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Original poster

What do you do with your wedding dress after the wedding?f

42 replies

zebra · 21/07/2003 12:19

I have twice tried to flog mine, with no success. Cost £800 new, so pity I can't even get £50 for it. 21-month-old DD is currently finding it great fun to play in, though.

So thought maybe I could get a dress-maker to use the fabric to make a 3-5yo size bride's outfit for DD. Or cut it up and just let DD use it as play fabric (ghost, bride, sari, etc.). So much fabric... but I wondered if I could do better with it than a child's play outfit.

Those of you who marched down the aisle, what have you done with the wedding dress since, what do you think you will do with it in the future? Do you think I'm strange to make it into a plaything for my DD?

OP posts:
Enid · 21/07/2003 12:29

Mum made hers into a christening dress for me and dd1 wore it to her baptism too.

oliveoil · 21/07/2003 12:33

Gave mine back to the woman I hired it off

iota · 21/07/2003 12:37

Mine's still hanging in the cupboard, nine years later.
Maybe one day I will be thin enough to try it on again

jennyj · 21/07/2003 12:37

Mine is still hanging in the wardrobe but my plan is to use the bodice as eveningwear and re-use the skirt possibly as a christening gown ( if we ever get round to organising it! ) or dye it and use as eveningwear.
A friend puts hers on every year for her anniversary. Lovely idea but for some reason ( might have something to do with post-baby body and breastfeeding! ) mine doesn't fit!

pie · 21/07/2003 12:46

From my first wedding....burnt it.

My second was with 2 days planning and I wore an outfit from Primark and Old Navy, so its somewhere in my pile of pre-pregnancy clothes.

I think it would be nice to make a plaything for DD.

Lindy · 21/07/2003 12:49

Oxfam has a service where they hire out donated wedding dresses (bridesmaids dresses too) and all the money raised goes to Oxfam. A good friend of mine set it up a few years ago; at the time I was working in the fashion industry & was able to donate a lot of 'end of line' dresses and samples.
She started it from her spare bedroom and now there are 4 or 5 specialist bridal hire Oxfam shops throughout the country.

If anyone would be interested in donating their dresses I can give you further details.

(Personally I've never had a 'wedding dress' as such - having had two registrar office weddings where I wore 'civilian' clothing!!)

daisylawn · 21/07/2003 13:22

Keep it in your own dressing up box and wear it to play weddings with your children?

codswallop · 21/07/2003 13:37

In a bag in the loft dirty still!
Why people get them cleaned I dont know - I am not wearing it again. I once saw at a bridal fair a fire guard with the bouqet in it preserved! Get a life I would say!

codswallop · 21/07/2003 13:38

Ps jennyJ Is your friend a little loopy? I put it on once when I found it in the loft and Dh turned white!

Rhubarb · 21/07/2003 13:51

My niece wants mine for when she gets married! I might also save it for dd, she doesn't have to get married in it, but it would be nice if she did. If not, I can get it turned into Christening dresses for any grandkids I might have. Ooh err, that made me feel all funny!

Baba · 21/07/2003 13:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

boyandgirl · 21/07/2003 14:56

Mine was an ivory jacquard silk suit, and I intended to dye it later so that I could wear it for other dos. But when I went to dye it I realised that it was in fact synthetic and therefore won't dye! How did I manage to goof that up? Could it have been all those early pregnancy hormones...?

Meid · 21/07/2003 15:17

My mum cut hers up to make Angel outfits for the nativy play for me and my sister. It was a gorgeous dress and I think its a bit sad she did this - I think my sister would've worn it for her wedding if the dress had still be around.

When I wore my wedding dress - although it was traditionally flouncy and white - I was 8 months pregnant. Therefore am unlikely to ever have anyone else to ever want to wear it. Still couldn't bear to cut it up. Will let DD play with veil though when she's older.

tinyfeet · 21/07/2003 15:27

Sell it on Ebay

quackers · 21/07/2003 15:34

I had mine cleaned ( after about 2 years!!) and put in a chest. Its lovely and look at it now and again and think God was I really that slim!!! 2 stone heavier!!!

wickedstepmother · 21/07/2003 15:35

There is a wedding dress site called www.wedding-service.co.uk who sell some gorgeous one-worn dresses. There is also www.dreamdresses.co.uk who do the same thing. I know you said that you'd already tried to sell it but wasn't sure whether you just meant locally. HTH

P.S. I'll be keeping mine, getting married on Saturday

kayleigh · 21/07/2003 16:03

Had mine died a deep blue and have used it a couple of times as evening wear. It was ballerina length though, not the full monty with a train! I loved wearing it again, i felt really special in it.

jennyj · 21/07/2003 16:32

codswallop, yes my friend is loopy. Her dh apparently also quite likes the whole dressing up theme; I decided once she'd told me that that I didn't need to know any more...

Mummysurfer · 21/07/2003 16:33

I'm of the loopy variety. I try it on every wedding anniversary. 1st & 4th year it didn't fit, due to bfing. 2nd. 3rd, 5th,6th,7th year it fitted. Last year - 8th - I could just do it up but couldn't sit down in it. This year (Aug 20th) it won't fit. But it's my bench-mark!!! So I have 12 months to get that shape back. It was very fitted & straight. But I love it, and would still choose it today. YES MAYBE I'M LOOPY!!!!!

wickedstepmother · 21/07/2003 16:33

I can understand the dressing up thing but not sure that a wedding dress is what would get most blokes pulses racing in a passionate way, more blind panic !!!!

breeze · 21/07/2003 16:34

Depends how much cleavage is showing

breeze · 21/07/2003 16:38

I hired mine. I did have a panic on when my mother said she had saved hers for me to wear. Fashion had changed somewhat since she wore it. I thought it was awful. She got a bit upset because she saved it for nearly 30 years. Its was mostly made of lace and the arms could have itched and drove me crazy.

wickedstepmother · 21/07/2003 16:45

Like a 'peephole' gown, Breeze ?!

I have to say that I wouldn't keep my dress in order to force it on DD in 20-odd years time, fashions really do change and it'd be unfair to inflict my taste on her. Would be lovely if she did choose to wear it but I hope that I would be understanding enough to realise that it's her day and not a chance for me to a)relive my own wedding day and b)exercise my lifelong maternal fantasies.

princesspeahead · 21/07/2003 16:50

My beautiful dress is beautifully cleaned, beautifully boxed, in my beautiful attic. Haven't seen it since I took it to the cleaners. Ho hum.

jennyj · 21/07/2003 16:58

I'm keeping my veil, though. Possibly for a future dd to play with, or just because I love it and can't bear to get rid of it!