Ideas For Where To Donate Wedding Dress {And Other Ways To Declutter Your Bridal Gown}
Here are ideas for where to donate your wedding dress, plus other ways to declutter your bridal gown if you decide to get it out of your closet.
A wedding dress is something you usually wear just once. It also usually costs a lot of money for that one wear, and it has a lot of memories associated with it.
Bridal gowns also typically take up a lot of storage room inside a closet, and so some people choose (for a variety of reasons) to get rid of the dress when decluttering their closet.
Many Declutter 365 participants confront this decision while working through the declutter dresses and formal wear mission that's here on the site.
If you decide, as part of that mission or for any other reason, that you want to get rid of your wedding gown this article will provide you with lots of ideas and ways to part with it.
There Is No One Right Decision About Whether To Keep Or Get Rid Of Your Wedding Gown
Before we get into the heart of the article though, I do want to acknowledge that even discussing whether to declutter your wedding dress can be a touchy subject for some people.
There's a lot of emotion caught up in wedding gowns. For some that emotion is positive, and for others it is negative.
These emotions are often less about the dress itself than about the marriage (whether good or bad) and the memories that the gown represents.
There is nothing wrong with choosing to keep your wedding dress and storing it. There is equally nothing wrong with donating or using it for a keepsake item. The choice is yours, and yours alone. Do what feels right to you.
If you decide to keep the dress make sure you're storing it properly. You can check out my general tips for clothes storage here for ideas of where and how to store this keepsake and sentimental item.
Ideas For Where To Donate Your Wedding Dress
If you do decide to get rid of your wedding gown there are lots of different ways to get it out of your home. One of the most popular ways is wedding dress donation.
Here are some places you could donate your gown:
1. Donate to a local theater group. When the group does plays that include a wedding these dresses can help immensely.
2. Donate to a charity to give your wedding dress to somone else for use, or will re-sell it to give the profits to a charitable cause.
- Brides Across America - You can support the troops through this organization by donating a dress for use by a member of the military or their soon to be spouse. Your donation is tax deductible, and they typically accept dresses only five years old, or less, although you can contact them to see if they'll take a more "vintage" gown. Check the link for more details.
- The Brides Project - Support those diagnosed with cancer by donating your wedding dress. The dress must be from the last five years. You can get more details at the link.
- The Bridal Garden - This organization takes wedding dress donations to help benefit education for New York City’s disadvantaged children, and the donations are tax deductible. There are some requirements for what types of gowns they'll accept, including that the gown is in fairly clean, sellable condition, and was purchased within the last five years. You can click the link to get more information.
- Fairy Tale Brides On A Shoestring - This organization allows tax deductible donations of like-new dresses. In general they state that "Donated dresses must arrive clean. As a general rule, we accept dresses that are in new and like-new condition and are 5 years old and less." If the dress is not clean they charge a fee for cleaning, and also can discuss with you if they'd take a "vintage" gown. You can click the link for more details.
3. Angel Gown programs. There are many of these Angel Gown programs across the country where talented seamstresses and tailors volunteer their time to turn wedding dresses into gowns for babies who passed away at birth.
Since many of these groups are run by a small set of volunteers they don't always take new donations when they've got an excess of old bridal gowns. You have to watch when they re-open for new donations sometimes. Here are a few of the organizations, but you can always do an Internet search for even more of them.
- Angel Gowns For Dignity
- Allison's Angel Gowns
- Emma & Evan Foundation (works in conjunction with Amazing Grace Wedding Dress Rentals)
- Real Imprints Angel Gowns Project
- Marlene's Angel Babies Foundation
- NICU Helping Hands Angel Gown Program
Other Ways To Declutter Your Bridal Gown
If you choose not to donate the dress, here are other ways you can declutter your wedding gown and get it out of your home.
Repurpose The Dress Fabric Into A Different Keepsake
You could repurpose the dress fabric to make it something else. Some great ideas for this include:
- Christening or baptism gown (can be especially sentimental if used for the children or grandchildren of the married couple)
- Pillow, such as a ring bearer's pillow that a child can walk down the aisle at another wedding
- Bag or clutch, used for another wedding or formal occasion
- Christmas tree skirt
Sell Your Wedding Gown
You can also sell your wedding dress at a discounted rate to someone looking for a lower cost gown.
This works best when the gown is in good condition, clean, and relatively new so it's still in style.
There are tons of great places to sell your wedding dress and make a few dollars while giving someone else a great deal on a beautiful gown. You can easily post it on Craigslist, eBay, local swap shop or classified pages and even in your local newspaper or consignment shop.
You can get even more ideas for places to donate items when decluttering your home, plus do's and don'ts for what to donate to charities, in my donate clutter section of the site.
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Share Your Comments, Tips & Ideas
I would love to hear from you, sharing your thoughts, questions, or ideas about this topic, so leave me a comment below. I try to always respond back!