What Do I Do With My Wedding Dress?

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.

KKB Wedding

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

Satin 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!


45 Responses to What Do I Do With My Wedding Dress?

  1. My nephews beautiful wife started a collection in the town where they live and got over 20 wedding dresses donated to be made into angel gowns. This was the first I had heard of it and thought it such a beautiful idea and now here it is in your post as well.

  2. Brilliant idea. My second child was a preemie in the NICU and it is great that there are wedding dresses and people out there to turn them angel gowns.

  3. I took the lace collar off of mine and gave to my daughter to use on her bouquet. I wasn’t sure what to do with the rest, but I love the idea of a tree skirt…even if white, it could still work. I wonder if you could post the NICU address and if they want more?…may never get to tree skirt and I am really wanting to pare down…love minimalism and simplicity…just trying to win over the husband a bit more.

  4. I used some of the lace from my mom’s wedding dress and had my soon-to-be mother-in-law make my veil out of it. I loved that my MIL is a fantastic seamstress so I was able to include my mom AND my MIL 🙂

  5. Thank you for this. I have struggled with what to do with my (preserved) wedding gown. I hate that it is taking up space, but I also want to have a connection from my wedding to my daughter’s. Thank you for the beautiful ideas!

  6. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. My wedding dress is glittery white cheetah print. I do not think it is appropriate for an angel gown, but someday I hope my sewing skills will be good enough to donate my time and make some.

  7. Maybe I’m the least sentimental person on earth but I took mine straight from the dry cleaners to a charity that takes special occasion dresses a week or two after our wedding. My grandmother has a dusty old closet filled with wedding gowns that belonged to my mother and four aunts, plus a few from the next generation of cousins. Never once has anyone want to wear one of them, even though they were beautiful in their day. As I try not keep things I don’t plan to use, the dress just didn’t need to come home with me. Besides, I have a bazillion pictures to remember it by.

  8. I made the skirt of mine into a Baptismal outfit for my son. For my daughter, I used part of my Mom’s dress, my MIL’s dress, and the lace bodice (sp?) part of my dress and made her a Baptismal quilt. Now they each have a piece to do what they please with.

  9. I made my first gown, and even tatted my own lace. Afterwards I took off the laceand sold the gown. I planned on using the scraps to make fabulous Xmas ornaments. When I hadn’t made them at the 25 year mark, I gave the scraps to someone who makes fabulous ornaments. The second time I bought a dress at a thrift shop and took it back a few weeks later. The $40 was dress rent. Have you thought of making a christening dress for the grandchildren?

  10. Wow I have never heard of doing the angel dresses with a wedding dress. I still have my dress from 35 years. I had a picture done of myself in it for our 25th anniversary. Not sure if I am ready to give it away yet if I do I will ask our NICU about angel dresses.

  11. Thanks for sharing this tip! Another place I stumbled upon when also figuring out what to do with my 10 year old dress is http://www.adornedingrace.org/. They take all kinds of wedding dresses and formal wear and the proceeds are used to combat sex trafficking in Portland, OR.

  12. That’s for this incredibly timely post. Wy are moving in a few days and I’ve been struggling emotionally with letting go of my wedding dress. I’m adding the angel dress to my list of things to do before we move – perfect.

  13. These are some wonderful ideas, many of which I hadn’t heard of until your post. Thank you for compiling and sharing them here.

    • I’m glad to! I’ve been trying to figure out what best to do with my dress. My parents spent a lot of money on it and I need to keep my mom’s feelings in mind as well. I want to do something to honor the dress appropriately.

  14. I recently got engaged and on my last trip home my mom pulled her dress out of storage. She had had it cleaned and preserved after her wedding, where it sat for almost 40 years! Seems like such a waste to have it just sitting in a box all that time, I’m going to send her this article to give her some ideas on what to do with it, especially since it’s clear that I am definitely NOT wearing it for my wedding!

    • That’s what I’ve been thinking — about it being a waste. I hope your mom finds something useful in my post.

  15. I’ve never heard of angel gowns…gave me chills. My sister made purses out of my mom’s dress for all the granddaughters for their wedding days. My sister wore my wedding dress, so it’s her problem now. I’ll let her know about the angel gowns though.

  16. Hi! About once a month I bulk-read your page! I’ve been around since the first year. :0) I have an interesting trouble. I’m more than happy to share my beautiful dress with another. I figure it brings more joy to the world if someone else wears it than if it sits in the closet for 30 years. Here’s the kicker. My mom made it and would just be so sad about that. The funny thing is, I’m wanting to share it because it’s so beautiful! It seems so sad to just put it in the closet just to have it. But there it sits.

  17. My heart just filled with purpose when I read about Angel Gowns. My wedding was almost seven years ago and my husband lovingly teases me about donating the dress. For some reason I can’t let it go. No children in our future. I want my dress to be loved and Angel Gowns is the answer. Thank you for sharing this information.
    Maybe I will put it on once before donating.

  18. I will never fit into my mother’s wedding dress and it has discolored over the years. She was going to throw it out but I asked her to keep a piece of it to wrap my bouquet if I ever do marry. I love the idea of turning the gown into angel dresses but you might want to keep a little piece for you the Girl to tuck in her dress if she marries, or maybe a piece for the Boy, too. I bet they would appreciate the sentiment.

  19. My gown is still in the house but no longer boxed nicely. I took it out when my daughter got engaged and she tried it on. She didn’t want to wear it (don’t blame her) but it made me feel good that she tried. Also, it was too big in the bust line and too small in the waist line so, yeah, that felt good {blush}. I’m working on my health and fitness so once I can fit in it again (or near enough), I’ll be taking pictures and donating it.

    I like the ideas of a picture frame and Angel Gowns.

  20. My friend sent her wedding dress to a small village in Africa. The ladies all have the chance to wear her big white puffy dress for their own weddings.

  21. I work as a volunteer seamstress to sew Angel Gown
    garments for NICU Helping Hands to provide nationally to families that
    have lost a baby during pregnancy or after delivery. NICU Helping
    Hands is a 501c3 organization based in Fort Worth, Texas that provides
    parent support and education to families experiencing the hospitalization
    of their baby in the NICU of a hospital. They gift Angel Gown garments
    to families and hospitals free of charge and provide additional
    bereavement support through their One-on-One Mentoring Program and
    bereavement resource materials.
    For more information about this program go to http://www.nicuhelpinghands.org
    This organization (which works closely with Angel Gowns by Michelle) CAN provided you with a tax deduction if requested at time of donation.

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  25. When i got married,i wore a poofy,short sleeve gown and veil and afterwards had it cleaned and boxed.After our son was born,i couldnt have any more babies due to problems.When our son was 13,we adopted our daughter who was 14 and living in an orphange in Ireland.We decided to have her baptized and christened a couple months after we got her.I had my wedding gown made into a cute,poofy,knee length baptism/christening dress for her and there was enough material left to make the matching bonnet and a ruffled diaper cover.We did lace anklets and white shoes with the dress and a cloth diaper and rubberpants with the ruffled diaper cover over them.She looked very cute and pure in her outfit and everyone loved the fact that the dress and bonnet and diaper cover were made from my wedding gown.

  26. What do I do with my wedding dress? Well, at least twice a year, I wear it. It’s a two piece, corset and huge mad skirt in shot green/blue silk with fishes and dragonflies and makes me the belle of any given ball/festival/club. As it’s a corset, I can lose and gain weight and it still fits.

    It’s astonishing how versatile it is too…I’ve dressed it up 17century, mermaid, alien and this summer I’m going dryad for my birthday party. I thought about buying a new corset from the designer who’s now a friend…but it’s my 50th, so celebrating my half century in the corset that’s seen some of my wildest times seemed appropriate.

    It has a different sentimental value from most dresses too, since the husband I married in it ran off with a much younger woman when the kids were not more than babies, but I’m now very happy with his best man, so we can appreciate the irony.

    All the repurposing ideas above are great, but people might want to consider dying their dress a different colour and wearing it (ok, that does depend on how often you party, but in my world, you find opportunities;)

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