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Eight things to do with your wedding dress (once the wedding is over).

What to do with your wedding dress when you don’t want it just taking up space.

So what can you do with your wedding dress once the party’s over, and you don’t want to keep it?

Well, here are eight ideas where you can get philanthropic, nostalgic or just plain creative…

1. Preserve your dress for use as a future christening gown.

Christening gown
Turn your wedding dress into a christening gown. Image via. iStock
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Whether you have a boy or a girl if you’re going to baptise your child then you can divide your wedding dress into plenty of teeny-tiny lace dresses for your little ones on the day of their Christening.

2. Donate to Angel Gowns Australia to dress a stillborn baby.

Angel Gowns
Angel Gowns creates dresses for still born babies. Image via YouTube.

 

Like our Editor-in-Chief Jamila Rizvi, you can donate your preowned wedding dresses to Angel Gowns Australia which will be used to cloth still born, ill or disabled babies.

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3. Donate to Salvation Army or Red Cross, so someone else can afford a beautiful dress.

Donate wedding dress
You can donate your wedding dress to charities like the Red Cross or Salvation Army. Image via Getty.

 

If you’re happy to permanently part ways with your gown, then you can donate your wedding dress to charities like the Salvation Army or Red Cross, which gives every bride access to wearing their dream gown.

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4. Have a ‘Trash the Dress’ photo shoot.

Trash the dress
A ‘Trash the Dress’ photo shoot. Image via iStock.

One of the most interesting new wedding trends is a post-wedding ‘Trash the Dress’ photo shoot where brides and grooms destroy the gown by either swimming in it, painting it or even setting it on fire, all in return for creative photo keepsakes.

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5. Auction off and give the proceeds to a charity of your choice.

Donate the dress FGM
Photo shoot for ‘Donate the Dress’ to fight FGM. Image via Donate the Dress Vimeo.

There are a few charities that actively encourage selling off your dress to support their causes. You can sell your dress to help fight against Female Genital Mutilation or raise funds for further research into a cure for Breast Cancer. Or, you can quite simply auction your dress off and give the cash to any charity of your choice.

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6. Sell it and keep the cash. 

Wedding dress
You can sell your wedding dress online and make some money back. Image via iStock.

 

We all know it’s probably going to be the most expensive dress you ever buy, so why not make some money back on it? You can actually sell your wedding dresses online on wesbites like I Do Gowns, which have a plethora of preowned dresses to choose from.

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7. Restyle it into a cocktail dress.

Sewing
Restyle your wedding dress into a cocktail dress. Image via iStock.

 

If you don’t want to part ways with your dress and you’d like to wear it again then you can always restyle your wedding dress into a classic cocktail dress that you can wear for years to come.

8. Donate it to Dress a Girl.

dress a girl
Dress a girl campaign wants to see every little girl own at least one dress. Image via Dress a Girl website.
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As one last philanthropic option, you can also donate your dress to Australian charity group ‘Dress a Girl’. You can submit your dresses (up to five at a time) to the charity who will restyle the fabrics into clothes that can be worn be little girls around the world.

Tell us, what did you do with your wedding dress once the wedding was over?

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