The wedding dress is often considered the most important purchase of a woman’s life. For many it is, but for others, the wedding dress quickly becomes a symbolism of a love that has soured over time. Whether you have been divorced for a day or a decade, you can take your wedding dress and get rid of it, hopefully helping you move forward with your new life as a single and fabulous woman once again.
We’ve collected four options for disposing of your tainted wedding dress after divorce. Maybe one of them will help you start fresh.
1. Donate the Gown
Not everyone can afford a beautiful gown on their wedding day, and while you’re wedding day might have ended in a divorce a few years down the line, that doesn’t mean your beautiful gown has to suffer. There are charities in most parts of the country that accept wedding dress donations and give them to low-income brides who wouldn’t otherwise have a beautiful dress to wear on your special day.
Another charity, NICU Helping Hands, takes wedding gowns and turns them into “angel gowns” for babies born too early or too sick to live outside the hospital. Both charities will take your gown and make it into something that will brighten another person’s day.
2. Sell It
Selling a wedding gown might seem like it is in poor taste, especially when the marriage ended in divorce, but it really isn’t. Believe it or not, a gown doesn’t hold bad mojo, and just because your marriage ended in divorce, doesn’t mean someone else wearing the gown will seal their fate, too. You can sell your wedding gown to a consignment shop, or on auction sites like eBay, for some pretty significant cash. Having your dress cleaned and preserved after the wedding will help ensure you get top dollar for your gown. If it were us, we’d take that cash and buy something new, or indulge in a nice vacation. The cash you grab for your wedding gown can be the money you use to start your new life over, as a fabulous divorced woman.
3. Turn It Into Something New and Meaningful
So your marriage ended – now you are stuck with a wedding gown that reminds you of your ex, but you don’t have to get rid of it to get rid of those memories. Take the dress to a seamstress and see if they can turn it into something else, or, if you are savvy with a needle and thread, do it yourself. You might turn your former ball gown into a great party dress, or rip it to shreds for a Halloween costume. Or, like one former bride did, craft yourself a costume for a new passion of yours. Dye the dress a different color to really set your new wardrobe pieces apart from the memories of your wedding day. A wedding dress is more than the symbolism of getting married; it is also layers upon layers of expensive fabric and delicate beadwork, so make the best of it.
4. Destroy It
Some women like the symbolism of taking control and destroying their wedding gown. Destroying a gown seems like blasphemy to some, but to others, the entire experience is liberating and cathartic. Throw a party with some pals and trash the dress before chucking it out with the garbage. Roll around in the dirt, smear paint all over it, or jump into some water with it. Whatever you feel is most cathartic will work for this option. Once the gown is destroyed you should feel liberated and ready to start your life over, and if you don’t, well, at least you had some fun with your pals.
Photo credit: Emery Co Photo / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)
