Reusing Your Wedding Dress

1. Reusing Your Wedding Dress The celebrations are over and your married life has just begun. Reliving the events of your amazing day you sit longingly gazing at the dress bag that contains your beloved wedding gown. If only I could use it again, Alfred Angelo 2084 you ask yourself and why wouldn't you want to use it again?! After all the time you spent looking for the one, the money spent on buying it and of course the joy that you had wearing it! Traditionally it is dry cleaned and passed down the family for the future daughter or granddaughter to wear on their big day.... however i certainly wouldn't have wanted to wear my mother's flouncy gown with its huge array of bows! Here we give you some ideas and options of what to do with your wedding dress rather than leave it stored away in the dark depths of the back of the wardrobe in the hope that one day it will be worn again.

2. Alter it - Why not have your bridal gown professionally dyed so that it can be worn as an evening dress or a ball gown. A seamstress could shorten it and restyle it to transform it into a stunning cocktail dress. You could even wear it again to renew your vows! • Wrap/Shawl - A wrap or shawl to compliment your existing outfit on a night out or more formal occasion. Several could be made and dyed out of your gown. La Sposa Darga If you have any intricate beading or specific detail on your bridal gown this could be incorporated into the wrap itself. • Quilt - Turn it into a quilt! A great project for a family member or friend and makes a beautiful item for you to keep and cherish. Alternatively smaller quilts could be made to give as personal gifts to future children or grandchildren, nieces, nephews or god children. • Christening gown - Imagine seeing your children on their Christening Day in what was once your own unique gown that you stood and wed their father in. A true heirloom that would be treasured and passed down generations.

3. Communion dress - Make a first communion dress for your daughter, granddaughter or a friend's daughter. • Pillow - You could make some decorative pillows with the fabric from the dress. Perfect to give as gifts for new arrivals of friends and family, you could even embroider the children's names and birthdays on them. • Table runners - An aisle runner could be made from your bridal gown, depending on the amount of fabric you have. This is a great way of incorporating some of your wedding gown into your Maggie Sottero Adele A3330 future children's big days and passing on the tradition. A table runner could also be made out of the fabric. Great as a finishing touch to that dining table or to bring out on occasions.

4. Handbags - Use the fabric to make some handbags. Keep some for yourself and the others would make a wonderful 'Something Old' for a special someone who is about to be a bride. • Dolls and Teddies - Who could resist a teddy bear made out of your Sottero and Midgley Asm3249csogown or a doll in a wedding dress? A lovely way of keeping the memories alive to see your daughter or granddaughter playing happily with something made from the fabric that made you so happy.

5. Fabric flowers - A beautiful option is to turn your bridal gown into a bouquet of stunning fabric flowers. Once your flowers have been created use a hot glue gun to attach them to some plastic stems. Mori Lee 2303 Keeping them out on display will help keep the memories alive. These flowers could also be turned into hair accessories and worn to jazz up that everyday outfit. They could also be lent to future brides to wear as their 'something borrowed'

6. Frame it - Does your bridal gown have an amazing bodice, flowers, lace, embroidery, corsets and buttons. Parts of your dress could be mounted and put into a frame, turning it into a beautiful work of art to commemorate your day. This can be hung anywhere in your home. Imagine the smile you would have each time you walk past it! • Sell it - If you're one that doesn't mind to part with your gown then sell it on! Pronovias Albatros Why not help make another bride's day the dream they have always envisaged. You get some cash in your pocket and they get the discount dress that they truly desired but their budget could not quite stretch to. • Donate it - Could you consider donating your bridal gown? Cheap wedding dresses don't grow on trees, as you already know! Charity shops would welcome your gown with open arms and just think, you wouldn't be just fulfilling another bride's wedding day but helping out your choice of a very worthy cause.

7. Trash the Dress - Go on, I dare you! Trash the dress, also known as Rock the frock and Fearless bridal consists of having a photography session after your big day in your gown alongside your husband. On your wedding day you probably went to extreme lengths not to have that train stood on or that glass of red wine splattered across the front of your gown. San Patrick Canarias The ultimate mission here is to be as daring as you like in getting your gown as ruined as you can! From jumping in the sea, to making sand or snow angels, walking through a muddy field in your wellington boots to having a paint fight. It could be as wacky as you want it! At the end you have a unique piece of art to add alongside your wedding album to look back on and share with fond memories as you both grow old together.