Wedding Blog

First I tried to rent my wedding dress, and then I looked for a used wedding dress. I was getting a little discouraged, and I began dreading the dress hunt. I had gone back to Minnesota for Christmas and it was the first time I had seen my family since our engagement. I wanted to have the experience of dress shopping with my mom, so we made an appointment at David’s Bridal for the day after Christmas.

I didn’t expect to find my dress there, but things like that usually happen when we least expect them. I tried on several dresses, and the third dress that I tried on was perfect. It was everything that I had imagined, and it fit me perfectly. I had found my dress—and it was about as un-ecofriendly as you can get. Instead, it was a brand-new, mass produced dress from a chain store. But, I really loved the dress and I didn’t think that I was going to have the patience to keep looking. So we bought it. I had found my dress!

[Source]

I won’t be posting any pictures of the dress until after the wedding. Mr. PN is a daily reader of Weddingbee, and we’ve both agreed that we don’t want to take any chances that he stumbles upon it (accidental or otherwise). In fact, he is so adamant about not seeing me in the gown before the wedding that he won’t even let me store it in the apartment. He is afraid that it will jump out of the closet and magically appear on my body. Luckily, my seamstress has graciously agreed to keep it in her studio until right before the wedding.

To give you an idea, it is somewhere between these two dresses:

[Dress #1, Dress #2]

I felt kind of guilty about not buying an eco-friendly dress. My compromise with myself was that I would donate the dress to charity immediately after the wedding. In fact, it won’t even make it back to NYC. The Monday after the wedding it will be shipped to Brides Against Breast Cancer.

Brides Against Breast Cancer does a national tour selling both new and used donated wedding dresses. The tour sells the dresses to raise money for the Making Memories Foundation, an organization dedicated to providing a spark of joy into the lives of women and men who are losing their battle against breast cancer. When I was looking for a used wedding dress, I checked into the Brides Against Breast Cancer Tour, but unfortunately it wasn’t coming to my area in time for my wedding. I am so excited that I will have the opportunity to donate to such a great cause!

I know that many people save their dresses, but I knew this wasn’t for me. I will have plenty of pictures of me in the dress, and that will be enough. Mrs. Tulip recently wrote a great post on donating wedding items, where she listed options for donating wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses. Organizations that accept bridesmaid dresses include The Princess Project, The Glass Slipper Project and DonateMyDress.

Would you (or did you) donate your wedding dress, or even your bridesmaid dresses?