Stephen and I got married almost 19 years ago on June 17, 1995. As a lot of brides do, after I returned from our honeymoon I had my wedding dress preserved. Where it has stayed ever since.
I sincerely doubt that my daughter will want to wear my dress on her wedding day since styles will be different and I assume she’ll want to pick out the dress that is perfect for her. But, I never felt like selling it was the right solution for me. I’m somewhat attached to the thing and never got that warm fuzzy feeling at the prospect of selling it. Besides, it’s now 19 years old. And styles have changed.
So I did some research. Stephen and I have talked about it and I know what I’m going to do. But first, here are some ideas for you if you’re wondering what the heck to do with your wedding dress:
1. Turn It Into a Ring Bearer Pillow
I thought this was a great way to share your wedding dress repurposing efforts to benefit either a son or daughter.
Someone pointed me to the website Old New Borrowed Redo. They repurpose wedding and bridesmaid dresses into other things. Many years ago one of my crafty bridesmaids turned her emerald green bridesmaid dress into a Christmas Tree skirt, which I thought was brilliant.
2. Shadow Box It
I don’t watch Housewives of Anywhere, but apparently this is one of them. Shadow boxing is a great way to display a wedding dress if you don’t want to sell, donate or repurpose it.
3. Turn it Into a Christening Gown
I think this is a beautiful idea and wish I’d come across it before my kids were born. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. I also saw another option was making a beautiful bassinet skirt with the fabric.
4. Remake it into Flower Girl Purses
Someone on Facebook shared this with me. I think these are precious.
5. Take Lace from the Gown and Turn it Into Cuff Links
The sons seem to get left out of the discussion when it comes to mom’s wedding dress. This is such a great way to incorporate your wedding dress into something for your son on his wedding day.
6. Take Lace From the Dress and Turn it Into a Bracelet and Necklace
7. Take a Picture of Your Daughter In It
Heather at HeatherandCraig.com took pictures of her daughter wearing her dress and plans to display the photos at her daughter’s future wedding. I thought this was a beautiful idea and plan to do the same.
8. Make Picture Frames
I also like the idea of using a piece of the gown as a photo mat. I’d put the picture of my daughter inside the frame with part of my wedding dress as the mat. I also like the idea of making three sets of this and giving one to our mothers as a gift.
9. Turn Them Into Angel Gowns
Which brings me to what Stephen and I independently saw and brought to the other as an option for my wedding gown. I’m not sure if I wrote previously about the fact that The Boy was a preemie and spent several weeks in the NICU. It was one of the most difficult times in our lives. There’s nothing worse than going home to an empty nursery without your baby. So, premature babies and NICUs always hit us right in the gut. When we saw our local news station do a story about angel gowns, we both knew this is what we would do with my wedding dress after keeping some of the fabric for keepsakes for our families.
Angel Gowns are made for babies that are born premature or stillborn and do not live to go home. A lot of times the hospital doesn’t have anything small enough to fit them and their parents hold them while they are wrapped in a hospital blanket. Instead, volunteers take donated wedding dresses and make teeny tiny gowns to dress the babies in. I can’t think of a better use for my wedding dress than to honor a life that ended far too soon.
Once we finish up with our Simple Year project, I’ll be planning a photo session for The Girl in my dress. I’ll have The Boy in a few as well, if he’ll let me. He hates having his picture taken. Once that is done, I’ll find out how much of my wedding dress fabric I need for two ring bearer pillows and three picture mats and a strip to wrap around my daughter’s wedding bouquet. Then I’ll drive the rest over to NICU Helping Hands to be converted into Angel Gowns.
If you have any other ideas for ways to repurpose a wedding dress or organizations that accept donations of wedding dresses, please pipe up in the comments!