After the last piece of cake is eaten and your honeymoon has been taken, you’ll be tasked with “after the wedding” chores. One such chore is deciding what to do with your wedding gown. There are several options that will allow you to repurpose your gown – Keep in mind that cleaning and preserving your gown is always the best first step you can take, especially if you’re unsure what you may want to do with it.
Here are several other options to consider that will allow you to repurpose your gown:
#1: Cut the Dress Down and Dye It
If you are someone who truly loves to reuse your clothing items, and you are sickened by the fact that your gorgeous gown will never be worn again, worry not, because you can always repurpose it. Take the dress to a local seamstress (or do it yourself if you are talented), and have the dress cut down to cocktail length. You can also have it dyed a different color, such as black, blue or red, to turn your wedding gown into your favorite party dress. Not all fabrics take dye well, so be careful if you are planning a DIY project.
#2: Create a Family Heirloom
Your wedding dress doesn’t have to be shoved in a box; you can actually display your gorgeous gown in your home by creating a quilt with pieces of the dress. Cut out squares of the dress and create the quilt of your dreams with it. You can use beaded portions of the dress to create the border if you like, and you can even incorporate other items you and your beloved wore into the quilt. For example, use portions of his shirt and tie in the quilt, or use pieces of your mother’s dress to incorporate family into the project. There are a million different ways you can repurpose your gown in this way.
#3: Donate it to a Theatre
Community theatres generally don’t have large budgets for costumes, so they always love getting a well-loved and rarely worn item to use in their productions. Wedding dresses aren’t easy to come by, so if you are a lover of the arts, you might want to consider repurposing your dress by donating it to a community theatre. The added bonus is that you might get to see your gorgeous gown in a production one day. To do this, call local community theatres and ask if they are in need of a wedding gown for a future production, some will send someone to pick it up, while others will instruct you on how to drop off the garment.
#4: Donate to NICU Helping Hands
NICU Helping Hands is a non-profit organization that works closely with hospitals where premature and sick children are cared for. They have a program called “Angel Gowns”. The program takes donated wedding gowns and creates small dressing gowns for babies whose lives ended far too soon. The charity is located in Fort Worth, Texas, but gowns can be shipped from across the country to the location. If you are in the DFW area, you can drop off your gown to Bliss Bridal in Fort Worth.
#5: Decorate Your Home with It
The wedding day was the moment you and your beloved became a family, so it seems only appropriate to decorate your first family home with pieces of your wedding gown. When you have your dress preserved, ask if they can place a part or all of your dress in a shadow box. This can create a gorgeous piece of art that will remind you daily of the love between you and your husband.
Photo credit: sasha {fujin} / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
