<p>So, many moons ago I got married in a beautiful wedding dress. I was the first time owner and it was an exquisite dress, purchased at a fantastic price because I had an “in” within the NYC garment district. Unbeknownst to me at the time, my mother then lent the dress to someone else, who of course, had it altered. When it was returned to my mother, I surmise that it was not stored properly by the person who had borrowed it. Fast forward to the fact that I’ve had it in my basement :o for many years, and when I decided to open up the box, the gown material had changed color, oxidized, I assume. It looks like one of those dresses you’d see if you visited a museum. </p>
<p>I went online to see if this problem could be corrected, and evidently there are speciality cleaners located throughout the US who supposedly can restore these gowns. I guess anything can be done for a price. My question is whether anyone has had the experience of throwing out their wedding dress? It is currently sitting in my front hallway as I decide whether I can bring myself to do this. It is sort of a weird feeling to contemplate doing this. No, I don’t think I am throwing my marriage away. It is humming along fine after 35+ years. So, anyone been through this?</p>
<p>I’d say this is a decision you don’t need to make. Put it back in the box and put it in the attic. If someone wants to ear it at some point, then take it out and assess its condition.</p>
<p>If it can be restored at reasonable cost (i.e. less than buying a new one), perhaps donating it to a charitable organization may be worthwhile over just throwing it away. Someone else of lesser financial means may be able to use it.</p>
<p>The lace (if it can be cleaned–or perhaps even as oxidized) might also be used for a pillow for a filature wedding or your house. That’s what I may do with both my gown and the flower girl dress.</p>
<p>I have mine shoved in the back of the closet (no basement). I don’t think I could bring myself to throw it away but I wouldn’t bother with the restoration either.</p>
<p>Same thing happened to mine. I cut off the lace cuffs, cleaned them myself and D1 used it around her bouquet…something old! Will do the same for D2 in July. Perhaps keeping the lace for future generations would be nice.</p>
<p>I still can’t get past that your mother let someone borrow your wedding dress and they altered it and didn’t store it right!</p>
<p>I would keep it. I’m guessing since it’s boysx3 you don’t have D’s but I have had 2 friends who had their wedding dresses altered for their D’s and they were beautiful. You never know, maybe a granddaughter would want it. I don’t think I could make myself get rid of the dress, esp since I have a feeling that it is a very nice one.</p>
<p>I’d look for a usable portion of the fabric and make a pillow with it or some such thing. But then, I am a seamstress and love working with fabric.</p>
<p>My own dress is languishing in my basement. It was first worn by my mother and then by her sister (my aunt). I always loved it and was very happy to be able to wear it for my wedding. I saved it for my girls and neither can wear it as it is much too small for them.
At this point the dress is quite fragile (it’s over 50 years old!) and I haven’t yet decided what to do with it. I understand your dilemma.</p>
<p>I will be celebrating my 37th wedding anniversary in December. I had my dress cleaned and stored professionally when I came back from my honeymoon and it is boxed up in a cedar closet. I like the idea of using some of the lace from my dress for future weddings for the bouquet or a pillow of some sort. I have 2 daughters, both with longterm boyfriends but no weddings on the immediate horizon.
Within the next 5 or so years will probably downsize to smaller house and we will have a lot of stuff to deal with… including the dress. When a close cousin relocated to FL about 20 years ago she left a lot of stuff in my house including her boxed up dress from her first marriage. At some point and she was long since remarried and has no daughters, only two sons who will not be getting married … with her permission I gave her dress to thrift. I hope someone made some usage out of that dress in some way or another.</p>
<p>Mine is at the back of a closet and if I can bring myself to see what 27+ years have done to it, and if it’s in bad shape, I will put it in a big brothers/big sisters bin (so it’s not really throwing it out).</p>
<p>It did get one extra wearing. My then SIL wore it and was happy to not have to spend money on a dress. She is now my ex-SIL but don’t blame the dress!</p>
<p>I tossed mine in Goodwill a few days ago. It was seriously not anything special and not expensive (think hippie Gunnie Sak) and it felt fine to do.
That said it sounds like you may want to keep it for now. I like the idea of using parts of it for something else. Nice idea.</p>
<p>I had my wedding dress, my mother’s and my sister-in-law’s dresses stored at my house. For my DDs recent wedding, I used fabric and lace from each to make my DDs garter. Lace from my dress was also wrapped around DDs bouquet.</p>
<p>My wedding dress is blue silk and I noticed a few years ago that the elastic waist has disintegrated. I’ve contemplated consigning it somewhere, but can’t bring myself to do it. When I mentioned it to my sister, she suggested keeping it for the grandchildren I may have in the future to play dress-up with. That seemed like a good enough reason to me.</p>
<p>I kept my dress with the idea that someday I would have daughters who would wear it. Even though I had it preserved, it ended up yellowing in the basement. And when it came time, daughters considered the dress sweet, but dated and old fashioned. (Wonder what our grandchildren will think of their moms wearing those strapless, mermaid gowns.)</p>
<p>After seeing condition of my dress, oldest D decided she had no reason to transport her dress from place to place as she moved through life. She instead donated it to [Brides</a> Across America | Honoring our troops on their special day.](<a href=“http://bridesacrossamerica.org/]Brides”>http://bridesacrossamerica.org/) </p>
<p>She might have had it made into a christening gown, but my someday grandchildren will be wearing the 60 year old christening gown made from my Aunt’s wedding dress – just as my daughters and I did.</p>
<p>I had the same problem recently when deciding what to do with my old hockey equipment. Your dress has discolored. Feel fortunate. My elbow pads smelled like an old Brie.</p>
<p>I donated what I could, burned the rest, and felt pretty good about it.</p>
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Perhaps keeping the lace for future generations would be nice.</p>