What to do with wedding dress?

I am in the same boat. Married 25 years. My daughter would never be able to fit into it. I would like to keep the veil in case she would wear that. I spent over $1,000 on it and actually think the style is such that someone would wear it today.

Well mine got sold when I sold all the stuff in my moms house using an auction service. I walked into her bedroom when everything was set up and was like, oh that's where it went. So I'm no help.

Offer it for sale.  If someone does not purchase it, donate it.

I have a feeling most of these places are not accepting gowns.  I tried for years to do this and it never opened up. 

I have my dress, my moms, and my MIL’s.

My moms dress (mid-1940’s) is made from eyelet fabric, very dated, and not in a good way. High neck, scoop ruffle from shoulder to shoulder. I’m thinking of making Christmas ornaments from it and sending them to my brothers and their families.

My MIL’s dress is a lovely heavy satin, but it was put back in the box without being cleaned and stored in a basement for 40 years. It’s yellowed badly and stained. My DD is getting married and she wants a simple dress, but she asked around, and getting a dress like that restored and remade can cost upwards of $10,000 around here. That’s a no. And she wants the fun of dress shopping.

My mom took my dress to the cleaners right after the wedding and had it cleaned and professionally preserved. It’s been 44 years since my wedding. We opened the box a while ago for DD to try on, and the dress is horribly stained. I wonder if they didn’t even bother cleaning it, knowing I wouldn’t open it for years. It’s not a bad dress, and could be remade, but DD doesn’t like it. I remember reading in the 90’s about wedding dress cleaners who were replacing expensive wedding dresses with cheap ones when they were preserving them, knowing the bride wasn’t opening the box anything soon.

My problem is that I feel guilty getting rid of any of them. I may do the Christmas ornament thing with all three.

I have seen dresses gifted on Buy Nothing Facebook pages for free. Mine is going to a local Vintage dress store (we married in 1979).

I’ve saved mine. I never saved it thinking my daughter would want it. But apparently there are some TikTok’s going around about daughters who have altered them to wear at their rehearsal dinner. She’s not engaged yet, but I think she wants to do it. I think it would be cheaper to give her a couple hundred bucks to buy a new dress, but she’s kind of a sentimental gal.

Some defiantly are taking them. I sent one in spring and have photos of the gowns made. Communicate with one and see wait times. They have to store them hence the weight. Great cause. 

Someone shopping at the Goodwill will love to buy it. Although I picture one of those ladies from Hoarders buying it "just in case" or trying to get her granddaughter to wear it... And it spends the next 20 years covered in cat feces and garbage. 😭

I finally got rid of mine some years ago, but it wasn't anything really special. It had some yellowing of the satin (wasn't professionally sealed) so I pitched it.

I donated mine to this group. Brides for a Cause

If there are parts of the dress that you really love, it could be repurposed into a purse or a little special occasion clutch bag.

I looked up Bride's for a Cause and they only accept dresses 5 years and younger.

After my daughter tried it on and didn’t like it I donated to a local women’s shelter’s clothing store.