My Unused Wedding Dress

[mllebamako]

So a long time ago, my now-husband and I were planning to do a fiance visa and get married in the USA. During that time, I visited my family in the States and my mom and I went wedding dress shopping just to get an idea of styles and cost. Well, we fell in love with this dress at David's Bridal and ended up buying it (thinking that I'd be coming back to the US and getting married within the next year). Plans changed, I got a job that I loved here in Mali, and we decided to get married here.

My mom is on my case about getting that wedding dress out of her house (she loves cleaning out all of my old stuff lying around).

Option 1: Sell it. We looked into this through several websites. Unfortunately, it looks like this option is not worth it. We found my exact same dress on several websites, the price was pretty low, and there were so many that had been on sale for a long time so I'd assume it's hard to find buyers.

Option 2: Donate it. Just looked into this one. I found a few charities that accept wedding dresses. But they just sell the dress and then use the money for their charities. I'd love to find a charity that uses the dress multiple times for people in need, rather than just selling it once.

Option 3: Keep it. I don't really have a reason to keep it, other than sentimental value. I love it and I look pretty in it I guess I could hope that someday, a friend would be in need of a dress, but that seems unlikely. And I doubt I would ever wear it. It's so beautiful but way too fancy to be converted into a non-wedding dress.

Thoughts? Opinions?

[snow]

A friend of mine donated hers to a shop, one that gives those dresses away for free for people who can't afford those dresses. Sadly I don't know what shop it was. Maybe I can ask her!

[piratemama]

This is a wild thought that might not work or be convenient for you, but what about contacting local churches and/or ministers to see if any are willing to keep the dress as a loaner. They could loan it to women that come to the church to work out a wedding but can't afford a dress. It would work for your original idea to see that more than one woman could use it.

[Dziubka]

While I understand that you would like your dress to actually be worn by someone in need, I wonder how much sense a charity that gives away wedding dresses has.

How likely is it that someone can afford to get married but not to buy a dress? Especially when 2nd hand dresses are actually quite cheap. And it's not like the dress is the most important thing about a wedding - if you can't afford a fancy dress, you can get married in a less fancy one and you'll still be wife and husband afterwards. I probably suck at explaining today. (I feel kinda weak today). Essentially: How likely is it for someone to be in bigger need of a fancy wedding dress than 200$, even if they're about to get married?

I would probably keep it and then have a photo shoot on an anniversary when you're back in the US.

[lucybelle]

Sell to a consignment store?

[Zephii]

Dziu - I think it depends where in the world you are, because I never found a second hand dress anywhere near $200 when I was getting hitched. Though, you make a good point.

I'm not much help, I'm still trying to figure out what to do with my own bloody dress, but I remember as kids our mum used to let us play with her old wedding dress (it didn't have a train) or use it for costume parties (not much difference between some wedding gowns and a good angel dress lol). I'm hanging on to mine in the hopes maybe one day it can serve me as a ball gown, I really want to go to some fancy ball sometime, and then with some coloured accessories it wouldn't be so wedding-ish (It doesn't have a train either tho). I dunno, just throwing some ideas around out there.

Anniversary photo shoot is also not an idea I'm ruling out.

[snow_girl]

Do this with it!

[Zephii]

Do this with it!

Pretty sure #6 is the worst advice I've ever heard. Though it does make for an awesome photo!

[mllebamako]

Do this with it!

Didn't someone die during a "Trash the Dress" photo shoot? Yes. Found it. Horrible.


Dziu- Good point. If they can't afford it, why not just get a $50 white (non-wedding) dress at a non-bridal store.

[TwoThree]

Do women in Mali buy or rent their wedding dresses? Up here we rent them for a couple of days and return them. So if it's the same thing, get it down to Mali and put an add somewhere so people could rent it off you.

[mllebamako]

Do women in Mali buy or rent their wedding dresses? Up here we rent them for a couple of days and return them. So if it's the same thing, get it down to Mali and put an add somewhere so people could rent it off you.

I was thinking of this and am kicking myself for not having my mom bring it on her recent visit. My parents will probably come in the spring so I may have them bring it. I'm wondering if it would be a popular rental here though. Malian women tend to prefer really pouffy dresses with tons of beading, fake flowers, etc. Mine is more of a classic, elegant style.

[TwoThree]

Oh yeah, those dresses you describe seem to be in style around here, too. I'm sure you could find someone to rent it, though. Or sell it to a bridal shop.

You could also keep it and give it to your daughters for their special day

[lyonsgirl]

On the "trash the dress" posts: Okay, 28 is actually awesome. I wouldn't mind doing that.

[talim]

I don't know how your dress looks like, so it may not be an option for you, but maybe they can be remaked to look more casual, so you could use them as normal summer dress, or party dress?

[Jazi]

I don't have any ideas for your unused dress as my wedding dress is currently hanging in a wardrobe at my parents house ironically similar. Although I did get to wear mine on the wedding day.

I just wanted to say that the article posted about the woman dying whilst trashing her dress was horrifying. Things like that really freak me out.