What did you do with you’re wedding gown after the wedding?

Raisin

Fri, Nov 20 2020, 6:43 am

amother [ Cerulean ] wrote:

But brides go to the place to look for dresses. They don't go to your mother's house. Nor does your mother have the infrastructure to do alterations (particularly alterations that will not permanently affect the dress, so it can be re-used).

Of course, I've no clue why anyone would spent $1000, much less $5000, to rent a dress.

My question is, if this gown that cost $5500 to make, most of the cost of which was paid by the original wearer, and the gemach then charged $1000 to rent it out each time - isn't the gemach making a lot of money charging those prices?

I understand gemachs need to charge something, but those types of prices sound very profitable.

I got mine from a gemach and I paid about $200 to rent it.

amother

Wine

Fri, Nov 20 2020, 7:07 am

Raisin wrote:

The poster talking about the 1000 dollar rental dress was not talking about a gemach, rather a for profit custom bridal rental.
Gemachim are much less (but in my experience don't alter dresses for you etc.)
Gemachim do a great service for the community and do not make a profit.
I borrowed my wedding dress from a gemach and paid about 300 for it including headpiece and veil and picking it up early. BH was a big chessed which I am still very grateful for.

zaq

Fri, Nov 20 2020, 1:04 pm

The options:
1. Have it professionally preserved in the forlorn hope that your dd may one day use it. (She won't.)
2. Leave it hanging in a closet for 30 years in the hope that your dd may one day use it. Same as above but she's even less likely to use it, especially if you didn't get it cleaned since your wedding. Because it wasn't preserved, it won't look as fresh and nice as if it had been, and if it wasn't cleaned, chances are it's stained beyond hope, in which case
3. Give it to your dd or dgd to wear for dress-up.
4. Sell it--as soon after the wedding as possible.
5. Give it to a gmach--as soon after the wedding as possible--and shep nachas that your dress is being mesameach kallahs in need.
6. Lend it out to as many people as you can for as long as you can and shep nachas that your dress is being mesameach other kallahs. When it has been to more weddings than you have and looks shopworn, give to a charity thrift shop and shep nachas that your dress is bringing in money for a charity.

Then there's option 7 for old gowns that you nevertheless can't bear to give to the kiddies to play with: Cut off any good parts that are not stained or torn and find a way to either incorporate them into a new custom-made gown, e.g. decorative panels on the sleeves, bodice or skirt, or use the entire bodice if only the skirt is stained, or use them to make a bridal accessory such as a bag for gift envelopes,a photo album album cover, a pillow or a jewelry roll. If the skirt has layers of tulle, chiffon or illusion, you may be able to use pieces of it to fashion a veil. Beaded and sequinned appliques, if they haven't tarnished, may be used to trim a hat.

amother

Royalblue

Fri, Nov 20 2020, 1:29 pm

My mother had a very fancy hat covered with beads and sequins that she wore to weddings. When the hat went out of style, I took off all the sparkly applique patches and used them over and over to embellish Purim costumes. I could have used them to decorate a blouse or suit but my needle skills, while adequate for workaday jobs, are not good enough to do something like this without looking painfully amateurish.