What to do with your wedding dress?

This is a question I get asked ALL the time! I have found so many of my friends and clients have their wedding dress but don’t know what to do with it. Honestly, I was in the same boat for the first 19 years of my marriage. I never had the intention of holding on to it for my daughter and I don’t feel the need to keep it for myself, yet I still have it. Why? Because I didn’t know what to do with it. Because my mom had it professionally cleaned and preserved. Because I do have the space to store it. I decided to take the time to do some research so I could have a great answer the next time someone asked me the question.

The first thing that always comes to mind is to donate it. There are some great organizations that will take them for all sorts of amazing causes but most of them will only take dresses if they are 5 years or newer. I did find an organization, Angel Gowns, that will repurpose your wedding dress to make a gown for premie babies that have passed, but as of now there is a wait list for them taking dresses. If you aren’t finding any charities to donate your dress to, Goodwill does take them.

Another way to move your dress along is to sell it. There are plenty of online sites that sell your dress on consignment. Local thrift stores can take them. I looked into it for my dress and learned real quick that wasn’t the right option for me. My dress was perfect for my day, but it wasn’t worth much. I paid $125 in 2006. A few sites said I could list it for $40, which felt high and unrealistic. The time it would take to post it, check on it, and then if it does sell, pack it up and ship it, didn’t make sense to me.

I also found some fun and creative ways women were using their dresses. They are :

-Having their daughter try it on each year and taking a picture of them in it.

-Keeping it around for dress up.

-Having cocktail parties with their friends and everyone wearing their dress.

-Having it altered to make a new dress out of.

-Cutting a piece of it to make a decorative pillow, or putting it as the background in a shadow box.

Now that I knew of ways to get rid of my wedding dress, why wasn’t I quick to get it out of my house? I had to really sit with myself and think about it. Part of me was scared to get rid of it. What if I got rid of it and regretted it? AGHHHH! I hate feeling stuck on that thought!! It doesn’t happen often, hardly at all, but I am stuck on it for my wedding dress. How do I handle it? I accept it. I feel like it means I’m supposed to keep it for now. I can always get rid of it now that I know it’s actually easy to find places to take it or things to do with it.

It is okay to keep things. It is okay to keep things EVEN when it seems silly to you, or others. BUT I do believe in taking good care of what you have. Store it properly, display it, use it, love it. Don’t say you want to keep your wedding dress as it is shoved in a garbage bag, still dirty, in your garage, where rodents can get to it to and destroy it. To me, that isn’t showing you really want it. It is better to move it along so it can be used again, or turned into a cute keepsake, than have it sit and get destroyed. This goes for EVERYTHING!!! If you aren’t going to keep stored properly, then don’t keep it.

Need help deciding what stays and what goes?
Let’s work together to clear the clutter—not just in your home, but in your heart and mind, too.