What to do with your wedding dress after your big day

You’ve been planning your big day for as long as you can remember. You spent months making sure everything was absolutely perfect, from your matching wedding rings to your first dance song. You spent an incredible amount of time picking out your ideal dress and having it altered so it fits you just right.

But now your big day’s over, what are you meant to do with your beautiful gown? Placing it inside a box and storing it in the loft, never to be seen again seems like a bit of a waste. You can’t exactly wear it out on your next date night. And just throwing it away is completely out of the question. So what are you meant to do?

If you’re in this tricky spot, or you know you’re going to be soon, give your dress a new lease of life and do one of the following with it.

Turn it into lingerie

If you can bring yourself to have your wedding dress cut up, you can make it into a stunning lingerie set. If it’s long enough and made of the right material, you may even be able to have a talented designer turn it into a pair of pyjamas, a negligee, and a dressing down, too.

Put it on display

You don’t have to stop at decorating your home with your beautiful wedding photos. You can go the extra mile and display your wedding dress, too! Find a beautiful box-style frame that’s large enough to hold your dress. Place it inside and put it somewhere special in your house. You’ll get to admire it every day.

Trash the dress

This wedding theme is becoming more and more popular, but it takes a lot of bravery! Trashing the dress involves hiring a photographer and getting some amazing shots of you wearing the dress in places you should never wear a wedding gown and doing things you should never do in a bridal dress.

Some popular ideas include wearing your dress while swimming in the sea, rolling around in the sand, and paintballing. You can even get other people involved and ask them to sign their names on the dress or throw some colourful powdered paint on it.

Offer it to a friend

Money is tight for everyone right now and if you know a friend who’s about to get married, there’s a chance they could really benefit from your dress. Even if they’ve got to pay to have it altered, using your dress will work out much cheaper than having to buy a new one.

Donate it

There are loads of charities throughout the UK that take second-hand wedding gowns and sell them to lucky brides-to-be for discounted prices. Not only does someone get their dream wedding price for a fraction of the price they were expecting, but someone else also gets the help they really need to change their lives.

It doesn’t have to end there

Your wedding dress doesn’t have to stay hidden forever after your big day. While it might be tempting to keep hold of it for your child to wear, it’s important to remember that styles and fashions change all the time. What’s stunning today may not be by the time your child is getting married. It’s much better to do something creative and beautiful with your dress now instead of waiting for something that might never happen.