Wedding Planning Tips


By: Alexine

The day after your wedding or even the night of the wedding, your poor wedding dress is retired. You can either zip it back up in the bag you took it home in or preserve it in a pretty box to prevent discoloring. Wouldn’t you like a more exciting and unusual ending to the life of your wedding dress? Here are a couple of ways you can ensure a second use for your wedding dress before it is “officially” retired.

Create a Costume
Day of the Dead in Oaxaca, Mexico and Halloween in the United States are two great holidays where your dress can be worn again. Skeleton brides and grooms and other costumes are all over the city of Oaxaca on the evening of November 1st. There are bands playing and people dancing. Day of the Dead is a wonderful celebration where the people of Oaxaca honor those who have come before them and are deceased.

As a foreigner in Oaxaca, Mexico it is a very welcoming place with many luxuries of home. If you have the opportunity why not fly to Oaxaca, Mexico for Day of the Dead with your wedding dress and show it off one more time. But, don’t forget to bring some white and black face paint to make yourself into a skeleton.

If the means are not there to take a vacation to Mexico there is always Halloween here in the United States. With some fake blood and vampire teeth or green face paint and fake bolts you could become any scary monster’s bride. Use your imagination and figure out a character you want to be the bride of and get crafty. You can sew on extras or paint different patterns on the dress to make your character come alive. Don’t hold back and have fun turning the dress into a piece of art.



Give a Donation
Donating your dress is always a great option and gives the sense of helping others that are less fortunate. There is one foundation that especially is important for men and women and that is Brides Against Breast Cancer. I came across their racks of bridal gowns at an exhibition in Seattle about a year ago. This article was the perfect opportunity to mention what a wonderful cause it is.

Brides Against Breast Cancer is part of the Breast Cancer Foundation and gives you the opportunity to donate your wedding dress to help. It is a great way to give to women and men who have severe breast cancer. This organization restores your wedding dress and then sells it for money to help grant wishes and memory making events for women and men who are losing their battle with breast cancer. What a good feeling to know your helping put a smile on the face of a person in the last part of their life.

The other place you can donate your wedding dress to is Good Will. They also sell the dress for money and then use the money to train people in the community who need help getting jobs and making it. There are many people who work for Good Will in the training department that will tell you how helpful donations are at the stores. Every item they sell goes towards helping people in the community get on their feet and gives the opportunity of job training instead of just handing them some food and sending them on their way. Enabling people who are less fortunate and trying to help themselves is something to take great pride it.



It’s Your Decision
Whether you use the dress for your own fun or donate it to charity, it does feel good to know it didn’t go to waste after one day. Some of you are very attached to their dress and wearing it one more time or a few more times for Halloween or Day of the Dead is the perfect choice. Then for those of you who don’t have too much attachment to the dress and can let go of it easily could donate with no regrets. Finally if you cant bare to let go or get it dirty then preserving your dress just might have to be your decision. Don’t feel bad about your decision as it is all in what you feel comfortable with.

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