Wedding dresses?

[JennifersLost]

I know we've covered this before, but can we chat again. Are you holding onto yours? Does that make you feel good or weighed down? Where are you storing yours? Do you keep other clothes from your past?

 

I wrote about it here. I'm not sure I'll give up my wedding dress, but I'd like to hear more about other people's takes on the subject.

[Soph the vet]

I have mine stored in a box. My mother made it so it will be an heirloom. 55 buttons down the back!

[Aubrey]

Oh my goodness! I can't imagine *not* keeping mine! (Although I'm not sure exactly where it is right now, lol!)

 

I tried to make it myself, & my mom very surreptitiously ripped it apart & remade it. She didn't tell me until she'd fixed what I'd goofed, so that I wouldn't worry. She made 2 of my 3 bridesmaids' dresses & all 3 flowergirl dresses, & she was still sewing on my wedding dress while I was wearing it standing at the door of the bridal room waiting for the music! LOL

 

Although I'm not sure my girls will be able to wear it if they want to. Mil is nearly 6' tall, & I'm 5'2" unless it's a fat day, then I claim 5'3". I wonder--if they're as tall as mil, if the dress could ever be let out enough? :lol:

[mysticamethyst]

We got married at the court house. DH came and picked me up after work said dress nice and we went and got married. I had known him for 2 weeks, that was 4 kids and 16 years ago. I remember the thread about weddings and dresses; remembering how beautiful you all looked.

[PrairieAir]

I have my wedding dress and also my dress from my senior prom. Dh and I went to that prom together and he picked out the dress. I never really cared that much for the dress--he picked pretty and pink and I wanted sexy, red, and slit up to there--but it has special memories because I went with him. I have a few of the kids' special baby clothes saved in their keepsake boxes.

 

I also have a pillbox hat covered in pheasant feathers that belonged to my Granny. The hat sits on a bookshelf in our living room and actually looks kinda neat with our other stuff. I used to have two other hats that belonged to her, but they weren't as interesting and I couldn't think what to do with them. They were sold in a garage sale. I wish I had known about eBay then as I might have gotten a better price.

[Remudamom]

Mine got lost when my parents got divorced. Mom had it cleaned and stored in a special box, and when they sold the house it just..........disappeared. She had one of my sil's dresses there too, and still has it. I'm glad, because I think sil would take it harder than me, I really don't care much. One dd will be way too small for it, and other dd will look better in a different style.

[Amy loves Bud]

I have mine. I really should get it together and sell it. We had a fabulous wedding day, but I don't particularly attach anything special to the dress except I really liked it and I looked good in it. I can't see it being an heirloom or anything like that.

 

I don't fell weighed down by it, it's just one of the things taking up space in the attic right now.

 

Where's the smiley for :shrug: ?

[tibbyl]

Originally had mine stored in a box, but donated it to Goodwill in a dejunking spree.

[dangermom]

I have mine. Well, my mom does, somewhere. She made it for me and I wouldn't want to get rid of it. Also it isn't big and poofy, so it doesn't take up much space--it was a very simple dress.

 

My prom dress, which is poofy, (and also made by my mom) is hanging in the school/sewing room closet for some reason. I guess mainly so the kids can have fun poking fun at the 80's dress! I probably wouldn't keep it if it weren't for the part about mom sewing it.

[Georgie]

Nope, I got rid of mine ages ago. If it was something someone made for me I might have wanted to keep it, but I gave mine to Good Will for someone else to use or make something from. My mom saved hers and there is no way I could have fit in to it. I am at least 4 inches taller than my mom. My daughter will probably be taller than myself and most likely would want something special of her own. I will give her my jewelry from my wedding instead of a dress.

[Sandy in Indy]

Mine's still at my mom's house, sealed in the box from the cleaner's. (Our 22nd anniversary is tomorrow.) I'm sort of hoping my dd will want to wear it...it's so much more her style than the current trend. For one thing, it has sleeves! But I won't be disappointed if she chooses not to. Every girl should have the dress she dreams of on her wedding day.

[momofkhm]

Mom made it. I had wanted to keep it in case a dd wanted to wear it. But the oldest will be too tall by then and her middle is too round. I was 5'5" and 110 pounds. She is already 5'4" and 130 pounds.

 

I'm still going to keep it. I also have the shoes I married in. Size 7. All three of us (me and 2 dds wear size 8 or 9.) But I'm keeping those too. I still have both my prom dresses! I have 3 christening dresses - mom made one, I made one, other is store bought by MIL.

 

I still have clothes that are too small - maybe someday?

 

These clothes do not make me sad at all. It's in the memories!

[Rose in BC]

My oldest sister sewed mine for me. I doubt my daughter will wear it but I wouldn't be opposed to reconstructing it for other uses. (although I'm not sure what.)

 

I pulled mine out a few weeks ago, while cleaning the basement. I have lost some weight over the last year and a half -- my dress was too big! Twenty years later my wedding dress is too big! Guess how happy that made me! :001_smile:

[Doran]

I know we've covered this before, but can we chat again. Are you holding onto yours? Does that make you feel good or weighed down? Where are you storing yours? Do you keep other clothes from your past?

 

I wrote about it here. I'm not sure I'll give up my wedding dress, but I'd like to hear more about other people's takes on the subject.

 

 

It lives! ;)

 

The dress, and its scientifically sealed box, live (get this) at my parents' house. My parents! The people are 80 and almost 84. Who am I kidding? But, this is the same mother who, just last December pulled out a taffeta-like dress, all covered in glittery sparkles, that she had worn when she was 24. Her mother made it by hand and without a single fitting because, by then, my mother lived in Hawaii and my grandmother in Jersey. Grandma shipped it cross country and ocean. The dress fit like a glove. And...it fit my 13 year old daughter like a glove! Daughter wore it to my mother's 80th birthday party. I guess my wedding dress is safe in my mother's house!

 

I have changed so much since my wedding day -- emotionally more than physically -- that my gown seems like some foreign object brought home from a vacation. Never would I choose the same dress again now. But, when I wore it, I felt beautiful, and it didn't require my parents to take out a second mortgage, so there was some good in those poofy sleeves, I guess.

 

There is some chance that we'd be interested in having it remade into a gown for one or both daughters. Who really knows if they'll be interested in wearing it, even if we could remove the poofy sleeves. I just wonder what happens if, when we open the box, we find we've got some one else's gown!

 

:D

[Doran]

Mine's still at my mom's house, sealed in the box from the cleaner's. (Our 22nd anniversary is tomorrow.) I'm sort of hoping my dd will want to wear it...it's so much more her style than the current trend. For one thing, it has sleeves! But I won't be disappointed if she chooses not to. Every girl should have the dress she dreams of on her wedding day.

 

I could've saved us the trouble of a near repeat below and just said :iagree:

 

Tee hee.

[Marie in Oh]

I won't ever get rid of it. It was too special. Still have the shoes but they are turning yellow.

[Scuff]

I still have mine. As much as I love to get rid of things, that's the one thing I'd never want to get rid of. I remember trying my mom's on when I was 12-13. It was so much fun. I'd love to be able to share that with my daughters someday. We never had it cleaned. Some of the lace torn and it's starting to yellow. But it's still sentimental.

 

My mom made it, too. And my grandma :) There was a mix up at the fabric store and they sold us lining instead of satin. My mom didn't realize it until she had it half cut out. So that put it all behind. (and we had a 3 month engagement, so not much time to get behind!) my mom wasn't sewing it as I was getting ready to go down the isle, but close! My grandma was hemming it while we were all at the rehersal dinner. And the next morning while I got ready, the two of them were sewing on the lace. They never got the beading on, but by then I didn't care.

 

My daughters won't wear it. It was made to fit me perfectly, and I have scoliosis, so it won't really fit anyone else. Unless they're weirdly shaped in the same exact way! lol But they'll still be able to look at it and try it on for fun.

[Harriet Vane]

I have my wedding dress, carefully preserved.

 

Making my wedding dress was a nightmare, though. One friend insisted--and I do mean insisted--that she would make it for me. She had so much sewing experience--I didn't think there was anything she couldn't do. Unfortunately, making my wedding dress woke up all kinds of insecurities in her. She was witchy for the whole process. On top of that, she was not experienced in fancy dresses. I WAS/AM experienced with fancy dresses and tried to offer help but was rejected as not knowing what I was talking about. I begged her to make the waist tighter, for example, because I knew that with a skirt that heavy the waist needed to be tight to hold the dress up. She would. not. do. it. She said I would look like a prostitute!

 

She was wrong--dh knew nothing of her words to me about the waistline. He did tell me much later that he thought I had lost too much weight as the dress seemed to hang on me. My weight was fine--I knew the dress would not fit right because my friend refused to make it so.

 

I asked a different friend to arrange the lace on the dress. She was/is artistic, so I knew that it would be perfect if she did it. She procrastinated for months. We had a knock-down drag-out argument over it before she finally started it. She was still working on it the night before my wedding.

 

I am still bitter towards these two women for creating that stress. I could have made my dress myself (I have made many fancy dresses, including wedding dresses, and am perfectly capable). I could have even bought a dress. Either option would have been ever so much better, and ever so much less stress than dealing with these two supposed friends. The one who made the dress was really, really snotty to me during that time. She had a need to be better at sewing than me (I wasn't aware we were in competition!) and was so ugly in the way she spoke to me. It was truly just awful.

 

I had a really lovely wedding, and have been blessed by a very happy marriage. The look of the dress is exactly what I wanted--it just didn't fit right, and was terribly stressful. I have mixed feelings--positive from the wedding, negative from the months preceding. I have toyed with getting rid of it all these years, but have always hung on to it.

 

For the record, each and every time I have ever made a bridesmaid dress or a prom dress or the wedding dresses (for my sister and for my former roommate) I have never, ever, not once balked at any request. And I have made sure it fits right and that the bride is happy. I will never ever cause anyone else the kind of stress my friends caused me.

[Stacy in NJ]

I still have mine. I had it cleaned and sealed for storage. I doubt I'll every be able to fit into it again; it's a size *2*. Perhaps I'll be able to try it on in 30 pounds or another lifetime. Approaching middle age sucks.