Where is your wedding dress now???

[LadyNancy]

I'm enjoying seeing your wedding dress photos on another thread. Everyone looks so lovely. I'm wondering...where are those dresses now? In storage? In the basement/attic? Saving it for your daughter?

Here's my wedding dress story. You might think I'm crazy though...lol.

My dd is a ballet student and her ballet school was staging excerpts from Sleeping Beauty. The director, who is a friend of mine, needed to make Princess Aurora's costume for the wedding scene. Since my wedding dress was sitting for years in the basement in a bag (for some reason I wasn't sentimental about it at all) I decided that I would donate it to the ballet school. They took it apart and created a beautiful ballet costume. Even the long train was used. It was detached when Princess Aurora was dancing, and attached just before the final scene where she and the Prince are coming before the Queen for the marriage blessing. It was really pretty!!

No one can say I don't recycle! hahaha

[Lorna in the boonies]

Mine is at my parents' house, either in my mom's closet or in their attic. I can't remember which (I'm wanting to say it's in my mom's closet). She's asked (ummm, hinted?) several times over the years if I want it, but I honestly don't have room for it and she hasn't insisted that I take it yet, so at their house it remains.

[nestof3]

In my parent's closet in a heavy-duty zippered bag. I have no room in our house for it! I saved it just in case I had a daughter or daughter-in-law who would want it. Unfortunately, I am short (5' 3") and I was rather thin then.

[Sharon in SC]

Mine is in my closet in the "archival" box I had it packaged in after the festivities 18 years ago. It has come out of the box once for my girls to play dress up in (formal portrait session) about 8 years ago. I've intended ever since to have it re-"archived" but have yet to get to it on the "to do" list. :-P

[Daisy]

I had my sealed but now I'm wondering why. I'm not sure what I could do with it??

[Beth in Central TX]

Mine is in a keepsake box under our bed; ironic since I had all boys...

[Jennifer in NH]

vacuumed sealed in the basement...I think the hoop skirt is in the attic. I have no idea what it will be used for! When I was a girl I was a "Rainbow girl" and we all had to wear white gowns, so maybe if dd is ever a rainbow girl she would like the dress then!

[WTMindy]

I had my sealed but now I'm wondering why. I'm not sure what I could do with it??

Yah, me too. How silly, really. No one has seen it in 17 years.

[LadyNancy]

OH, I have a cute wedding dress story. When my dd was around 4 years old she was really into Disney's Cinderella movie. I happened to be in a mood to try on my wedding gown so I fished it out of the basement and brought it into my bedroom. Then I thought I would have some fun since my dd didn't see me bring up the dress. I yelled out to my dd, "Honey, Mommy would really like a new dress. Maybe if you say bibbidi-bobbidi-boo like Cinderella's fairy godmother, I can have a new dress." I'm sure you can figure out the rest of the story. She yells bibbidi-bobbidi-boo, and out I come with my white wedding dress on. She was speechless with her jaw to the floor. We still laugh about it today.

[Virginia Dawn]

Mine has been in a box in our garage storage area for years. It was too out of date for my daughter, besides the fact that she is five inches taller than me. I have plans to cut it up and use the material and lace to make ringbearers pillows for my boys weddings, if the brides will allow me. :-)

[j.griff]

Mine is in a closet in my parents' home. It was not an expensive gown at all, and I got it on sale, LOL. The women in the store didn't want to sell me that dress, because I already had our daughter when I bought it.

[Pajama Mama]

It's in my upstairs closet. I was never a fan of big weddings; much to my MIL's chagrin. We had a small outdoor wedding and I wore a dress that was just above the knee. I refer to our wedding photo as "our prom picture". My dress wasn't a real gown just an off the shoulder off white dress.

Dh and I decided to get married rather suddenly(we dated for 3 yrs though) I think the sudden-ness of our wedding and our small unplanned ceremony had tongues wagging. Everyone expected us to be expecting:) Nope. Our first child was born almost 2 yrs after our wedding.

Dd is 7 now. If she wanted the dress for a dance when she's older, I'd let her wear it. It's a size 6. I know *I'll* never wear it again.

[Virginia Dawn]

Oh yeah, I looked up my wedding dress on e-bay and the same dress is being sold for $15. Hmmph.

[Dayle in Guatemala]

When we were getting married, we had absolutely NO money. I had a picture of a wedding dress I wanted and I was hoping to find something as close as I could for my budget of $400. I went to a bridal shop and showed them the picture, tried on that dress (it was perfect!) and looked at the price tag: $1500 (in 1993!). A little out of budget.

I told them my budget was $400 including alterations and veil and they brought me things that made me cry they were so ugly!

I went home discouraged until I saw on the TV an advertisement for a new shop that rented wedding dresses. I went there hoping to find something and they had MY dress for a total of $350 including veil and alterations. Not only that, I was the first one to wear it--so it was brand new!

So, I don't know where it is now. But it's not under my bed, in storage, or in a closet somewhere. I have wonderful memories, and I don't regret getting the dress I wanted for that day!

[HomeOnTheRanch]

The cleaners put it in a box and it is still in a closet at my parents'. I did peek in the box when it came back from the cleaners to make sure that (1) my dress was actually in there (it was) and (2) to see if the bird seed stains came out (they didn't).

Silly me wasn't paying attention and bought a box of dyed bird seed. It was a hot July day. Everything that ended up inside of my dress bled when mixed with sweat. It wasn't too bad, and it is just in the lining. If dd wishes to wear it some day, fine. If not, I'm perfectly fine with that also.

After my in-laws got divorced, MIL gave me her wedding dress for dd to play dress-up with. That kind of weirded me out, so it is shoved in a box in our closet somewhere. Maybe I should drop it off at my parents and bring home my dress!

[Doran]

Yah, me too. How silly, really. No one has seen it in 17 years.

Mine has been sealed for 17 years, too, Mindy (when's your anniversary?). And, it lives at my parents' house -- how queer is that? I heard a story once about a lady in our home town whose daughter opened her mother's sealed gown only to discover that it was the WRONG gown! Maybe we'll luck up and find a gown my daughters would actually want to wear! :lol:

Doran

[Gailmegan]

It's in a trash bag in the basement. I keep meaning to have it preserved. LOL. Maybe before my 10th anniversary I will get around to it.

[j.griff]

That's really cool.

[readwithem]

Love the ballet story!! We had mine altered (i.e. shortened) to fit my sister. My dd is taller than I am and we all felt sure she wouldn't wear it. So it's sitting in the closet still in the garment bag. I'm not sure it was even cleaned after my sister's wedding. I'm almost afraid to open the bag :)

[percytruffle]

Mine was sealed until a few years ago. I ripped that baby open and tried it on, then dd tried it on. It looked good as new and still does today, but nobody in their right mind is ever going to wear it! Actually, we did put the veil on my neice's Boston terrier a couple of years ago at Thanksgiving, but that is another story...

I say you all need to have a coming out party for your dresses!:party:

[Sophia]

I'm wondering the same thing.

It was in my parents' attic until they got divorced, and then...I think I need to make some phone calls:blink:

[Janna]

This is my fear! Mine has been sealed from the dry cleaners for 12 years. I keep thinking that one day I'm going to open it up and find that it's not my dress at all.

To answer the OP question, it's sealed and in our storage closet. No way would my mom have any of my stuff anymore. She's cleared out so much that she's given us (me and my brothers) all pictures of us, our baby books - everything. Hmm...almost as if she wants to forget us or something. LOL I'm kidding. She just gets into serious decluttering modes. Hmm...now I'm wondering why she thinks things of us is "clutter"? Kidding again. I better stop now and go to bed. :)

[Michelle T]

I never saw it again after the wedding. It never even got cleaned! It was just stuffed into a box, disappeared into my parent's garage. I assume it was thrown out when they moved years ago.
Michelle T

[Amy in Orlando]

I thought mine was lost, but my mom found it when they moved not too long ago. I don't know what to do with it, but I hate to let it go. I keep thinking I'd love to try it on to see if it fits, but beyond that ....:confused:

[Barb F. PA in AZ]

Mine was hanging in our walk-in closet until our son got hold of it as a baby and ripped the tulle to shreds. He had a ball. My girls used to love trying it on when the bigs were littles, but no longer. Sigh. But just as well. It was a 1993 vintage with beads and tulle and a giant butt-bow. No way any self respecting modern young lady would be caught in such a monstrosity anyway.

Barb

[Needleroozer]

Well, I don't have one. We never had any intention of actually getting legally married (I know, it's a shocker-unless you know me) and were very poor at the time-we couldn't have afforded a wedding if we had wanted one. We had exchanged vows privately instead, and got legally married in my mama's dining room with a justice of the peace about a year later (Funny- I honestly cannot remember the date of our legal marriage- we celebrate our vow exchange date.), when I was 7 months preggers with ds. The only reason we did was that we had horrible insurance that was going to insist on a heel poke blood test for the baby whenever we made a claim (I told you it was horrible) for him. So, no dress. But I still have the beautiful teal blue silk blouse I wore. :001_smile:

I do want to have a big bash for our 20th anniversary (3 yrs from now in May), and want a beautiful dress to celebrate, but it won't be a traditional dress- I don't do much in a traditional fashion if you hadn't already guessed that, lol.)
LB

[Colleen]

...I am not a wedding dress ~ or a wedding ~ person. Most wedding dresses strike me as really...what shall I say?...not attractive.;) We had a civil marriage while we were skiing. A few days later we had a party at a castle and I wore a black Donna Karan dress that I still own and have worn a number of other times; it's not something that goes out of style. I was five months pregnant when we were married but really small, so the dress was just the same size I wore before I was pregnant.

[Colleen]

Makes sense to me.:) If I'd had a wedding, I would have considered doing that. I can't imagine spending tons of time and money on something I'd wear once!

[Renthead Mommy]

It was just an ivory dress I got at the mall. We were going to move half way across the country for a job for the then boyfriend. We decided we might as well get married for the insurance and taxes and everything, so we set up a wedding in about 2 weeks. We only had about 15 people in my best friend's parents backyard. Us, a ton of lasagna and other italian food (her mom went a little overboard on the cooking for only 15 people!) and a chocolate wedding cake. It was probably good we did a hurry up and get married for the insurance type of thing, otherwise it would have probably taken us YEARS to actually get around to the actually wedding part.

Five years later when our son was born and we decided we wanted him to have godparents, I cut up the dress and made a baptism outfit out of it for him. Not as easy to do with a regular knee lenght dress as a it would have been with a regular wedding dress! But luckily the dress was A-lined and the panels were wide enough for all the pattern pieces. But it was very close! There was VERY little left of the dress when I was done cutting out all the pieces!

The same friend who's house we got married at is his godmother.

[melissaL]

I didn't have a tradition wedding dress. I had a full length floral dress that I still wear. I am pretty pleased that I still fit into it after 15 years and 5 children!!!
MelissaL

[PariSarah]

. . . for thirty years, and opened it for me to try on. At first I didn't think I wanted it, but then I went shopping and found nothing I liked, so I ended up preferring her dress to any other. I didn't care for the headpiece, but my mom's friend (who is a seamstress) remade it into a little caplet kind of thing.

Anyway, after I used it, she sealed it up again. When Stephen's brother got married, MIL offered it to stbSIL, who didn't care for it. So, sealed again. It's still sitting in her attic, waiting for Isaac to propose to some girl!

[momofkhm]

and is now up on the shelf in my closet. I was saving it for my daughters but my oldest will probably be to tall and my youngest will be too big around. I don't what I'm doing with it now. I also have my wedding shoes. They don't fit me or either of my dds. They are too small for all of us!

[Donna]

Mine is vacuum packed in a box in my closet. Hopefully dd will be able to use it someday. Sigh!

[Jenny in Atl]

Sealed-up and in my closet.

[PrairieAir]

Mine is in a Rubbermaid container in the lockup in our basement with my dress from my senior prom. (Dh was my date to that prom.) Our basement is very tight and dry and I figured that was a better spot than the attic or my closet.

I've taken both dresses out a few times and let my girls try them on. I know I let SIL (13 years younger than dh and only 6 older than my oldest) try on the prom dress when she was little, but I don't know about the wedding dress. The girls thought it was a very special occasion whenever they got to try on my dresses when they were little.

Now that the oldest would actually fit into them, I don't think she would be caught dead in them, LOL. The prom dress is especially hideous in her eyes as it is baby pink with a lacy skirt and a big bow on the butt. Actually, I'm not that fond of the prom dress but dh picked it out. I wanted something red and slinky and slit up to there like the gal in Mission Impossible 3 wore to the Vatican. That is the *exact* dress I envisioned. Unfortunately it was not available anywhere in Lima, Ohio in 1989 and I'm sure it wouldn't have been in my budget anyway. The pink prom dress still fits, though a bit more snugly than I remember. I tried it on this past year and had my daughter take my picture for my blog:)

[KAR120C]

There's a charity that auctions off wedding dresses (at apparently very reasonable prices), to support breast cancer research and "make a wish" type things. I can't remember the name of it now... but I donated my dress to them when we had already moved it twice and decided that DS would be an only child... And anyway, I made it myself to begin with, and I have lots of pictures of it, so if any future DIL or granddaughter were to wish she could have it, I can make a duplicate. ;)

I don't have the veil... We got a cat right after we were married, and the cat had a fondness for anything crunchy. Like tulle. So he would try to get into the guest room closet to nibble on the veil. One morning I was sitting on the side of my bed only half-awake and heard the cat in the other room getting into the closet.... and then a bit of a scuffle... and in ran the cat in a panic, WEARING the veil! Apparently he had gotten himself tangled up and when he bolted the headband got caught and the whole thing was following him. It was hysterical, and definitely worth losing the veil over! :D

My sister actually wore part of my mom's wedding dress. My mom's dress was a plain white satin tea-length dress with a lace overlay shaped kind of like a coat... only in lace... I made a copy of the under-dress for my sister (the original was not quite the right size), and she wore the lace overlay. I'm sure she still has it, but then she also has two daughters, and not-too-bad odds on it being used again.

[Karen sn]

Mine has been in a box in our garage storage area for years. It was too out of date for my daughter, besides the fact that she is five inches taller than me. I have plans to cut it up and use the material and lace to make ringbearers pillows for my boys weddings, if the brides will allow me. :-)

I love the idea and would bet the dil's would be very touched by it.

[PrairieAir]

Mine is in a closet in my parents' home. It was not an expensive gown at all, and I got it on sale, LOL. The women in the store didn't want to sell me that dress, because I already had our daughter when I bought it.

What?!? They didn't want to sell you the dress? Because you already had a daughter? How weird and very, very rude of them.:glare:

[K-FL]

My dress is in a closet @ my mom's. Just an FYI, my mom was a professional seamstress & made wedding dresses all during my growing up. She re-made many a mom's dress to fit (up or down) or to the style of the dd. One even still had the mom's punch stains on it, but the lace could be washed & re-used.

[Scarlett]

Here's my wedding dress story. You might think I'm crazy though...lol.

I decided that I would donate it to the ballet school. They took it apart and created a beautiful ballet costume. Even the long train was used. It was detached when Princess Aurora was dancing, and attached just before the final scene where she and the Prince are coming before the Queen for the marriage blessing. It was really pretty!!

That is so cool! I have a cool wedding dress story. When I was engaged and looking for a dress a friend of ours 2500 miles away was coming for a visit. Her daughter had just gotten married and she offered to sell me her dress. I paid $100 for it. 21 years later that daughter became my step-sister! Her mother died :crying:, and my mom married her dad. A year later I found my wedding dress, tried it on one last time (it still fit too btw :)) and then mailed it back to my step sister and suggested they tear it apart and use it for something in her daughter's wedding.

[Kari C in SC]

We just moved. I think it is in the basement in a box. I don't think my dress will be what my dd wants. I really want her to have the dress she loves. My mom had hers cut in pieces and parts of it were put in pillows for each of her kids and grandkids.

[mellifera]

I believe it is back in storage in the basement of the nice lady who loaned it to me. She modeled it for some show a year or so after dh and I were married, and that's the last I heard about it.:)

[LadyNancy]

I LOVE the idea of remaking the wedding dress into baptism dresses!!!! I wish I had thought of that 14 years ago when we had our dd dedicated!!

[Blue Hen]

Mine is stored in a pillow case, in a cedar chest in my bedroom. I was able to fit into it about 2 years ago --- and it was quite loose too --- but wouldn't be able to right now. Goal is to get back into it so I'm swimming in it again. But that won't happen for my 25th anniversary next week.

[Lisa at Home]

And since I do go into that closet regularly, I glance at it often.

I'm a sentimental one, I guess.:001_wub:

~Lisa

[NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too]

It was a lovely dress. It was modeled after Caroline Kennedy's wedding dress. A friend of my MIL made it for me. One of my friend's borrowed it to wear to her wedding. I couldn't find anyone else who wanted it, so I donated it.

If I had a daughter, I might have kept it for her.

k

[elegantlion]

My wedding gown has been hanging in a plastic storage bag for 15 years. It hangs next to my husbands fancy motorcycle jacket that hasn't been worn in longer than that.

I told my dh I wanted to sell my dress and he looked so sad. :confused: It hold no sentimental value for me. I have no daughters, I don't think they'd want to wear it anyway. Yes, it's definately going in the garage sale.

[Dee22]

:blushing: In a box that hasn't been opened in almost 17 years... now I'm afraid to see what it looks like... Our 17th anniversary is in April. Over the years we moved so much and I mostly forgot about it and never opened the box from one move to another.

[OnTheBrink]

It's in a land-fill. I posted in the other thread what happened to it.

[Wendi]

:

[dirty ethel rackham]

Sealed in the dry cleaners special storage box in a storage closet. I hope to save it for my daughter or one of my nieces. My friend wore her mother's dress and it was lovely (and so different from everything we saw in stores!)

About 11 years ago (we married 16 years ago), we had a tremendous amount of rainfall in a short period of time. We got a phone call at 2 AM from SIL asking us if we had water in our basement. Relieved that no one had died (why else would anyone call at that hour), I rolled over and went back to sleep. Dh went downstairs to see that we did have 2 inches of water in the basement and he asked me if there was anything urgently important (as in irreplaceable) and I told him no. Then I remembered that my wedding dress box had fallen off the shelf of the cedar closet in the basement and was probably in the water. Dh saved the dress - but it did get a little wet. Good thing he went down when he did. The power went out a couple hours later and the sump pump stopped working - we had 2 feet of water in the basement.

I had the dress cleaned and re-boxed. They said it was in great shape.

[Crissy]

My dress is wrapped and in my closet. Its blue ribbon is still pinned to the front of it.
My aunt, who made my dress, is an incredible seamstress. After my wedding she entered my dress into the Missouri State Fair and won first place.

I can't imagine anyone ever wanting to wear my dress. My husband's and my name and our wedding date is embroidered on the skirt lining.

[Rebecca in GA]

Mine is in an heirloom display box in our storage room under the stairs.

I do have a little girl and she may want to wear it someday, but it won't hurt my feelings if she doesn't. Daddy and Mama bought it for me and custom altered to fit me. I looked pretty in my photographs and I felt like a princess, and it reminds me of one of the happiest days of my life.

Normally I'm not too sentimental, but my wedding dress, the veil that my MIL made for me to wear, my grandmother's diamond solitaire and the princess ring that belonged to my MIL are all precious to me.

[Mekanamom]

Well, I promise I'm not really bitter about this.

My mom had promised to preserve both my wedding dress and my bouquet. She did neither. My bouquet fell apart into dust, and my dress was not cleaned or sealed... it yellowed in a suitcase.

It will only cause regret if one of my kids express any interest in using it someday. I think they're better off with their own dresses anyway. ;)

[Tutor]

OH, I have a cute wedding dress story. When my dd was around 4 years old she was really into Disney's Cinderella movie. I happened to be in a mood to try on my wedding gown so I fished it out of the basement and brought it into my bedroom. Then I thought I would have some fun since my dd didn't see me bring up the dress. I yelled out to my dd, "Honey, Mommy would really like a new dress. Maybe if you say bibbidi-bobbidi-boo like Cinderella's fairy godmother, I can have a new dress." I'm sure you can figure out the rest of the story. She yells bibbidi-bobbidi-boo, and out I come with my white wedding dress on. She was speechless with her jaw to the floor. We still laugh about it today.

That is so cute! Great story!

[Tutor]

In it's professionally-conserved state in a box in my old room at my parent's house. My oldest dd has expressed a desire to wear it when she gets married, but if she or my other dd or any future dil's don't want to wear it, I'll just sell it.