What did you do with your wedding dress?

Runcarla

Wedding dresses in the ‘holding zone’ came up as a topic in Janet’s closet edit thread, but I thought the subject deserved a thread of its own! It’s fun to reminisce.

I bought an ‘off the rack’ wedding dress for $125 CAD in 1982. A veil was thrown in for free. It got wrapped up in tissue paper and boxed in a normal cardboard box. I kept it under the spare bed, and tried it on from time to time to see if it would still fit! When DH and I decided our family was complete after 2 boys, I packed the veil away as a memento - but donated the dress - around 1995. No tears shed!

My sister’s first wedding dress was a cream brocade Jeasica McClintock design. She asked me to shorten it to tea length after her wedding. I used the fabric to make a christening gown for her children. She thrifted her second wedding dress - it was a pale blue and silver confection, and very pretty.

One brother and first SIL had a tiny wedding, She wore a cream coloured below the knee dress bought on sale from the fanciest ladies store in town. It wasn’t specifically a wedding dress, but was very pretty.

Second brother. New SIL (who was a uni history prof) sourced a high neck Victorian style antique gown (cotton) that was so fragile that it tore in a few places during the day and had to be stitched up!

Do you have a wedding dress story? Do you have your mother’s or your own wedding dress in storage?

1 week ago

General

31 replies

Latest reply was from Lisa

Runcarla

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Oh! here’s a pic!

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1 week ago

Brooklyn

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Mine is sitting in a wardrobe in our spare bedroom. I don’t know what to do with it! It’s a long (ankle length) sheath dress in silk satin. It has a high neck, is sleeveless and has slightly cutaway shoulders. The bodice has embroidered pearls and lace. I wore it with very long (above the elbow) gloves and a long, borrowed veil. I designed it myself but had it made by a dressmaker. For years I thought about having it cut to midi length but I can’t be bothered now. I would still have nowhere to wear it!

1 week ago

Dee

Veteran

Sadly, my wedding dress just hangs in the back of a secondary closet. Never quite knew what to with it.
I bought it on the spot as soon as I saw it. It was a 2 piece dress not specifically designed for a wedding but I thought it was so pretty and comfortable too. I was still so practical with my choices even back then lol.

1 week ago

LJP

Veteran

I designed and sewed/beaded my own wedding dress, and it was carefully packed away for 30 years afterwards until we moved from our house into a condo. I donated it at that point. No tears, no regrets.

1 week ago

RobinF

Veteran

My wedding dress was my mom's dress, made for her by my grandma. Mom wore it with a crinoline but I didn't so it hang differently on me. Also my mom had a smaller waist than I did (story of my life) so I had to let out the sash. I wore it in 1984 and all my friends wore long gowns for their weddings but I loved the tea length of mine.

Mom kept it in storage until she passed away and now I have it in a closet. I am pretty sure my daughter won't wear it but I can't get rid of it, too many special connections with it.

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1 week ago

JAileen

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Mine was in my parents’ attic for about twenty years, and now it’s in our garage, probably. My mother made it. Fittings were tricky because we lived 1800 miles apart. I wore it with the headpiece and veil my mother had worn in 1947. If I had had a daughter, I doubt she would have wanted to wear it - it had a high neck and long sleeves. We were married in January! This January it will be 45 years.

1 week ago

Irina

Veteran

Carla, you and your DH looked spectacular on your wedding day!

I don’t know what happened to mine. We moved a lot and kept some of our things with my mother. She probably gave it away.

I don’t have good memories about my dress or my wedding. I was 19,5 and my DH is 21,5 years old. Our mothers were against our marriage and it was very stressful. I had no one to help me pick a nice dress. I also was very petite and my size was not available in the stores. A friend made me a dress in a style inspired by Lady Diana’s dress as it was fashionable at the time, in 1985. I have maybe one picture of it somewhere. Thinking about it always makes me sad. But we were young and we endured.

Here is a picture of us next day after the wedding sporting trendy mullets. I remember every detail about what I wear in this photo.

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1 week ago

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Loving these pics that span the decades!!

My dress was accidentally passed on to a charity shop. Lived across the globe. It was bound to happen. Sad

1 week ago

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Loving all these photos and stories!

Robin, my first dress was also my mum's dress. It had to be shortened a bit for me but it basically fit. I had to wear fairly high heels with it because I was a bit shorter than she was but it more or less fit with a little nip and tuck here and there. It was satin, sort or medieval with long pointed sleeves and a mandarin collar and many buttons going down the front. I stlil have it, not very carefully wrapped....I will donate it one of these days because my child won't be wearing it.

My second dress was off the rack cotton from BR. On sale and very simple -- basically a sleeveless voile sheath. It was an incredibly hot day and our wedding and reception were in our back garden so it was the perfect thing to wear. With pearls!

We had no professional photos and my camera didn't work and the light was dappled and difficult but here are a couple -- me with my step-daughter and then me holding my godson with a friend and her daughter.

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1 week ago

slim cat

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My dress was designed by me and made by dressmaker - no small sizes were available in former Soviet Union. It was a tea length natural white brocade satin sleeveless dress with cropped bolero jacket to go over it. No veil or anything else - my short hair would not support it.
It probably still in Moscow in our old apartment unless my mom gave it away already. It was slightly big on me and last time I tried it it was the same.
I love seeing all the pics and wonderful stories - sweet memories!

1 week ago

cat2

Veteran

I had zero interest in wearing white, and bought a Jessica McClintock matte satin cocktail dress in black and white. I wore it with some white matte satin pumps, and after the ceremony had the pumps dyed black. I wore the dress with different accessories to a charity event with a black and white dress code and to company events for both me and my husband. I donated it when I had run out of places to wear it.

1 week ago

Jenni NZ

Veteran

1986, we were both 25 years old. No train but I can tell the dress was still majorly influenced by Princess Diana’s 1981 dress. She was born the same year as me but married much younger.
I took in lots of magazine photos to the dressmaker and chose the design and fabric in collaboration with her. The dress hangs in my wardrobe still, with the veil. Not in great condition as has greyed in colour. And still the most expensive dress I have ever bought.
I think the first dance pic particularly amusing due to our height discrepancy.

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1 week ago

Jaime

(website)

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Great photos on this thread. I know we digitized our wedding photos but I am not sure where they are stored. Anyway, I rented my wedding dress - worked out perfectly and I have no regrets.

1 week ago

Firecracker (Sharan)

Veteran

Carla, you look beautiful. Fun memories of your dress and those of your sister and SILs!

So many self-designed--and sewn & beaded, LJP!!--dresses here. I'm impressed.

Irina, you and hubs are adorable and so in style for the time!

JenniNZ, what a pretty bride you were.

I can relate to cat2! I wanted nothing to do with the traditional white dress, or wedding, for that matter. My sweetheart and I were married at the Monroe County courthouse in Bloomington, Indiana, on 10 December, by a friend. Our parents and the officiant's husband attended. I wore a royal blue wool crepe dress from Talbot's and black pumps; the dress color is clearly inspired by my Color Me Beautiful analysis of that era. Mr. Firecracker wore a nice charcoal wool suit, from Jos A Banks, I think. My dress is in my closet, in a hanging bag. I thought I would wear it for other occasions, and perhaps I did, though I don't remember. I keep thinking I should donate it, but it takes up so little space, I just hang on to it. My parents also had a very small ceremony, but in a church. They could not have afforded a big wedding or fancy dress. My mother wore a suit, as did my father. I think I came by my practical wedding style rather honestly.

eta: more details on the dress... It is a faux two-piece style. The overpiece has a slit off-center in front, and there is black soutache trim around the hem of the overpiece. I thought it was quite sharp! The necklace I'm wearing is twisted silver and black cord, and I wore silver medium-sized stud earrings with a black enamel design on them. I guess I was ready for an important board meeting--haha!

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1 week ago

Peri

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Thanks Carla! I'm the one who brought it up on Janet's thread so it's great to see a bigger discussion.

Mine has been in a box for 42 years. At least in the US South, that's just what was done. You had it professionally cleaned and sealed in a large special box to preserve it until...what? Keep it pristine along with the silver I guess. I see a few wore their mom's dress but all the girls I've ever known wanted to choose their own. Mine was kind of old fashioned looking even for 1983.

After I posted that I checked online with "what can I do with my old wedding dress" or some such wording. The results were mixed. Donate to a thrift or Goodwill type store, but call first to see if they would take it. Many don't. I saw two things (nationally) that initially looked possible. One was a bridal thrift site that has apparently raised a lot of money for women's causes. The other was a site that sent the donated dresses specifically to military brides who might not have access to new ones.

The kicker for both...less than 5 years old. So no real success yet in figuring out what to do with my 42 year old one!

1 week ago

Karie

(website)

Veteran

My wedding dress was on the cover of Modern Bride back in 1989, and it came in blush pink and also in white. I really, really wanted the blush pink but ended up choosing white because it was the traditional color. Oh how I wish I had chosen blush pink! That was the color I tried on in the store, and it was a very subtle pink. I did love the white too, though. It was definitely an ‘80s - 90s dress with those gigantic sleeves and butt bow. I still have it packed away in an old suitcase that hasn’t been opened in about 30 years, so I really should think about getting rid of it.

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1 week ago

JAileen

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Peri, the non profit I belong to sells wedding dresses of any age. One time when I was working in the thrift store, a woman came in and bought all we had, three or four, and I helped her stuff them in the trunk of her car. She was planning to clean them and resell them.

1 week ago

Jenni NZ

Veteran

Oh Karie what awesome gloves! The picture on the magazine cover looks suspiciously like the model could be Rachel Hunter, one of our very few NZ international supermodels. But it could be another blonde who looks similar.

1 week ago

karen23

Active Member

I made my own dress, a sheath dress of ivory silk dupioni.

It seemed the most reasonable thing to do. I was about a size 16 at the time and old enough to be mother of a bride. I dreaded wedding dress shopping, but I could sew.

Shopping for the fabric was fun. I went to a fabric store in Illinois. The women there were great. The dress came out pretty good. Afterward I had it dry cleaned and it hung in the back of a closet for a year or so. Then I donated it to the Salvation Army. I'd seen wedding dresses in that store.

1 week ago

cat2

Veteran

Firecracker: Love the jewel tones! Mine had some very period specific neckline treatments! We did a smallish backyard wedding, My parents were married during the war, in a small church ceremony, and my mom wore a satin suit she made herself and her borrowed item was one of my grandmother’s church hats, re-trimmed for the occasion.

Karen23, your dress sounds very chic!

1 week ago

Barbara Diane

Veteran

I wore my mom’s dress and veil. I had wanted to wear it since I was young.

1 week ago

Kate

Veteran

I have no idea where mine is. It may have gotten donated. I chose it out of a bridal magazine, because it was one of the simplest designs, and bought it off the rack at a local bridal store.

The only wedding dress I’m sentimental about is my mother’s, which is packed away in a wooden trunk. It’s a beautiful wide skirted cream satin dress with long sleeves and 100 covered buttons down the back. I can’t imagine how long it took to get her in it.

1 week ago

pirouette

Veteran

I got married in Italy it was a small family wedding. I wore a cream suit with a peplum fitted jacket. I bought the suit in a boutique it was inspired by the suit Meryl Streep wore in the film Out of Africa. I still have the suit and it’s a bit tight but I hang on to it even though I know I’d never wear it but it is sentimental to me.

1 week ago

lyn67

Veteran

Oh, loved to see (and hear the stories of) your fab wedding dresses-many of whom mine is alike. Enjoyed to see the handsome groom's outfits, too! And Angie I still can remember yours (also your own design and fab!) from wedding picties, comming out from the church (?) shared on the forum in the past!
Nr 1. is made at my civile wedding (Sept 1990). I wore the same cream chanelesque skirt suit made at a tailor for high school graduation festivities 4 years earlier.
The church ceremony was the next day. My proper wedding was made of taft, had a full tulle skirt with a butt bow(haha!:-)), puffy elbow length sleeves and a pearl embroidered lace insert on the torso (I've got permission to broke a pearl necklace of my MIL for these). Dress was designed by myself and made by a special wedding dressmaker and of course it was in line with the era, perhaps a bit late to it, but still inspired by Lady Di's.
Nr. 6 is Father and daughter dance (love this pictie witn my late Father) and nr. 7 is proof of that despite all the bells and whistles I didn't shy to have a good rock-and-roll in my wedding dress.
So sorry, it doesn't show up in the picties but DH wore a purple bow tie and a matching cummerbund of taft matching the color of the rosses in my bridal bouquet. He also wore a triangle tie and another cummerbund matching my gold lurex peplum skirt suit for the after party(nr. 8). All these also designed by myself and made to order.
Nr. 9 &10 is my parents' wedding in 1955. My DM kept her dress till my wedding, but it was cream, and I was taller, so I wanted to design and wear one for my own self. I didn't yet asked my DD(28) if she would have liked to see it in person, but that's the reason I sold mine to a peer in college the year after. Thus, still had some sort of regrets, as I heard it was unfortunately thorn on that event due to rainy, muddy weather...:-((.

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1 week ago

Suz

(website)

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Lyn, you and Mr. L. are adorable!

Loving all of these photos and stories....Karie, Jenni, those dresses are definitely blasts from the past! But you both look beautiful!

Sharan, you look gorgeous in that blue!

1 week ago

Laurie

Veteran

The day this thread started I had just been thinking about my wedding dress, which was packed by the dry cleaner in an oblong box with floral print following our October 23, 1993 wedding, and is in the far corner of the eaves of our attic. I am planning to dig out and get rid of most of my Christmas decorations over this upcoming long weekend, so I think that's why it crossed my mind.
I bought my dress off the sample rack at a bridal store for $500. I loved it, mostly. It was off the shoulder and pretty simple except for some lace on the bodice and upper sleeves, which is what I wasn't so crazy about. The seamstress who did the alterations convinced me (ehem, my mother) that it needed some beading on the bodice too.
I really don't like the veil. I remember feeling like that bow thing was plunked on my head. I am sure there are many more attractive options I could have considered, had I been style-concious back in the day. I have 2 sons so I doubt anyone is going to want this dress, although a dear friend of mine just gifted her wedding dress to her new daughter-in-law, who altered it to tea length and wore it for the church wedding that her parents insisted on having, separate from a big gala on Martha's Vineyard a month later.

My mother kept her wedding dress for about 45 years, and it came down from the attic one day and she hung it outside to air out. Decided to take it to the cleaner (not sure why) but while it was there the cleaner had a fire, and it was destroyed. She received some amount of money that was a lot more than she had paid for the dress in 1960!

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1 week ago

Star (Lise)

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Love seeing all your pics and hearing your stories.

1 week ago

Jules

Veteran

Mine cost about the same as yours but in 2004, plus some embellishment added by a seamstress. It was kind of Grecian style. It served its purpose. I had never pictured myself as a bride and then was very unhappy and uninspired shopping for a dress at the time and I only really understood why later - the prevailing style was strapless, often sweetheart neckline, with wide ballgown skirts, often in thick poly fabrics that make me cringe sensorily. I also don’t like that cut both as a matter of personal taste and flattery on me. The exceptions were mostly ‘beach style’ for destination weddings.
I walk past a couple of bridal store windows regularly and have watched as styles evolved over the years, and learned a lot more about trend cycles from Angie, and finally realized I just got married in the wrong era. I absolutely loved, for example, the more 1920s inspired styles that I saw a lot of 10-15 years ago.
Thanks for reading my tale of woe My dress is hanging in a closet as possible costume/dressup for my girls, While not sentimental or ‘valuable’ there’s also been no reason to throw it out, although I have recently considered just purging it.

6 days ago

MsMaven

Veteran

I wore my sister's wedding dress. She married 7 years before I did--but remember, she was 5 years older. I was taller and heavier, so my Mom (who made the original dress) had to add a panel in the back so it would go around me. I rented the head piece from a local store. After the wedding I returned the dress to her. I don't know what she did with it. When her daughter got married, she picked out her own dress, and of course, she should have.

By the time I got married in the mid-1960's I didn't care much about what I wore. We just wanted to marry and get on with our lives. The wedding and reception and later open house were for our parents.

My Mom wanted me to have a permanent before I married. Terrible mistake but my Mom believed we straight-haired daughters should have curly hair. We went to Hawaii on our honeymoon and my hair was a fizzy mess in the humidity.

Mr. M and I agree we should have just sneaked off and got married in Reno, NV. I have to admit we made our parents happy. It was a show for them.

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5 days ago

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