I've only been married 2 years haha but it's in a bag in the closet and I'm not sure it will ever be moved. I definitely want to keep it as an option for my children/grandchildren someday. I wasn't interested in my moms wedding dress but if I were shorter I might have worn my grandmother's. Mine and hers pictured here!

For those that have had their gown cleaned and sealed - be careful. My SIL had her wedding gown professionally done. Five years after her wedding, she let me wear her dress since I searched everywhere and couldn't find one I liked. When we took it out of the sealed box, the pearls and lace seemed to be melted together. We were able to repair it as some cost, but the seamstress said it could have gotten worse over time if she had left it longer? For my second (and hopefully, last) wedding 8 years ago, I wore a simple lavender dress and it is still hanging in my closet :-).

Mine is on a dress form in my closet. I didn't bother preserving. I have a son and when he gets married I doubt his bride would want to wear it.

I too had an 80's dress with long sleeves and high neck. ( not the best era for wedding gowns! LOL!) Even though it was professionally cleaned and boxed, after many years in a house where my mother smoked, it was so discolored and smelly that I just snipped a few pieces to save and had to toss the rest.

I've been married twice and never had, or wanted a wedding gown. My favorite was for the second and lasting wedding in 1976, a vintage cobalt blue silk Chinese jacket with bright yellow lining and a gold embroidered dragon. Of course I still have it!

Leave it to bluenan to marry in a beautiful vintage cobalt blue silk Chinese Jacket! I'd think you'd have that in a shadowbox frame -- it goes with your ginger jars! Bluenan, one day when I create a room in a soft watery greyish teal, I will shadowbox frame the Chinese silk jacket worn with a coolie hat by my Mother as her "going away" outfit leaving her 1955 wedding (just in time to get pulled over by the police in a prank set up by my dad's Air Force buddies, who'd stashed a few folding chairs from the reception in their trunk...)

Mine was in the attic, in one of those preserved boxes. I asked everyone if they were interested,in using, taking it, selling it, etc. but no one was the least interested. I did a big cleaning purge last year and ended up donating it. Have not thought about it until I saw this topic in Houzz. It was a Priscilla of Boston dress. I should have donated it years ago.

In its original dress bag in eldest daughter's room. Both my girls are taller than me so my dream of them wearing it is a moot point. Maybe those christening gown ideas would work if they ever find the right men.

My wedding dress is in my Mom's house. I have no idea how/where she has it stored. Never thought to ask ;)

Mine is also tucked away in storage, BUT my hubby is not from the US, so I'm hoping to wear it back home when we renew our vows someday.

I hate to admit this but my wedding gown is literally stuffed in a (tall) plastic hamper that sits at the top of my youngest daughter's closet. I had every intention of preserving it and never got around to it. 15 years later - I still LOVE it.

I have worn my wedding gown several times in the past 19 years. I designed and made a 30's inspired golden- cream 1 shoulder gown with an embroidered silk shantung bodice and bias cut silk chiffon skirt. Trailing down from the shoulder was a drape of silk chiffon weighted with bugle beads. No one ever guesses it was my wedding gown - just a stunning evening gown. It hangs out in the cedar closet with our other dressy clothes.

Mine went to Goodwill after 34 years of storage. It was so out of date, NO ONE would want to wear it! Some of my friends were upset that I got rid of my dress. That's it....it is just a dress. I still have my husband and THAT'S what it's all about!

Mine as well. We have lots of pictures and each other (22 years) so, I saw no point to keeping it. I didn't want my daughter to feel an obligation to wear it. I kept the veil and reworked it for my daughter's First Communion. All three of my nieces wore it as well.

My wedding dress was professionally cleaned and sealed in a box after the wedding. It moved with me all 8 times my ex and I had to move for his job and most recently made another move to a storage facility I am renting while moving into my new condo. I'd picked a classic style almost identical to the one Kate's grandmother is wearing in the photo above, because I thought that if I had children they might want to use it. Now that we're divorced after a 10 year marriage, with no children, I started looking into charities that it could be donated to, like Brides Against Breast Cancer, Every Girls Dream, etc. Unfortunately, most of these agencies only accept gowns less that 5 years old. My veil got lost in the move from Mississippi to Maryland after the divorce, but as I packed for the most recent move I found the box with my shoes, the decorative hose, and garter I wore in it. I need to open the box and see if the dress is still in good condition and perhaps find a seamstress who can do something with all that beautiful heavy silk.

My dress is in a small closet in the original hanging bag after 5 years of marriage. It is with all of my other gowns from dances and special occasions. I hope that maybe someone else will wear it. I take it out and try it on after I lose the baby weight after each child to make sure I still fit into it. I only have 6 more pounds before I get to try it on after my third child.

I wanted to wear my grandmother's dress. She made it herself and it has a perfect aged color to it. Unfortunately I am taller than her and the length of the dress and sleeves are too short. I loved my sister's dress, but she rented and so that wasn't an option. I am just thankful that I found my dress for $400.

My wedding dress was a raw silk sundress. Under $100.. That I still wear 20 years later. I didn't want to spend money on something that would only be worn once. We also only had 4 people at our wedding, with the local mayor officiating in her office.

Got married in Europe and rented my wedding dress. Best decision ever! I got to wear a beautiful dress at a fraction of the price and don't need to spend the rest of my life moving it from closet to closet.

My wedding dress resides at my parents' house (they have plenty of closets & lots of storage). I tried mine on the last time I was there & that thing didn't have a chance in hades of zipping up. It was practically sewn onto me 15 years ago (a strapless dress with a full skirt & triple tiered bustle needed some tight fitting to stay up), so I wasn't surprised that it didn't fit now.

My parents also store my mother's wedding dress, my father's mother's wedding dress & his grandmother's wedding dress! 4 generations of wedding dresses! My great grandmother's dress is a beautiful silk damask hobble skirt style. My grandmother's is a lovely silk satin bias cut gown with a long train. My mother's is a long sleeved, high necked lace gown. All gowns are stored, carefully folded, in boxes with acid free tissue paper. I hope to inherit all the gowns one day & have a home large enough to store them. I love clothing & fashion history, so no problem holding onto items like that for long periods of time.

Mine is preserved in a box in the attic closet. My dress weighs about 15lbs. due to heavy beading/pearls/sequins on the bodice and the skirt is all gorgeous raw silk in off-white. I don't have children and I'm 50lbs. lighter than when I got married! You've all inspired me, that the gown will be more useful to someone else.

David's Bridal sells a storage box that I bought when I purchased my dress. After dry cleaning it, the dry cleaner packaged it up in the box nicely and it sits under the bed in my spare bedroom :)

Mine is tucked away in a box in my walk in closet!

M first wedding dress I bought for $20 at a market. I reworked the sleeves and bodice, added a beautiful velvet vest and then a couple of years after we separated, I turned it in to a fantastic belly dancing costume. My second wedding dress was a beautiful cocktail type dress, which hangs in the cupboard and has had another 3 or 4 to different events. I will hand it on to my daughter and she will probably wear it with purple doc martins and a denim jacket. Unless I do first.

My first wedding dress is still at my Mom's house. I was 19 and weighed about 100 lbs., so it is tiny. I was married in 1976, so it is a very 1970's style and I love it, but I have thought about selling or donating it many times. I had no children from my first marriage. My other dress is a beautiful ivory silk that my Mother and I made. It is hanging in my closet 15 yrs. later. My daughter is larger than I am and was not able to wear it. I've thought about cutting it up and making a doll sized gown for each of my granddaughters.

I had my wedding dress professionally cleaned, etc. It is a beautiful dress, but since we don't have any children, I decided to donate it. Drove to the Salvation Army the other day and donated it - seems like the right thing to do - pay it forward!

جميل

Mine was a 1940s slipper satin that my boyfriend bought me as an "investment". I was a wedding photographer for 30 years and since I was in the business I would visit the little wedding dress shops around town. One day I stopped in this little tiny Used wedding dress store and the sales clerk showed this to me. When I went back to deliver some photographs I had done for her she showed it to my boyfriend and he bought it on the spot. Of course, that was after she insisted I try it on and it fit like a glove. I always was a little bothered wearing it when I did get married. Especially since it wasn't him that I married. It hangs in my closet.
I love the idea of donating it to the babies. He would love that so much. That loving man died in 2012 . Thanks for the reminder.

I know that my own daughter will have her own tastes, just as I wouldn't have liked my own mother's dress. After moving it multiple times, I realized it would better serve someone else in the world than just hanging in my closet. Too big a memento to haul around in my opinion.

Wedding dresses in our family tend to skip a generation or two. My sister in law wore a great-great aunt's wedding dress from around 1860. Mine was a Victorian petticoat (not from the family; from a SoHo Vintage store).

My niece asked to wear my wedding dress but I couldn't find it--I apparently forgot it was given away or it got lost when moving. Felt bad about that, but now, I have found my mother's satin dress from the 40's as I have cleared her house out after her death. It is in fantastic condition, just rumpled from being stuffed in a box. I've been interested in all your comments and am now thinking about the Angel idea. Thanks!

I was so happy to get out of my uncomfortable dress that I threw it straight in the trash that night. No dry cleaning bill. No dusty box. Just the pictures and memories!

My gown is back in the box the cleaners "preserved" it in. When my oldest daughter got married in 2012, I knew she'd want to pick out her own, just as I did. I did get curious, though and unsealed my dress and tried it on. I was almost able to zip it! My younger daughter is getting married this Saturday and she too chose her own gown. No matter how "classic" you try to be, wedding gowns are still a product of their time. I told my girls, they might as well get a cute picture jumping in the Gulf of Mexico with their gowns on. The chance of them being worn again is pretty small. Every bride should have her own vision for her special day.

I wore my wedding gown (tea length) with cowboy boots to a "semi-formal" party a couple of months after the wedding. I then had it cleaned and boxed. Fast forward 29 years, just took it down from the shelf in my daughter's closet as we get ready to move. I'm afraid to open it but will wait for my daughter to confirm she is not interested in wearing it IF she ever walks down the aisle before donating it...

Mine is in a sealed and preserved box that sits under the bed in the guest bedroom. After 4 or 5 moves since our wedding 8 years ago, it's just normal now that the dress box goes under the guest bed.

I did try on and think about wearing my mom's wedding dress when I got married. But it is VERY 80's (married in 1983 and lots of lace and big puffy sleeves with a full satin skirt) and WAY too small for me even 8 years ago. No way would that dress ever fit me! My grandmother made it for her though so I really wanted to wear parts of it but overall it just didn't work out.

I love my dress though and hope that one day maybe my future daughter or someone would like to wear it. It's a lace/pearl/beaded bodice with a drop waist and rhinestone covered spaghetti straps and a very full satin skirt (sorry the pic isn't the best).

I'm still wearing mine! 19 years ago I bought a full length sundress with little blue flowers. I am wearing it this weekend to my retirement party.

I love the stories everyone is posting! And we all have a story! I would love to have had a vintage/family heirloom wedding dress, but my grandmother (we were the same size shortly before she died when I was 16) did not have a gown. She and my grandfather were married quickly before he was sent to France in WW l. My parents eloped. My mother designed and sewed many wedding gowns and bridesmaid dresses so when it was my wedding, we agreed that she could have a LOT of input. Brave, maybe, but she had excellent taste and she needed this time since she did not have her dream wedding. The only thing we clashed on was the veil - she was inspired by Olivia deHavilland's Maid Marion character in "Robin Hood" of 1938. I was not comfortable with it and just wanted a flowered wreath for my short hair. A compromise was the answer: for the pre-wedding photos I wore the veil but on the wedding day, I wore the wreath. I love the Angel Gowns donation idea, and since my son is a mortician and has the resourses for various foundations and charities, I will ask him. I know my only daughter has no interest in it. It was 1982 but does not look like the styles of those years. I was not interested in those styles and opted for simplicity.
My mother is now 84 years old and I'm hoping that she and my dad can spend their last years with us. I will bring out the dress and take photos of her with it. She was sooo clever and could do anything with a sewing machine!

My first wedding dress was a simple white cotton affair. After the wedding I dyed it and wore it for the rest of the summer.
My second wedding was in 1990 and was a green velvet and satin dress, which I gave to the local musical society about 7 years later.

I made mine into a bed skirt and store it on my bed. :)

Now that is an original idea!!

Mine has been cut apart and is waiting for an inspiration. My daughter had tried it on before she even had a boyfriend and didn't like it so...it is raw silk and hopefully after 45 yrs, I'll get inspired. (Gown lasted longer than hubby...)

I have moved country's three times, Rhodesia, South Africa and Australia, I have no idea what happened to my dress

My wedding dress has been cleaned and stored in the back of our closet in a large bag from the atelier for the past 13 years,. I’ve never taken it out and after having a baby I’m not sure it would fit again if i wanted to try!

I hope one day to be hit with a bolt of divine inspiration and remake that gorgeous gown into a fancy dress with pizazz (a la Molly Ringwald in PRETTY IN PINK)

Or, to donate it to tall, slender lady in need who wants a simple yet striking strapless dress. And then send me photos so we can play “who wore it better?”

Pic reprinted below - the floaty fabric layers were so much fun!

It always surprises me when brides put their dress away with hopes of their children wearing it again. The last thing most women these days want to wear is their mothers old fashioned wedding dress. Did any of these mothers ever consider wearing their own mothers dress? Probably not. I think a nicer idea is to make a christening dress for your children out if your wedding dress. I've also heard of some families putting their wedding dress on display at other family members weddings. Sometimes a wedding will have a few generations of wedding dresses on display. Really like that idea.

I wore mine to a Halloween party night of bar hopping. Complete with a ribbon bedecked fairy wand, tiara, long blonde wig and wrapped my waist with gauzy sparkle ribbon. I was Gilda the good witch from Oz. My neighbor went as the the nasty witch and paired her black with green slime on her face and the requisite beak nose. Guess who had more fun. It was trash after that, so I tossed it. Didn't love it all that much anyway lol. Not to mention .....................

Never had a "wedding gown " married in a registry office ..the dress I wore has long gone ..it was 34 years ago !..I don't see the point of spending all that money on a dress that you wear only once!

I did not buy an expensive dress, and did not want to keep it. I donated it to a local theater group in our town and deducted it!

I made my own wedding gown many many years ago. Nice but not soectacular. I cut up the skirt to make ringbearer pillows for our two daughters’ weddings. They both had store-bought dresses.

We’ve been married 55 years.

So far.

I love things that I find in 2nd hand stores and feel like donating my things may bring joy to another person. I donated my wedding gown.