Did You "Trash the Dress" After Your Wedding?

I got married two years ago. The trash the dress trend was in effect. I've never been the sentimental type, so I knew I didn't want to hold onto mine. Rather than trash it, I chose to donate mine instead. http://www.bridesagainstbreastcancer.org/

I shipped the dry cleaned dress in its "keepsake box." Brides against Breast Cancer gave me a tax deductible donation receipt. At the time, they sold donated dresses and used the proceeds for breast cancer research.

If you don't mean to keep your dress, consider this or another charity.

8 moms found this helpful

Wow, thanks for bringing me up to speed. Never heard of this, but checked it out.

You could say mine was trashed. But truth is, I had mine cut up and sewn into a baptismal gown. Best thing I could think of to do with mine.

Although, I'm not against the whole "trash the dress" idea, I'm glad mine was made into something more memorable.

7 moms found this helpful

The best thing I have ever seen done with a wedding dress was make it into a beautiful skirt for a bassinet. The skirt was cut to fit the bassinet with a big pc taken out of the back for the hood of the bassinet. It was beautiful. so frilly/lacy. the baby's christening dress/outfit can also be made out of the wedding dress. what a beautiful way to show the love that the baby was created in.

6 moms found this helpful

seriously?
i'm so glad i'm out of the loop!
who would do that??
:/ khairete
S.

5 moms found this helpful

How sad and terribly selfish. There are many brides who can't afford to buy A wedding dress, much less the dress of their dreams, and here are people who don't think of others and ruin something special just for fun. I donated mine right after the wedding, and I really hope someone had just as much fun, just as special a day as I did while wearing it!

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ABSOLUTELY NOT! Mine is boxed & preserved, either waiting for one of my girls to use as is, modify or use parts in their own custom dress. My hubby & I will be married 18 yrs this summer & our girls are still in elementary. But the boxed wedding dress is still waiting for the right time to come out.

My questions is WHY? Why would you go through all the time & Expense to HUNT for the "Perfect" dress then TRASH It? stupid, plain stupid.

4 moms found this helpful

No.
I have it still.
All cleaned and wrapped up.
I showed it to my daughter.

4 moms found this helpful

No. After the amount I paid for a beautiful dress, I wasn't about to trash it. I am hoping to pass it down to other generations. I did consider selling it to recoup some of the cost (and I did shop around & got a good deal and it was still expensive), but DH talked me out of it.

4 moms found this helpful

I cannot imagine doing this! If you don't want to keep it -then donate it for someone who has no money. My wedding gown was/is gorgeous and we had it preserved and stored after the wedding. If someone wants to wear it someday, I'll be honored, and if not, it can be a family heirloom. If I didn't care about any of that, I would have found someone who would really appreciate it and given it to her!

4 moms found this helpful

Never heard of that before! I'm actually planning on having it altered and dyed black (my fave color) along with the shoes. So I can wear it for special occasions. (I don't like white)

4 moms found this helpful

I think that it could be really cool. At the end of the day, the only tangible thing you have left from the wedding are the pictures. If you could get some really cool pictures, it would be worth it (to me) to take advantage without worrying about what it was going to do to some dress you are never going to wear again. But then, I don't see the point of spending thousands of dollars on a wedding dress, so it wouldn't be that great of a loss for me. I'm not outdoorsy, but if I had had a beach or a mountain wedding, or something like that, I would have rather gotten cool photos than fixate on keeping some fabric that was never going to see the light of day again perfect.

3 moms found this helpful

I'm not sure what type of people that find this trendy but most women I've always known spend too much money to trash their dress. I've known no one who intentionally trashed their dress. Some women save it for their daughters as well. Maybe it's trashy people who trash their dresses? LOL

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

3 moms found this helpful

Hmmm, I spent $700 on my wedding gown from Laura Ashley (a Holy fortune in 1990). We had a reception in a nearby state park. I DID muck it up a little, and like Rachel we DID go out afterwards (but we all changed).

I took it to a cleaners that specializes in such things and spent ANOTHER hundred bucks having it boxed and such.

I did not chuck it til 3 years after I left my husband. And oddly, after reading today's posts, I somehow regret it.

:(

3 moms found this helpful

What do youj mean by "trash"? Destroy it on purpose for fun after the wedding? Put it consignment or give it away? Just throw it away? Or do you just mean is it going to be all sweaty and stained with foot prints, lips stick, food and wine after the party?

My dress got trashed by careless people at the party (wine stains, foot prints on the train, and lips stick from getting kissed by sloppy relatives), but I got the stains out and packed it away in an airtight dealy.

Not sure what you mean...and where did you hear about this trend if it's a thing of purposely trashing it as part of the festivities? Considering what people are paying for dresses these days, that seems insane! I say buy something ratty from the Goodwill and trash that. Save the high buck dress for an heirloom...or just don't buy a traditional gown at all. JMO.

3 moms found this helpful

I never heard of this, so I wikipediaed it (doesnt roll off the tongue like googled it)

Trash the dressFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Trash The Dress" style photo featuring both the bride and groom on the beach.
Examples from a "trash the dress" shoot on a beach.
Trash the dress, also known as fearless bridal or rock the frock, is a style of wedding photography that contrasts elegant clothing with an environment in which it is out of place. It is generally shot in the style of fashion and glamour photography.

Usually brides decide to have pictures taken on a beach, but other locations include city streets, rooftops, garbage dumps, fields, and abandoned buildings.

Some sources claim that the trend was originally started in 2001 by Las Vegas wedding photographer John Michael Cooper.[1] However, the idea of destroying a wedding dress has been used in Hollywood symbolically since at least October 1998 when Meg Cummings of the show Sunset Beach ran into the ocean in her wedding dress after her wedding was badly interrupted. Since then the style has spread around the world and most notably in the UK, with photographers like Steve Gerrard[2] and Mark Theisinger,[3] amongst others, shoot their unique ideas of Trash the Dress.

A model often wears a ball gown, prom dress or wedding dress, and may effectively ruin the dress in the process by getting it wet, dirty or in extreme circumstances tearing or destroying the garment.

It may be done as an additional shoot after the wedding, almost as a declaration that the wedding is done and the dress will not be used again. It is seen as an alternative to storing the dress away, never to be seen again.

In a Mass Trash The Dress event September 9, 2009 more than 150 women wore their wedding dresses once more and were pictured on a beach in Scheveningen, Netherlands. Fine art photographer Melanie Rijkers (MeRy) initiated the act after she found out about the American phenomenon 'Trash the dress' on the internet. First mass Trash The Dress: 08-08-'08. Future dates: 10-10-'10, 11-11-'11 and 12-12-'12.

3 moms found this helpful

Good heavens, no. I wore my mom's dress, so I sure am glad she didn't trash it either!

3 moms found this helpful

Nope! I had mine preserved along with my daughter's flower girl dress. :)

This is just another example of how little our society values things.

3 moms found this helpful

I don't even know what that is...I am out of touch. I guess it is probably exactly what it sounds like.

I didn't wear a dress when I got married (we are waiting for our girls to ask to see wedding pictures and demand we renew our vows with mom in a dress).

3 moms found this helpful

No way! I really don't get the whole fad myself...

2 moms found this helpful

Ewww. Trendy is sometimes weird.

I have mine. I don't know what I'll do with it, because my daughters were/are not interested. But I'll hang on to it, even though it didn't cost thousands of dollars!

2 moms found this helpful

I did! The weekend after my wedding, I had a friend take photos of me with my horse. I'm so glad I did. They turned out gorgeous! My horse stepped on my dress, leaving big muddy hoof marks and it got grass stains, too, but I just threw it in the washing machine when I got home. The stains came out and the dress is still beautiful! We were having so much fun with the photo shoot that my friend (whose house we were at), got her dress out of storage and took pics with her horse, too. She was a bit worried her mom would get upset that the dress was taken out of preservation (her mom paid for that), but once she saw the photos, it didn't matter!

2 moms found this helpful

Seeing as how people are paying thousands of dollars for a wedding dress that they wear only once. I think it would be stupid to do this unless it was after a divorce!

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No I did not. I instead donated my dress to a local community group where they have 16 year olds wear wedding dresses as a coming out at this huge ball (dad or brother or uncle is their "date" in a tux/suit). Before that I let a local theatre group use it for a play, think it was for 7 brides for 7 brothers.

I was going to keep it but I am never going to wear it again, loved it but never going to wear it again, and morethenlikely my daughter will not want to wear so I decided to get more use out of it by donating it and letting others use it.

I vaule the dress & memories but to be honest I do not want to keep something around that takes up a lot of space that I never will wear again. Plus I have pics.

2 moms found this helpful

I sold mine to my best friends sister....who turned out to be the same exact size and didn't do any alterations to it.
I think it got good use out of it.

2 moms found this helpful

I made my daughter christening dress out of mine... It was nice to know my daughter wore my dress, and hopefully she will use the dress for her daughter (if she has one!)

2 moms found this helpful

I didnt, but I want to. The only reason why my wedding dress is still in a bag in my closet is because my husband wants to keep it for sentimental value. I wish I could just get rid of it, though, it takes up room. I did only pay $100 for it, and the seamstress messed it up and had me pick it up a day BEFORE my wedding. I really didnt like the dress or how it fit on me. I took it off immediently after the wedding in the church bathroom.

2 moms found this helpful

I think that sounds like a fun idea. I haven't "trashed" mine, but it is currently being made into a quilt. I have no use for it again, and I doubt my daughter would want to wear my dress when she gets married...she deserves to have her own dress.

I don't think this changes the way we "value" things at all. I'm curious as to why a wedding dress needs to be preserved and saved in a box in the closet?? How does that show the value?

2 moms found this helpful

NO WAY!!! I had mine preserved as well as my daughters baptism dress that looked very close to my wedding dress. That goes right along with.... these women spend alot of time and money finding the right dress, getting their hair just perfect, having their makeup done just to smash the cake all over them. I just don't understand that. And now they are trashing the dress. WHY????? Why spend the time to find that perfect dress and spend good money on it just to trash it. I really don't understand todays society. That is not a trend it's just stupidity!!!

2 moms found this helpful

I wish I had, I would have taken my dog Jake to the creek and played ball and had pictures taken, but I never thought of it. I would have loved to have had those memories. He was my the very first love of my life and is gone forever, and the dress sits (somewhere). My husband is still alive and well and we have our pictures so I wish I had though of that!

1 mom found this helpful

Wow! How sad. My wedding dress was the only thing I really liked about my wedding (well...and getting married to DH of course).
I would never. I still marvel at how much my parents spent on it and it wasn't super expensive.
Maybe one day DD will want to wear it...but DD and I seem to have little we both like. Lol. Plus, I think she's gonna be about 6" taller than me. :)
Just can't imagine...

"This is just another example of how little our society values things."
So very true.

1 mom found this helpful

I wore jeans and a t-shirt (not even sure which one) to the DJ LoL So no, I didn't. I don't think I would either. . .

1 mom found this helpful

I had to buy a new wedding dress the day before my wedding because the dry cleaner (and their seamstress) screwed up my original one. Our photographer told me it would be really neat to Trash the Original Dress by photographing my new hubby and I jumping into the pool at our reception. I would have, but I spent a fortune on hair, makeup, etc, and I didn't want to spend my wedding dance soaked to the bone with mascara streaking down my cheeks. I don't regret it. I still have the dress I got married in, but about a year later, I literally trashed the original dress.

1 mom found this helpful

I can't see the point of deliberately ruining the clothes you wore on such a special occasion.

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