After our wedding I faced one of the dilemmas that most brides face - what to do with my wedding dress?!?!
In my research on the matter I found many honourable futures for a wedding dress:
- Dry cleaned and preserved in a windowed box for around $400, this allows the dress to be 'looked' at whenever you like.
- Dry cleaned and 'preserved' in a garment bag starting at $280, this allows you to re-wear your wedding dress on your first few anniversaries after which you will probably forget about the tradition or drop garlic butter on it which is then followed by another $280 dry cleaning bill.
- Dry cleaned and 'preserved' for you future daughter(s), this concept always surprises me, styles change so often and the likelihood of your future daughter having your exact taste 25 years later is such a gamble!
- After such a busy wedding (years ago) you still haven't gotten around to having it dry cleaned, currently hanging in the wardrobe dirt and all.
- Sell your dry cleaned and even not dry cleaned gowns on websites such as eBay, Gumtree or The Bare Faced Bride for designer gowns. Ensure you are expecting to receive between 25% - 33% of what you paid for your gown, although it is probably stunning, at the end of the day it is still a used gown and brides buying second hand will not be willing to pay top dollar! Also consider the time between your wedding and when you plan to sell it, if you wait too long it may no longer be in vogue!
- Have a Trash the Dress photo shoot, this involves the bride and the groom getting together on location and trashing their wedding attire in outrageous shoots such as: throwing paint on it, burning it or swimming at the beach in it. This is not my cup of tea but there are some very creative ways of trashing your dress if you are interested.
- Donating your dress to charities such as: Angel Gowns - this is to make dresses for stillborn babies which is a beautiful idea or to the Salvation Army so another bride can experience the same joy you have done for a lesser price.
It was only 1 month after our wedding that I took my dress back to the dress maker that had hemmed it only 2 months earlier. I asked her to cut off the train and make my beautiful gown knee length. 3 weeks and $60 later I had a half renovated wedding dress in my hands and I loved it!!! I have also planned to make a cushion or two with the offcuts.
The next step was getting it dyed from Ivory to a new colour, I had asked my friend google "how to dye a wedding dress?" and the results in most of the blogs I read were disastrous, but I had already cut my dress in half I HAD to dye it a different colour.
Thankfully I found a business in Surry Hills Sydney called "Culla change". Culla Change specialise in recolouring all kinds of fabric. I knew I had to check them out. Despite the postage paid colour pack I had been sent or the option of dropping my dress at a local dry cleaners for them to send to Culla Change free of charge, I just didn't have much faith in Australia Post and loved my dress too much for it to be lost in the mail, so we drove to Sydney.
I met Rosemary a very friendly and enthusiastic Culla Change colour consultant, I knew my dress was in safe hands. I was tossing up between black and pink. Black being able to match every handbag and shoe combination I have or pink the true me....so I chose pink. Rosemary also added that if for any reason I didn't like the pink it could be easily redyed black in the future. Done Deal for $220! (Culla Change have differing prices for different articles of clothing so please check out their website for more information).
Four weeks later (being yesterday 18/4) we went back to Sydney to pick up the finished product and I was speechless. I absolutely loved the finished product and almost felt like crying happy tears for the third time seeing my dress, the first and second time being the day I bought it and the day I wore it for our wedding.
Now my husband and I can wear matching formal outfits hehehehe.
What do you think of the transformation? What grand plans do you have for your wedding gown or have you already completed one of the above options?
Grace x
