I would absolutely love someone I know to hold a brides ball and invite all the ladies to wear their wedding dresses!!

Cherrysoup · 23/08/2025 09:50

In a bag, scrunched up in the wardrobe. I was massive when I got married, it’s multiple sizes too big. It’s beautiful material, like the inside of a sweetcorn tin colour, made for me. I have no idea what to do with it, my DH was reluctant when I mentioned charity shopping it. We’re moving next year and I’m determined not to have to pack stuff that’s been hanging round for over 20 years.

Curryingfavour · 23/08/2025 10:04

I don’t have mine as I’ve had many house moves and it got lost somewhere along the way 🙁
I also think I weighed about 48 kilos so not a chance in hell it’d fit me now .