What did you do with your dress?

[Tacori E-ring]

For those of you that didn''t borrow or sell your dress, what did everyone do with their dress *after* the wedding? I am wondering if I should perserve it or not. Are there good online sites to do this?

 

[dtnyc]

I have had mine cleaned, but not preserved- I kind of think that the preserving thing is a bit of a scam...

also I am thinking about possibly having mine altered and dyed into a dress I could wear again- weird I know but my dress wasn't your "typical" wedding gown.

ETA- I have heard decent things about wedclean.com which is an online wedding gown preserver- but I know one bride who had a bad experience with them and her dress got messed up.

 

[KristyDarling]

I had it cleaned and then preserved. It''s sitting on a shelf in our hallway closet. I''m holding out hope that someday my daughter will want to either 1) wear it at her wedding, or 2) incorporate some part of it into her wedding gown.

 

[poptart]

I had mine cleaned and preserved, too. It was actually really neat because they put it in a see through box so you can actually display it. The front of mine has a lot of bead work, so it would actually look kind of neat displayed in our bedroom.

*M*

 

[AndyRosse]

I got mine cleaned and preserved. Now it is in a box in the closet. I hope one day I will have a need for it.

I used a local specialist from this website: http://www.weddinggownspecialists.com/

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Thanks ladies. How much does it usually cost?

 

[KristyDarling]

Mine cost around $250 in 2001, here in San Francisco.

 

[Mara]

greg had it preserved for me at his fave dry cleaners. i was totally apathetic about it (aka i will get around to it) because i don''t place much emphasis on material clothes for memories typically (my veil is still stuffed at the top of the closet somewhere!) but he wanted me to preserve it, so i said okay and he had it done for me. hehe. it was kind of cute. so now it''s in it''s own special box up on top of the closet. the fun part is that they were not able to get out all the grass and dirt stains on the inside hem, so it''s like we''ll always have a piece of the fun with us in that box. hehe. so i am glad i got it preserved.

 

[Larissa]

I had my dress cleaned and altered to tea-length. It was a silk sheath, not that puffy stuff that a lot of dresses are. I plan to wear it again as a short ivory dress...or since silk is dyable, dye it red.

 

[Ellen]

I had mine cleaned and preserved in a box. I left it that way and never peeked, hoping I might have a girl some day who might want to wear it. Fast forward, I have 3 boys and we''re done.

One day, in a nostalgic mood, I decided to get it out and look at it. The dress had an outer sheer layer w/lace (forget the tech name) with a silk under layer, all in ivory. Apparently when they drycleaned it, some chemical reaction took place, and the silk layer underneath turned peach.

But, no one to wear it anyway, so I''m thinking of making something out of the lace...

 

[AndyRosse]

For cost, I paid $225 last year

 

[ladykemma]

i bought mine secondand from a friend of a friend who had gotten married a month earlier. had it cleaned, lifted at the shoulders, ready to go. after the ceremony had it cleaned and mended the bustle where the bustle buttons had ripped.

I worked at UT Health Science Center at the time in houston. a lady in the student health cliniic asked if her daughter could buy my dress, we were the same size. I sold it with the bustier and crinoline-- it fit perfectly and i sold it for what i bought it for. so basically i paid for dry cleaning.

i later heard that that dress made its way among the plus size med students and lab techs in the medical school building in the UTHSC. at least 4 other brides wore that dress.

 

[ephemery1]

My fiance''s cousin and his wife were married about 10 years ago, and struggled with infertility for many years afterwards. Just last year, they adopted two beautiful little girls.... and had her wedding dress altered into a gorgeous christening gown that both of their daughters were able to wear. Their marriage is SO strong after so much struggle and hardship, and I just thought it was the most beautiful and sentimental use of the dress to celebrate such a happy ending.

 

[flopkins]

well, it''s just sitting in a box upstairs right now. I had it dry cleaned after the wedding, but they unfortunately didn''t read the instructions on the dress on the type of cleaning to do, so there was some discoloring on my beautiful silk covered buttons!!! I was so sad about it that I just kinda went ''forget it!'' and stuffed it in a box. This is the dry cleaners that I totally take everything to and never had a problem, and I guess they just aren''t used to doing wedding gowns.

anyway, there is a place a lot of ppl have recommended, called wedclean, I think it''s about $100 (very reasonable, IMO) and it''s over the internet. I wish I had gone thru them, I have heard a lot of great feedback from them, and they don''t have that silly guarantees that only hold if you keep the box sealed, etc.. kinda crap.

maybe I will dye it someday and wear it for something else. I dunnos. It makes me a bit ill to think of it so I try not to... ugh!!

 

[kcoursolle]

I only paid $130 for mine...and I''m really not that sentimental at all, I will probably just sell it. I should be able to get a large percentage of it back since it was a cheap purchase and it''s laundry by segal.

I do like the idea of dying it or changing it to a dress I could wear again. I could hem it to a tea length dress and dye it black or some other color, it would be super cute and very wearable!

 

[ponderer]

Mine is preserved and in the closet. I think my mom paid about $150 five years ago.

Among my friends having their dresses made into christening gowns has become popular.

One friend of mine asked my grandmother to turn hers into a queen size quilt. She had material from her dress, a bm dress and a fg dress used. The result was absolutly stunning. My SIL saw it and had a baby quilt made from her dress and a bm dress. She displays it in a hand made oak cradle her father made for her for the birth of her daughter.

Mine will stay in the box for a while, but I think there is plenty of material for both to be created.

 

[KimberlyH]

Mine still hangs in my closet, waiting to be cleaned and preserved. That will be a task for me to complete this month!

 

[ellaila]

Hadn''t done anything with it yet, so thanks for starting this thread, Tacori!

So I just signed up for wedclean.com. It''s $99 for cleaning and preservation. They send you a pre-paid crate to ship your dress to them in, they clean it, box it, and they send it back to (I think within 2 weeks? Maybe I''m wrong about that.). My dress isn''t dirty at all, except on the very very bottom but even that is barely noticeable, so I couldn''t see spending $300 to clean it, which is the price I got from my local cleaners. With shipping costs, wedclean came to $131.

I''ll let you know how it turns out!

 

[diamondfan]

I had it cleaned and boxed and have moved it about 6 times, I am sure it is around here somewhere...but I do not have daughters and who knows if my daughter in laws to be in the future would want it? Maybe I could wear it to a costume party...

 

[Ellen]

Date: 1/21/2007 12:29:34 PM
Author: diamondfan
Maybe I could wear it to a costume party...

There''s a thought!

Of course, I''d have to get back to that size first.

 

[So_happy]

I read somewhere on some wedding-y forum last night that this one bride is PRE selling her Maggie. Specifically, she is getting married in a couple weeks and has it up on some forum for sale.....she''s asking for people to make her offers. I thought it was a pretty good idea for those that would consider selling but know they might have a procrastination issue with that later on after the wedding lol.

I have no idea if I could let mine go or not.........I''ll decide later I think lol.

 

[TravelingGal]

Mine is still crumpled up in the bag I brought it home in. I should at least clean it, but the dress was only $50 so I probably won''t bother.

 

[Kaleigh]

I had it cleaned and preserved. But have no clue where it is?? Maybe the attic, when we moved I remember it going up there.