My sister recently got engaged and is the middle of planning her May wedding. I am honored and excited to be able to accompany her wedding dress shopping this coming weekend. It has been almost nine years since I was married, and I can’t help but get wrapped up in all the fun and excitement that is wedding planning! So much so, that I might have even created a special Pinterest Board for their wedding. 😉 Anyway, all of this wedding planning has led me to reminiscence about my wedding and my wedding dress. I wanted to share with you today on how I came to the decision to donate my wedding dress.
The Dress
I knew from the second I tried on my wedding dress that it was the one. It had a fitted bodice with a full skirt and beautiful train. It was simple but had just the right amount of beaded detail to make it sparkle. I loved the way it laced up in the back, making it fit just perfectly – like it was made just for me. I married the love of my life in that dress. I created some of my favorite memories in that dress. I danced the night away in that dress. I felt the most beautiful that I’ve ever felt in that dress.
The Donation
My wedding day came and went and I needed to make a decision about what I wanted to do with my wedding dress. I knew that the likelihood of one of my future daughters wearing the dress was slim, and I was not interested in saving it to be made into a baptismal gown. After doing some research, I came across a website called Brides Against Breast Cancer. They sell gently used wedding dresses and use the proceeds to contribute to programs for cancer patients and their families. After reading about the organization I knew that I would be donating my wedding dress to their charity.
So about nine months after I walked down the aisle in my beautiful wedding gown, my mom and I packed up my dress and headed down to the Post Office to mail my dress. My mom had tears streaming down her face as we sent my dress off, and I smiled knowing that dress would see the happiest day of somebody else’s life.
I often get asked if I regret donating my wedding dress, and eight years later I still answer the same: even though the dress was perfect and made me feel wonderful, the day was about so much more than a dress. The dress now gets to be the part of another bride’s story, and the thought of that is priceless.
I did and am using my wedding dress for my children’s baptismal gowns. I’ve made two so far and think I should have enough fabric to make up to two more. (My husband jokes that four kids then is our limit.) I think repurposing the wedding dress into baptismal gowns is a beautiful connection and symbolic way to share my husband’s and my marriage under God where we became one and became a family, to sharing that love and welcoming our children not only into our family, but into God’s family, who bonded all of us together.