Before the wedding I spent a fair amount of time wondering what to do with my gown after the wedding. Trash the dress shoot? Shorten for later use? Save for a possible future daughter? How could I ever decide?
My biggest pull before the wedding was to save it forever in case I had a daughter that might want to wear it. My step-daughter is already my height at 11 years old, so I can't imagine she would fit in it when the time comes. My mother saved her dress but it didn't fit me. I was too small in the bust and too big in the hips and it just really wasn't particularly flattering on me. It also wasn't what I imagined The Dress to be. And we might not ever have another daughter!
I think by NOT holding onto my dress for another daughter it frees up my future potential daughter to make her own vision and not worry about hurting my feelings by not wearing the dress that I saved forever for her.
Trashing the dress in a shoot sounded fun and all, but dry cleaning is expensive y'all.
But on my wedding day, it all became clear.
I decided I was going to keep it and I was going to shorten it. My seamstress pointed out at one of our appointments that the dress would make a fabulous short, tight, sexy dress — cutting it off above the knee. This idea sounded enticing to me from the beginning but CUT MY DRESS? AHH!
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Then my wedding came. And I spent my day in the most insanely beautiful garment I have ever worn in my entire life. I felt like a queen and a goddess and a fairy tale and a rock star. I felt like a million bucks. I didn't want to take the dress off. I wanted to camp out and live in that dress forever.
It was then that I thought, “There is no way I could never wear this dress again.” I had such a deep response to the way that dress made me feel — I should absolutely wear it again.
I am going to wear the shit out of that dress. And I'm going to feel like a million bucks every time — until I outgrow it. When that time comes, I'll probably dry clean it and put it aside.
Maybe some day a girl in my family WILL want to wear it. Maybe it will be a girl that's totally into short dresses.
Shorten it? Donate it? Ritualistic burning ceremony? What are you planning to do with YOUR dress after the wedding?
