Me? Mine has been hanging in the closet for the last 3 years. I don’t plan to have children to give it to and I’ll never fit in it again. Even in the event of a remarriage one doesn’t wear the same dress, yikes! It seems like a shame to get rid of something that cost so much money and has so many memories, right?
I found out on yesterday’s Oprah that there’s a foundation that resells donated wedding dresses and uses the proceeds to grant wishes for people with terminal breast cancer. You can find more info on their work and how you can participate at their website: http://www.makingmemories.org
Off to look for a box…It’s not helping anyone in my closet, after all.
My first wedding dress is in a box in the basement. It was the ruffly, beaded princess dress, and I looked great in it. Too bad the marriage only lasted a year. The dress has been in the box for 10 years.
I’m going to check out that site, voguevixen. It sounds like a very worthy cause!
Got married in 1981 (was so invested in the wedding I bought the first and only dress I tried on, off of the sale rack, no less - but I digress). got divorced in 1986. Wedding dress hung from day after the wedding until I moved 2 years ago. At that time, I donated the dress to a local Children’s theater group who would either use it as is, or dye it and use it as a costume or sell it at a costume sale.
In 1974 the soon-to-be Better Half and I were impoverished college students, so I bought some nice white polyester crepe material and a $2.00 Simplicity dress pattern and made my own long dress, nothing too fancy. (It was a size 8–my god.)
And then I packed it away in a cedar chest and it’s been there for 26 years now. I doubt whether anybody else would want it. I think I keep it around mainly to remind myself that I did actually used to wear a size 8 (I’m a 14 now, so it’s not THAT bad…)
In 1954, my mother made HER own dress, out of white satin, and SHE packed IT away in a cedar chest, too. And IT’S been there for 46 years.
I often think that the people in earlier eras who didn’t get a special “wedding dress” had the right idea. She just got a new, expensive dress of some kind, and that was the dress she got married in. I think it was the late Victorians who started the custom of the special white wedding dress which you wore only once and then put away forever.
At least I didn’t spend hundreds of dollars on mine. Maybe that’s something for Ruffian to keep in mind while she shops.
What a great idea, voguevixen! I understand there are also groups who will donate your old formals & prom dresses to high school girls who can’t afford them.
Yes, my dress is also in a box, been there since the wedding in '94. So is my mother’s, my grandmother’s, etc. Tried on my grandmother’s dress before I bought mine. It had yellowed quite a bit but that was fine. A little too old-fashioned for me, but the freaky thing was that it fit like a glove- as if it had been sewn on me! Odd, when I knew her we were never the same size. Brought a smile to my grandpa’s face, though, so it was totally worth it.
I don’t know if I could give my dress away, it might be tough. I don’t really have the fantasy that a daughter might wear it someday- oooo gross would probably be the reaction. But I guess I’m still attached to it as a symbol of the marriage, and it might feel funny. Maybe later on.
BTW, you might check on your dress if it’s in a box. Sometimes they aren’t cleaned properly and the stains become permanent. Also, I remember a tv show where the host was doing a show on wedding dresses, and went to take hers out of the box on live tv, and it wasn’t there! It was just the big petticoat-slip thing. She had no idea what had happened to her dress, as it had (supposedly) been in the box for a decade or more! My God, can you imagine?
Hmm. I’m enjoying the fact that I got some honeymoon money and extra storage space by selling it immediately after the wedding. I dried my bouquet and kept it for a year or so, then chucked it, too. You know, I have to keep my drawers and closets free for important things like extra buttons, my teddy bear collection, and entire sets of clothing, business and casual, from size 6 through size 18 (I really am gonna wear that size 6 bubble skirt someday!;))
Hey Ang…we aren’t at war with Canada yet…you can still mail your dress across the border, lol.
I understand from the site that they’re taking all kinds, vintage included, so if you aren’t sure, you can e-mail and ask.
And EJsGirl…if you’re having a hard time parting with your dress, go to the site and read about some of the wonderful things that are being done with the money they’ve raised so far. You’ll always have pictures of your dress, right?
I thought that too, until I tried shopping for that non-wedding dress. I couldn’t find the red silk dress I wanted. Luckily for me, I found out before I bought anything that the church wouldn’t let me wear anything but white, ivory, or pastels (shudder) anyway. So I bought the white one. At least it has resale value; I got it second-hand.
You sound like me! I am not very sentimental (and I think I still have my white bubble skirt). Only I did keep my dress. It’s still hanging in a closet, and I never even had it cleaned after the wedding. I did keep one invitation, and the cards that came with the gifts, in the hopes of doing some kind of scrapbook, but maybe I’ll just chuck it all. And I could make some money off that dress, too…
I was married in '94, and divorced 2 years later. I had made my wedding dress out of an ivory brocade, in the style of an 1830’s day dress. It’s in a box, and I’ve thought of making pillows out of the fabric, but it’s been over 6 years… don’t think I’ll ever get to it.
Thanks for the website, VV. I think I know what I’m going to do with that dress, now.
My wife and I thought the same about non-wedding dresses. She wound up buying a vintage, 1920s-era linen tea dress. It was awesome! A relatively simple cut (no train or ruffles or whatever), but it had sewn-in hand-made lace, it was literally covered with embroidered designs (also in white; very subtle), and had a ton of beadwork on the bodice. Plus, we spent exactly 2.5% of what my sister-in-law paid for her dress (which was nice, but not something you could wear to tea).
Suo Na: Why on earth would the church care what color you wear? What business is it of theirs? As Duck Duck Goose pointed out, “special” wedding dresses are something of a late invention (actually, I believe this only became common perhaps fifty years ago). So I can;t believe it’s a religious conviction.
Oh, by the way, my wedding tux is in our cedar closet. I still wear it occasionally.
well it’s not technically mine, but sometimes late at night, I like to put it on and traipse around the house…
Seriously though, I think this is a great idea! My wife still has hers, up on a shelf in th closet. We had it professionally cleaned, and sealed. I have three daughters; perhaps one ofthem will like to wear it.
I divorced 4 1/2 years after the wedding, and not long after gave the box-packed dress away to a second-hand store run by a church. Maybe some other girl could have a decent dress and be luckier than I was.
