Your vows have been taken, the bouquet has been tossed and the cake has been cut (and eaten!). Your wedding was picture perfect (no, really, you look at your perfect pictures every day) but your dress is definitely NOT feeling the love. It's been trapped in a garment bag ever since that fairytale day and you're left feeling ill prepared for the question that plagues brides everywhere: “What do you do with your beautiful gown AFTER the wedding?” Save it for your daughter? Sell it?? Is it weird to wear it around the house??? Well, here are some tips and advice for your post-wedding dress plan…

photo credit :: Marcia Campbell

1. Preserve It
So you can’t bear to part with your beautiful (and expensive) gown. Preserve it in its full glory and get it professionally cleaned and preserved to protect it from the elements. Locally owned and operated business, Clean Living Hakuyosha Dry Cleaning has been featured in “Best of the Best” and “Best of Honolulu” and uses a highly advanced cleaning system called “sanitone”…because your gown deserves only the BEST!
TWC TIP: Consider different and unique ways to “preserve” your wedding dress. Let the memories of your dress live on in completely new lives. For example, you can turn a bit of the satin into trim for a baby blanket as your new family grows. And who says you can’t wear it again? Shorten the skirt and dye it a sassy color for a perfect party dress – even though no party will ever top your wedding!

2. Donate It
Donating your dress is an opportunity to give back to your community or an organization of your choice, and a great way to promote living GREEN (calling all eco-chic brides out there). There are many non-profit organizations both locally and nationally that resell dress donations and use the proceeds to benefit numerous causes including the blind, the disabled and children. One organization, Making Memories, a Breast Cancer Foundation even hosts a “Brides Against Breast Cancer, Nationwide Tour of Gowns”.
TWC TIP: Remember to ask for a receipt, all of your wedding donations are tax deductible… yippee! If you are sending your gown to a national organization, also include a self-addressed stamp envelope to get your receipt.  

3. Consign It
Ever since your wedding, your hearts have been filled to the brim with love…but unfortunately your post-wedding wallets aren’t feeling so abundant. We know that weddings can cost a pretty penny so consignment is an awesome option to make back a little of what your wedding cost. The Bridal Boutique (www.bridalboutiquehonolulu.com) offers consignment options that include a mutual agreement on selling price and a specialized bridal cliental. As any consignment, your dress must be cleaned prior to selling, The Bridal Boutique’s owners, Cecilia and Joyce also offer a 10% discount on cleaning services. 
TWC TIP: If you are nervous about consigning your dress, remember that if your dress does not sell in the first three months (90 days), you have the option of pulling it back. So think about it this way: if it DOES sell in those 90 days, you’ll have that much more to put towards the house, honeymoon, or (shh) shopping, and if it DOESN’T sell, then it’s fate that brought it back to you! 

4. Capture It
The best thing about post-wedding shoots and Trash the Dress sessions is that your wedding doesn’t have to end when you (finally) leave the ballroom, estate, or restaurant. By booking a post-wedding shoot, you’ll be able to reignite the feelings of euphoria that your gorgeous gown sparks and capture it on film or video. Videographer, Joshua Fair from Fisheye Studios (www.fisheyestudios.com) believes so strongly in the post-wedding session that every package they offer includes a 2-hour post-bridal session. Fair insists these sessions allow couples to be in their “natural state of mind”, leaving behind all of the pressures and stress a wedding day can bring. When to do the post-wedding shoot is up to you, but the closer you schedule it after your wedding day the better.
TWC TIP: This is the best time to think OUTSIDE, and it can be WAY OUTSIDE, of the box. Fair has shot post-wedding sessions at abandoned warehouses, grassy fields, ice cream shops (eating rainbow shave ice in your wedding dress, anyone?), lighthouses, IN the ocean, and everywhere in between! Have fun with your shoot, play in your dress, (it can always be cleaned, please refer to the “Preserve it” section), and relive that wedding day bliss!  

Finally, go ahead and slip it on around the house… we won’t tell.