Keeping the wedding dress

[Otto]

By definition mostly for the ladies, but gentlemen feel free to contribute whatever seems relevant.

So I'm watching one of those "get your life in order" shows earlier today and the big battles were over whether to keep a crib and the wife's wedding dress. The crib I can sort of understand, the couple was young enough that it wouldn't be terribly unlikely that they might have another child. The vehemence with which she fought for the dress, though, mystifies me. Obviously being a guy I'm not going to be spending any money on a wedding dress any time soon, and even should I get married at some point in the future I am likely to rent any special garments for the day. Anyone able to explain this level of attachment to a garment that is only going to be worn once? Did you save your dress? Why? What have you done with it?

[kniz]

My wife saved hers. The idea was that our daughter could wear it, which assumed 1) that we'd have a daughter; 2) that she would wear the same size and 3) that she'd want to use it. That never happened, but I know that the dress is still stored somewhere. ;)

[Ferret Herder]

I saved mine. For our fifth wedding anniversary, I made us a nice dinner at home, and slipped into the dress right before serving. Still fit! I think it helps that mine was inexpensive ($175) and wasn't made to be a "wedding dress", but rather a fancy dress that just happens to be a soft ivory color. The only ornamentation is a panel of latticed lace down the back; from the front it looks like a scoop-neck, A-line long dress.

I'm not saving it for anyone; I don't plan on having children, and it assumes that someone will both be my size and want to wear something that's surely not in style at the time. Yet I suspect that most (American) women have mothers who saved their own dresses (mine did) with hopes that their daughter would wear it someday, perhaps.

[Rhiannon8404]

My mom saved her wedding dress from the 60's, hoping that my sister or I would want to wear it. My sister has never married and is unlikely to any time soon. When I got married I wanted my own dress. Besides that, her dress never would have fit me (she was straight as a board and I'm quite curvy), and I thought it was horribly outdated.

I liked my dress, I have lots of lovely photos from the wedding of me wearing it, but I didn't feel a need to keep it. I only paid about $150 for it anyway, so it's not like an heirloom or anything. I think I gave it to charity.

[Hilarity N. Suze]

Sure, I saved it. At the time it was my only dress. (I was a telephone installer; they don't wear dresses.)

Then, when I switched to the kind of job where I did occasionally wear a dress to work, I wore it to work. It was just a dress. Eventually I did have others. (Not many, though, as I am not really a dress person. I consider jeans to be pretty darn dressed up, as opposed to my sweatsuit or PJs.)

Then when it started getting frayed, I put it in a trunk. Every once in awhile I take it out to see if I can still fit into it, and I can.

The odd thing is, I never liked it. I kept looking and looking, then thinking I might have to get married in jeans because I couldn't find the right thing. HE was wearing an embroidered Mexican wedding shirt, it didn't seem to matter what I wore at all. I was thinking of chickening out of even getting married (as I'd done twice before), and finally I grabbed the only thing I could stand, basically, off a rack of Gunne Sax in which it was the only distinctive one. But I still didn't like it.

God. The '70s.

[SaxFace]

I'm keeping my wedding dress but it's not a big poofy white ballgown. Truthfully, it's a cocktail dress made from four different layers of pale pink tuille. It was designed and custom-made by a young local fashion designer.

I wanted a dress I could wear again and again and this fits the bill. I couldn't justify (to myself) spending 300 euros on something I'd only wear once.

[Kyla]

My mom saved her wedding dress. I don't know why because she probably realized about ten minutes after her wedding that it was already outdated. My parents were married in Berkeley in 1972 and every aspect of their wedding, including my mom's wedding dress, has BERKELEY 1972 stamped all over it. The dress is white with Mexican embroidered flowers along the neckline. If a museum ever does an exhibit on Marriage Rituals of the Hippies, my mom could donate her dress. It's hanging in a closet somewhere at my parents' house, I think.

[Left Hand of Dorkness]

It's one dress; it doesn't take that much storage space. I have no plans to get rid of mine. It's the nicest piece of clothing I'm ever likely to own, and I have such happy memories associated with it. I imagine women keep their wedding dresses for the same reason that parents keep christening gowns even after their babies are teenagers.

I know someone who made a quilt out of her wedding dress, which I thought was a cool idea.

[CrazyCatLady]

I kept my dress for the same reason I kept my meal ticket from the time I was an extra in a movie and the first flower Dr.J ever gave me, even though those were just one-time things. They were one-time things that were special to me, and as such I have an emotional attachment to those objects.

You have to understand, for a lot of women their wedding dress isn't just a dress they wore once. It's tangible link to one of the biggest events in their lives, a symbol of everything they felt on that day, and they will fight tooth and nail to keep that link.

I have to wonder why it's such a big stinkin' deal if she wants to keep the dress. I mean, it can't possibly be taking up that much room, and I'm sure the husband has his share of belongings that aren't strictly useful but have sentimental value. Were they really so desperate for room that one article of non-essential clothing is such an issue?

[burundi]

Ahem. Just coming back in to clarify that Left Hand of Dorkness is not saving his wedding dress for sentimental reasons. He is, however, saving his wedding suit, largely because 1) suits are darn expensive and 2) it's very hard for him to find clothes that fit well.

[misstee]

When we moved to this house ( last May ) I wanted to throw my wedding dress away. Hubby and my mom both had a fit, so it's wadded up in a garbage bag in the back of the closet.

[Otto]

I have to wonder why it's such a big stinkin' deal if she wants to keep the dress. I mean, it can't possibly be taking up that much room, and I'm sure the husband has his share of belongings that aren't strictly useful but have sentimental value. Were they really so desperate for room that one article of non-essential clothing is such an issue? The issue wasn't so much the dress, it was that she saying that it, along with mounds and mounds of other stuff (every stitch of baby clothing, a million photographs, the crib, and on and on) was extremely important to her but she wasn't taking the proper care of it or any of her other sentimentally valuable items. The show is called Clean Sweep and the premise is to take the contents of two rooms that are completely out of control and unusable, work with a professional organizer to cull out the things that are taking up space needlessly, while a designer and a builder rework the space and the remaining items so that they are usable. These couples on the show typically have more stuff in their two rooms than most people have in their whole house. The organizer's premise is if it's important to you then treat it like it's important (in this case, to get it professionally cleaned and stored in a proper container, rather than having it in a crappy plastic garment bag). If you're not willing to treat it like it's important then you should ask yourself if it's really important enough to hold on to at all.

[ioioio]

Sure, I saved it. At the time it was my only dress....
Then, when I switched to the kind of job where I did occasionally wear a dress to work, I wore it to work.
You don't happen to work with Eats_Crayons, (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=245622) do you?

[CrazyCatLady]

The issue wasn't so much the dress, it was that she saying that it, along with mounds and mounds of other stuff (every stitch of baby clothing, a million photographs, the crib, and on and on) was extremely important to her but she wasn't taking the proper care of it or any of her other sentimentally valuable items. The show is called Clean Sweep and the premise is to take the contents of two rooms that are completely out of control and unusable, work with a professional organizer to cull out the things that are taking up space needlessly, while a designer and a builder rework the space and the remaining items so that they are usable. These couples on the show typically have more stuff in their two rooms than most people have in their whole house. The organizer's premise is if it's important to you then treat it like it's important (in this case, to get it professionally cleaned and stored in a proper container, rather than having it in a crappy plastic garment bag). If you're not willing to treat it like it's important then you should ask yourself if it's really important enough to hold on to at all.

Well, in that light it makes a bit more sense, but in your OP only the dress and the crib are mentioned as being actual issues, you know? So I assumed that those were the two things that had engendered dissention in the ranks. Frankly, my mind boggled that after throwing out as much stuff as you have to get rid of to make it onto one of those shows, the husband would make an issue out of her wanting to keep one dress that can't possibly be taking up that much room.

[Otto]

The crib was the huge issue. This woman was weeping at the idea of getting rid of it. Finally she was able to give it to a neighbor to pass on to a friend who had adopted a baby, but only on the condition that she got a photo of the new baby in the crib. That's another thread entirely, because I can't fathom being so attached to a crib either.

The discussion of the dress was the only other disagreement that got any significant screen time. The baby clothes they resolved by having her pick out three pieces and selling the rest at the yard sale they hold to get rid of the castoffs and the photographs were just completely unorganized.

[CrazyCatLady]

The baby clothes they resolved by having her pick out three pieces and selling the rest at the yard sale they hold to get rid of the castoffs

Yes, that's a pretty common practice, for moms to hold on to a few keepsakes of the time when their babies were babies without having so much stuff piled around they feel like Miss Havisham. My mom still has a couple of my little dresses from when I was a toddler, but only a couple.

People like to have things around that remind them of people they love, and I'd say just about everything that her baby(ies) used on a regular basis reminds her of her kid(s). It's a matter of striking a balance between sentiment and practicality, with everyone having their own balance point. This lady's point was so far to the sentiment side that she was completely unbalanced (in more ways than one, sounds like).

[dangermom]

My daughters are currently wearing clothes that I wore 30 years ago. Really. Mom saved a few things, mostly stuff she'd made herself. I save a few things, mostly handmade stuff too. The bulk of the baby clothes I pass on to my brother who has an infant--if we have another girl, we can afford new baby clothes better than they can.

Anyway the point is that I think it's good to save a few favorite or sentimental items, as long as you're not keeping every grubby little onesie. :) I can't really see saving the crib as a huge deal, unless someone built it by hand--which probably isn't legal.

I saved my wedding dress, which wasn't big and poofy, but an ordinary long dress, only white silk with a little lace. My mom sewed it for me, my daughters or a new SIL might want to wear it, and it's a lovely dress that reminds me of a wonderful day. The veil was borrowed, though, so I don't have that.

My mom saved her dress, but she replaced the skirt with a smaller one so she could wear it. That skirt yellowed, sadly, so it's no longer usable. My grandmother's dress is still around, but quite tiny, so none of us can wear it. But I like to have it still in existence, just as I'm happy to have a blue velvet cloak of hers, and I'm glad my great-grandfather's WWI uniform is still around (the whole thing, boots, revolver, and all!). They are nice pieces of family history, and they mean something to me.

Then again, I'm a quilter, and I do tend to be particularly attached to textiles. The librarian in me loves the documents, stories, and papers.

[Guinastasia]

My friend's mother hemmed up her wedding dress and let her daughters wear it for Halloween. Then they kept it in their dress-up clothes. (It was white cotton, with a sort of lacey, short sleeved top-the lace was made up of "daisies", somehow-very 1970s, but very simple and pretty).

My mother kept our baby clothes because she and her sister-in-laws were always trading them back and forth. After my sister was born, though, and she grew out of them, my mom gave them to us to use for doll clothes. THAT was fun-all my friends were jealous because I had the best-dressed Cabbage Patch Kid around!

:D

[Eliahna]

It's one dress; it doesn't take that much storage space. I have no plans to get rid of mine. It's the nicest piece of clothing I'm ever likely to own, and I have such happy memories associated with it. I imagine women keep their wedding dresses for the same reason that parents keep christening gowns even after their babies are teenagers.

I know someone who made a quilt out of her wedding dress, which I thought was a cool idea.
I'm keeping my dress for the same reasons as Mrs Left Hand of Dorkness. Plus, I hope it will be a family heirloom one day. Just because none of the brides who went before me thought to pass down their wedding gowns doesn't mean that I have to discard mine too. If my descendants want to throw it out, that's entirely up to them.

I know several people who've had christening gowns made out of their wedding dresses.

[sunstone]

My wife saved her wedding dress, and 40 years later, our daughter-in-law will wear it for her church wedding to our oldest son.

We all think that is pretty neat! It is going to be nice to see the dress again...it fits well, except for needing a bit of expansion up top - I get to tease my wife a bit about that, but she really feels honored that our daughter-in-law wants to wear it, as do I.

As a bit of related information, my first date with my wife was at her parents 25th wedding anniversary....there was a ceramic couple (bride and groom) on top to the cake that they had. We used the same ceramic couple on our wedding cake 4 years later, and then our younger son and his bride used it on their wedding cake. My older son and bride will use it on their cake.

We are not a sentimental group generally, but having a few traditions and connections between generations is nice...so far we have tied 3 generations together, and that feels good.

[Farmwoman]

I think it depends on the dress too.
For many women a wedding gown is the only garment they will ever own which was professionally altered and tailored to fit. It's fairly easy to toss a rag you bought off the rack, but a little harder to part with a well-made dress in which you have stood for hours at multiple fittings while seamstresses pull, tuck and pin until it hugs in all the sweet spots, falls just right and sweeps the floor with a whisper. I'm not sure I'd be so quick to put a masking tape price tag on any such a dress, regardless of the occasion for which it was made.

We're keeping the crib too, 'cause it's a Stickley.

[TVeblen]

Offhand I'd guess it's a combination of sentimental associations with overtones of heirloom value. 'Value', of course, being wildly variable, as previous posts have noted.
My mom was married in a slightly-dressier-than-usual suit, being from a much more frugal era, not to mention of modest means. Most weddings then--late 30's--focused on the ceremony, not the trappings. My parents were married at the little local church, with a simple party afterwards at her home, with her mother and friends providing the food, decorations, etc. The whole shebang sounded pretty ideal to me.
Interesting, though, because she wanted things very different when my sister and I married. My mom, an excellent seamstress, made all the dresses for the wedding party when my sister married. Even though my she hand-made my sister's wedding dress, mom was totally indifferent to what became of it afterwards. I wanted absolutely NO formal "wedding", but reluctantly compromised on a slightly-"do" occassion. IIRC I bought a fairly nice, mildly floaty thing--knee length--in soft taupe that I might possibly wear again, but never did. Both dresses were pitched out years later without anything more than a passing "hmmm, oh well."
Kinda funny, though. When I finally staggered through endless years of universities and degrees, my entire wardrobe consisted of jeans, sweatshirts, t-shirts, etc. Mom, the pack rat, casually unearthed a gorgeous 'interview' suit for me to wear: dove gray linen, beautifully tailored and it fit like a glove. A classic, suave, gorgeous thing. I nailed the job, slam outta the gate, and mom only mentioned much later, completely tossed-off, that she'd gotten married in that suit.
Hmmmm. There was probably a point buried in this reminesce, but I forgot what it was. But it might have been cogent, a few paragraphs back.

Wafting gently into senility,
Veb

[amarinth]

My mom saved her wedding dress. I don't know why because she probably realized about ten minutes after her wedding that it was already outdated. My parents were married in Berkeley in 1972 and every aspect of their wedding, including my mom's wedding dress, has BERKELEY 1972 stamped all over it. The dress is white with Mexican embroidered flowers along the neckline. If a museum ever does an exhibit on Marriage Rituals of the Hippies, my mom could donate her dress. It's hanging in a closet somewhere at my parents' house, I think.It wasn't quite outdated 10 minutes later, because I think my mom wore the same dress a year later. (Or something similar that also may as well have had BERKELEY 1973 emblazoned on the thing.)

She still has it.

I will never wear it. Not only because it's looking more and more like I'll never get married, nor because I couldn't fit into it without extensive liposouction, but mostly because it's incredibly not my style.

Still, assuming I do ever end up getting married, I cannot imagine not keeping my dress. My hope is that it would be a reminder of one of the most special days of my life.

[Zulema]

I gave my wedding dress away to either Goodwill or Salvation Army after hanging on to it for about ten years. My friend wore it for her wedding a year after I got married.

I never wanted a traditional wedding, my husband talked me into it and then ignored me the whole night to hang around with his frat brothers outside of the hall. The majority of guests were his family and their friends. I was miserable the whole night. Any reminder of that night is gone. I even threw away all but a few wedding pictures.

Yes, eighteen and a half years later it still makes me angry.

[voguevixen]

I had mine shoved in the closet for about 3 years before it really started to bug me. I was annoyed over how much space it took up and how much I'd spent on something I'd only wear once. When I saw this organization on Oprah I jumped at the chance to send it to them.

http://www.makingmemories.org/

They auction off wedding gowns and the proceeds go to granting the final wishes of people in terminal stages of breast cancer.

[delphica]

My mom saved hers, and then used to it make the christening dress that us kids worn. Then the gown was "loaned" to her younger sister to christen her kids in, and then it was lost or something. I was always a little disappointed by that, although we're not planning on kids ourselves. If we changed our minds though, it would have been nice to have that dress. Now upon learning that Farmwoman has a Stickley crib, I'm drooling with envy and might reconsider the kid issue. (I jest, I jest, I know you're not supposed to make that decision over furniture, but still, a Stickley!) I asked my mom once how she had come up with such a charming tradition, and she gave me the hairy eyeball and said "because we couldn't AFFORD a christening dress."

My mom also saved my dress, apparently she is more attached to it that I am, so she's welcome to it. It's more casual dress, not a gown, and in hindsight, it wasn't the best choice. It really reeks of "here is a dress we are going to market to people as a casual wedding dress with a little jacket so that it could either have a suit sort of look, or without the jacket, a sun dress type look, and people will purchase it thinking that perhaps they could wear it again, but meanwhile back in reality, looking at objectively, it has BRIDAL INDUSTRY stamped all over it." I remember thinking it was a good "middle of the road" type choice, in terms of style as well as finances, but I seen to have been delusional. If I could go back in time and do it again, I would rather get a completely non-bridal dress that could really be worn to other events, or just go whole hog and get the princess gown. So yeah, if my mom hadn't claimed it, I wouldn't have held on to it.

On the other hand, I still have my prom dress, which I love, and have no real hopes that anyone would ever want to wear it again so there is no practical purpose in keeping it. My prom was in the 80s, and it looks like a Laura Ashley vomit explosion. But I loved that dress, so I can see how people who loved their wedding dresses would want to keep them forever.

[TeaElle]

I was married in my mom's wedding dress. (My older sister wanted to be but she's two inches too tall and seven inches too big in the hips. Oops.) I still have it, it's been vacuum sealed to prevent injury and if TeaDottir or Bride of TeaSon want to wear it, it'll be there.

I can't quite get being attached to a crib, but suggesting that this woman ought to give up her wedding dress because it's not being stored in a manner of someone else's liking seems callous and unnecessary, even by Clean Sweep standards. It isn't a teddy bear "collection" or a bunch of old National Geographics.

[BiblioCat]

I kept my wedding dress. Mine came from a consignment wedding shop and was just $300. I took it to a seamstress to have it fitted, and to have the train and all the beading removed. It was my second wedding, and I wanted a really simple dress. I liked the cut and design of this one, but I didn't want a train, and it had all these drapey strings of beads that I hated.

After our wedding, I had it professionally cleaned and stuffed, and it's hanging in a garment bag in the basement. Right next to my husband's first set of turnout gear from when he became a volunteer firefighter 20 years ago. :)

[Otto]

I can't quite get being attached to a crib, but suggesting that this woman ought to give up her wedding dress because it's not being stored in a manner of someone else's liking seems callous and unnecessary, even by Clean Sweep standards. It isn't a teddy bear "collection" or a bunch of old National Geographics. Well again, I don't want to paint the picture that the organizer was wrenching the garment from the sobbing bride's clutches or anything. His thing with it was that if it's something of value then treat it like a thing of value. Ultimately the show picked up the tab for having the dress cleaned and boxed.

Now what was really creepy was the 18-inch tall doll replica of the bride in a miniature duplicate of the dress...<shiver>

[Hedda Rosa]

I've saved my dress - and it was the poufy white ballgown type of dress (Very plain otherwise; no lace or sequins. But lots and lots of pouf. I LOVED it!)

My mother-in-law saved her wedding dress from the 60s - her daughter, my husband's siter, didn't wear it in her wedding. When my mother-in-law invited me to try on her dress during the engagement, I knew then for certain that she truly welcomed me into the family.

I doubt my daughter would ever want to wear my dress and I've never even looked at it since it came back from the cleaners, but I'll keep it always - I loved every moment of my wedding and I loved being that girl in that time and place. I was happy Plus I think there is something unique about clothing that I wore on a special occasion or that I wore at a time in my personal history. I'll just like I'll always keep my poufy white dress, I'll also never throw out the patched, embroidered and painted jeans from my neo-hippie college days because they were so me at the time.

[robinc308]

I'm not married, so I can't really say for me, but my grandma kept her wedding dress. She was married in 1954. My grandpa bought the material in Japan when he was on his way home from the Korean war. Her sister sewed it into a dress. Her other sister then wore the dress when she married. Then my mum wore the dress. Then my aunt. Then mum's cousin (grandma's sister's daughter), then another aunt (uncle's wife, actually).

It was my grandparent's golden wedding anniversary about a month ago, and we took out the dress - it's still in great condition. All the granddaughters tried it on and I think we'll all be planning to wear the dress. Sadly, I'm too big to fit, but one of my sisters and some of my cousins looked great in it. My grandma was too frail to try it on, but I bet she would have still fit. She died weeks later (a week ago), and the photos of her with each of the granddaughters as they tried on the dress will be such precious memories for all of us, especially as she didn't live long enough to see any of us get married.

There's something really special about having the dress that your grandma and mum (and everyone else!) both got married in.

[Lissa]

Those of you who intend on preserving your dresses need to make sure you have it stored in the proper materials, or you'll be sorry one day. Cardboard, and ordinary plastics can stain clothes, and keeping the dress hanging isn't all that good for it either.

The ideal situation is to have the (cleaned) dress padded out with acid-free tissue paper, and laid flat in an acid-free box. If folding is a must, the folds should be padded out as much as possible to avoid the fibers breaking down over time. At the very least, wrap the dress in a clean white 100% cotton sheet before placing it in a box to keep it from touching the cardboard. Remove any pins that may be in the fabric to keep them from making rust stains.

Store it in an area where the temperature and humidity are fairly constant. Do not-- I repeat-- Do NOT store your dress in the attic or any other place where temperatures can get extreme.

For those of you who don't necessarily want to keep the dress, but hesitate to dispose of it, I suggest that you offer it to your local museum or Historical Society. If they're anything like the museum in which I work, they have very few examples of modern wedding dresses. (For some reason, people think we won't be interested unless the item is fifty years old, not realizing, of course, that it will be an antique someday, and we'd rather get 'em while they're young so we can take proper care of them, rather than lamenting when people turn the item in to us 50 years from now in deplorable shape.) Put together a nice little package which includes some photos of your wedding, a little geneaology (at least of your parents, his parents and a little biographical information) a copy of your wedding announcement, and perhaps an invitation.

[Jophiel]

The house I bought came complete with a wedding dress. That wasn't one of the selling points, of course, but I found it in the attic crawlspace a few months later. I obviously have no need for a wedding dress and no way of contacting the old owners (who moved out of state and I've no clue where they are) but I'd still feel like a cad throwing it away or anything. So except for a few jokes made about using it to lay under the car to catch oil it sits still in the attic. Not as if it's taking up any room up there.

I guess the previous owner couldn't have cared all that much about the dress if they never bothered to contact me in the past year about it.

[Hilarity N. Suze]

You don't happen to work with Eats_Crayons, (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=245622) do you?

I should point out here that mine is only a "wedding dress" because I wore it for my wedding. To people who weren't at my wedding it would just look like a typical '70s unbleached-muslin hippiewear prairie skirt sort of thing. If I hadn't overworn it I could probably sell it on eBay as a '70s artifact. Saw a similar one for $250 :eek: Mine cost about $50. Now, that's appreciation.

[Marlitharn]

My wedding dress is still hanging in my mom's closet. It's a lovely shade of pink, with a big full skirt and tons of seed beads on the bodice; I have a nefarious plan to cut it down and make a bellydance costume out of it, but when I mentioned this to my mother she almost had a heart attack. "You need to hang on to it in case mini-Marli wants to use it!" she shrieked. ("You need to hang on to it in case..." is my mother's favorite phrase. I found a pack of unopened Hong Kong Phuey napkins in her china hutch the other day.) Now, it's already obvious mini-Marli is going to grow up to be at least a foot taller than me and several inches thinner. I don't think I'm going to be depriving her if I put my wedding dress to good use instead of letting it mildew in a closet for 20 years. But Mom's big on "sentimental value"; periodically she goes through a major house-cleaning wherein she pulls items out of closets and drawers, waxes nostalgic for a few hours, dusts them off, and puts them back. I'll admit I inherited some of her pack-rattedness, but I'm trying to get better. I'm keeping my velvet Elvis, though.

[Lyllyan]

I saved my wedding dress. It was a thing of beauty, and was only about $250. After the weding I had it professionally cleaned and stored. Two years later, my sister wanted to wear it. Great! I loaned it to her, she had it altered to fit her stick figure and never bothered to give it back, even though I asked. Of course, I didn't consider it mine anymore, after all, it would never fit.

My father built a cherry cradle for my firstborn. It became tradition that the cradle was used by the newest baby. I haven't seen MY cradle that my father made for MY daughter in over 12 years. I have asked and it is currently being used to hold stuffed animals at my brother's house. I asked for it and I got incredulous looks all around, then told it wasn't mine to ask for. :rolleyes:

Issues, yeah, I got issues.

[BiblioCat]

("You need to hang on to it in case..." is my mother's favorite phrase. I found a pack of unopened Hong Kong Phuey napkins in her china hutch the other day.)
:D If I didn't know better, I'd swear we were sisters. That's my mom's favorite phrase, too!

[Idlewild]

Mom, the pack rat, casually unearthed a gorgeous 'interview' suit for me to wear: dove gray linen, beautifully tailored and it fit like a glove. A classic, suave, gorgeous thing. I nailed the job, slam outta the gate, and mom only mentioned much later, completely tossed-off, that she'd gotten married in that suit.


That was a sweet story.

[Shodan]

My younger sister recently celebrated her twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, and the guests were expected to wear either their wedding gowns, or clothing from the era.

The Lovely and Talented Mrs. Shodan wore hers and looked lovely beyond description. My daughter went nuts and wants to wear the same dress to her wedding. Most of the female guests still had and wore their wedding gowns - my younger sister wore hers, my mom wore hers (after 56 years), and my big sister wore the suit she wore to her wedding (she was married by a justice of the peace). They all looked beautiful.

I, on the other hand, had rented my wedding tux, but I borrowed a white tuxedo with a bright orange ruffled shirt, ruffled cuffs, shiny shoes with huge knobbed toes, and an enormous pouffy bow tie. My brother referred to the look as "Superfly Goes to the Prom".

Regards,
Shodan

PS - We gave our crib to my nephew and his wife, although my mother has a cradle my grandfather made which four generations of our family have slept in. But all the baby clothes had barf on them, so esthetics won out over sentiment. Into the dumpster as soon as they were outgrown.

[Rayne Man]

A local charity has come up with a good idea on re-using wedding dresses. This charity ( associated with the Nottinghamshire police force ) has close links with an orphanage in Russia. The idea is for people to donate their unwanted dresses here in the UK and the charity takes them to Russia. The orphanage is running a business renting out these dresses to the local population. The residents of this orphanage mend and alter the dresses to modern needs where necessary. This way the orphanage raises some much needed money while improving the life-skills of the residents . They will learn not only needle-craft and tailoring but how to run a business.

Since this scheme was announced on local TV the charity have been overwhelmed with donations of dresses and a large van is going over there in the next few weeks. My wife donated her dress which has been residing in various attics for the last 33 years.

[mhendo]

My wife and i had a non-traditional marriage. I bought my self a nice suit (not a tux) that i would be able to wear again, and she bought a really nice non-wedding dress that she can wear again to other important occasions.

As for those who hang onto their big white wedding dresses, no-one seems to have mentioned the sheer practicality of doing so. With over 50% or marriages ending in divorce, plenty of people might have occasion to use them again.

[Green Cymbeline]

My grandmother saved her dress and gave it to me. I treasure it. It is a beatuful silk satin princess cut gown from about 1940. I also have my aunt's wedding dress from 1983. I wore it for Halloween once when I was a teenager.

I definetly plan on keeping my wedding dress. For one, I plan to design it and make it myself. How could you get rid of such a treasured garment? Shit, I still have my prom and homecoming dresses from high school. I bet my future kids will get a kick out of those!

[3.885AM]

My wife kept hers for over twenty years. It was circa 1978 nylon or such and was pretty much along the lines of Princess Lea’s costume from Star Wars. Wasn’t much to get excited about back then, and the style didn’t fair well with the passing of time. She had bought it on sale from a local department store’s bargain basement during her senior year of college.
We were in a cleaning and reorganizing mood one day, and she was going through the closet sorting out things that may be worth keeping, or of use to others. Well, at least it burned well.