If you haunt the bridal blog circuit, you may have heard of the Trash the Dress phenomenon. Bridezilla’s thought long and hard about that, and our final verdict? A big fat no. Call us skeptics at heart, but anything combining the word “trash” and “dress” that they’re trying to sell us as a good thing? No thank you. We’ve put too much money and heart into the dress of our dreams to pay some photographer to get more portfolio material by watching us destroy our precious confection of silk and seed pearl finery. We’ll do without getting ourselves lit on fire or drowned in the ocean for someone else’s art, thanks.
At the same time, though, we’re a fairly youngish batch of Bridezillas, and it’s not like our tiny city apartments have lots of excess closet space for our gorgeous-though-they-are lacy confections of wedding dressery. What to do, then? We’ve come up with a few alternate options for what to do with your wedding dress once you’ve transitioned from Bridezilla to Mrs. Bridezilla.
1. Deconstruct and recreate. This is a tricky proposition, but it can be just right if you have the perfect sort of dress – after all, when else are you going to have a gown tailored just for you? Take it back to the tailor’s and see about getting it redone into a shorter dress, or a sexy top and formal skirt. If you don’t want to commit to major wedding dress surgery, then dye it for future formal events. Just don’t make the fatal mistake of going pastel – you’ll look like a very fancy Easter egg, and that look rarely works outside of junior proms. If you’ve gone with a sleek, simple gown, get it dyed a fetching shade of crimson or navy, and you’ll be perfectly attired for your next black tie event.
2. Are you equal parts sentimentalist and utilitarian? Get the best of both worlds by having a wedding dress quilt made from your dress. It’s pretty, and it’ll keep you both warm in the winter. Just make sure it matches your decor – quilts are lovely and everything, and we’ll never turn one down for snuggling under on a cold December night, but the look favors Aspen cabins over Manhattan studios, so if you get one made, make sure it’ll integrate.
3. Planning on a future family of babyzillas? Then for now, hold onto the dress. Wedding dresses can be used for everything from christening gowns to prom dresses with some fabulous tailoring. If it’s an especially exceptional dress (and let’s face it, with amazing taste like we have, the probability is high), hold onto it for your version 2.0 Bridezilla-in-the-making. Think about it – it’ll at least take one thing off her mind in the planning process, leaving you both with more time to make sure her wedding goes off without a hitch. After all, who better to oversee than you?
