To ask what you did with your wedding dress?

[MakeYouSoSureAboutIt]

My wedding dress is just sat in my spare bedroom and it feels so wasteful. (It’s lovely - if I do say so myself and was expensive!)

But I’m not sure what to do with it? What did you do with your wedding dress?

Any ideas?

I sold it and went on a jolly to New York.

Mine's in a box in the loft. Total waste, but I can't even give it away because it got wrecked when I wore it. Someone brought confetti made of red foil hearts and a load of it went down my front. I sweated on it, the red colour came out and stained the inside of the bodice. I took it to be cleaned but they couldn't help. Dry cleaning chemicals would have destroyed the bead work so all they could do was wash it, and it didn't work.
Also, I put my foot through the voile overskirt. I had it repaired but now the overskirt is noticeably too short where they had to cut away the torn bit.
Nobody would want it now, but I can't seem to part with it.

After years if wondering the same I cut mine up and made lots of wedding bits, ring cushions and the like.

A friend sold the lot at a bit wedding fair.

I think there are a few Pinterest boards on the topic too.

It could be really interesting to work out how many other weddings your dress could go to

I've been married twice. I sent both my wedding dresses to www.heavenlygowns.co.uk to make into little gowns for stillborn babies. My sister is one of the women who make the little gowns - they put so much love into each one. It's a very worthwhile use of a gown which is no longer needed.

I’ve got two (sane wedding though) they are hanging in spare room.

They are both vintage gowns from 60s and 50s and I’ll be keeping them forever. I couldn’t bear to part with them.

I got married in a white top, fave jeans and my hiking boots so I get to wear my outfit all the time!

Mine was all ripped after the dancing, mind you I had a seamstress run it up for me and I suspect it the seams weren’t finished professionally, so i got rid of the top and wore the skirt bit separately for a while.

All gone now.

Actually does anyone know if 1 and a half years after the wedding it’s too late to get it dry cleaned?

Well you’ve all give me some food for thought!

I’m really going to part with it soon. It just makes me sad to think it’s rotting away in there as it means so much to me.

I gave mine to a charity for still born babies.

Mine is still up in the loft in a box. God knows why because I got married in NZ, the marriage only lasted 3 years and for some godforsaken reason I bought back with me to the UK following the divorce .

I got married in the 90s, it has not dated but I do not think its sellable, Donating to stillborn babies is a good idea.

I had some of my newborn DD’s photographs taken with her snoozing on it, wrapped in the veil etc - they’re really beautiful pictures. I’m going to keep in just incase DD wants it in future, even if she only wants part of it - I wouldn’t mind if she wants to cut bits off! Equally I wouldn’t mind if she doesn’t want it at all. But it doesn’t take up much room so it’s no bother hanging on to it.
My best friend gave her maid of honour dress to a charity that organise weddings really quickly for people with a terminal illness, which I thought was lovely. I’ll see if I can find the name of it...

It was Gift of a Wedding - but a quick google brought up lots of other charities who do similar things.

I cut it up and made an angel for the top of my Christmas tree with it. I love getting her out every year

Put it in the clothes recycling at the local refuse site.

Sold it shortly after the wedding to a shop that resell second hand wedding dresses. I used the money to go see The Stone Roses in Manchester.

I shoved mine in a skip.

Gave mine to a charity shop.

Mine was a cheap(ish) high street dress so I sold it on eBay.

But I have another dress that I didnt wear (that was second hand when I bought it) which I intend to donate to charity

I loved mine and couldn’t bare the thought of it sitting unused so I sold it a couple of months after I got married. Like the idea that someone else wore it on their wedding day and enjoyed it as much as I did

Oxfam have a shop solely for wedding and bridesmaid dresses in Bradford. I googled the address, parcelled 5 of my DDs bridesmaid dresses up and posted them off. My DD says this shop is her first port of call if she marries.

I sold mine, as did my sister five years later. Both dresses were sold within a couple of months of our weddings.
Once they had been professionally dry cleaned and repaired they looked almost new and taking into account the cost of this, we both got just very slightly less than half of what we had paid. Neither of us paid to advertise - mine was sold through a wedding magazine forum, and my sisters through Pre loved.
I always felt that my dress would sell without too much of a problem as it came from a wedding dress designer that was popular at the time and I sold it within a few days of it being advertised to someone who had already tried the dress on in a shop.
My sisters dress was all lace, more expensive than mine and took a bit longer to sell as it has been customised for her. It looked stunning on my sister and equally stunning on the woman who bought it, who sent my sister a photo of her wedding.
I’m out of the wedding dress loop completely now, but my advice would still be if you want to sell a wedding dress it really needs to be done as soon after the wedding as possible.

Made into a Christening gown which all 3 of my son's wore. Keeping it for their children if they want it.

Donate to a charity who provide dresses to terminally ill brides, for example:

www.giftofawedding.org/
www.wishforawedding.co.uk/

I wore mine again for fancy dress - but mine was cheap and not white. If I had gone for a white dress I would probably have sold it right away.