What to do with my dress?

I would personally think it would need to be dry cleaned first.

It might be worth contacting the charity and seeing if they will accept dresses that are a little bit dirty. They can only say no.

I don't think you'd be able to sell it with mud on though.

I haven't worn mine yet 2.5 weeks yo go. The first one I bought second hand and didn't love I donated to wedding wishing well.com who arrange weddings for terminally I'll people. You contact them and send pics and if they think they can use it they send you a courier label and someone collects it.

I know some charity shops take them and hopefully sell them but I liked the idea of someone using it who loved it.

I would definatly not buy a dirty dress whether second hand or not as I would want to know it isn't stained. Not many sell second hand as you get good deals in a sample sale but gumtree may be a good place to list it if you do want to sell

Have you looked into the price of the dry cleaning? I bought my dress in a sample sale and they routinely add on cost of dry-cleaning the sample dresses which was £80. Not too bad I should think you can sell it for significantly more then that? I also did look at 2nd hand dresses and would not have bought one which had not been dry cleaned. There were some who said it had not been dry cleaned yet but if sale was agreed then they would arrange it before money exchanged hands, just as a way to ensure they dont clean it without knowing they will get some money form the dress. Though as said above the only thing with that is that the buyer does not know if the stains will come out satisfactorily.

I really want to trash my first wedding dress. Not because I'm no longer married to my ex but because I really love seeing photos of wedding dresses in unique and different ways. Whether that's in the sea, in a mudpit or torn to shreds somehow. Just love seeing them in places/situations they shouldn't be in!

OMG! I was thinking of putting up the same post! I cleaned mine but the bottom will never be the same again. It cost £70 and now the dress is in a suitcase. Don't know if I'm ready to sell. Don't want it just to end up in loft going yellow. Don't want to trash it & it's too bridal to dye it & alter it .... What to do ...

For another charity idea how about Cherished Gowns For Angel Babies? They turn your dress into gowns for stillborn babies to be laid to rest. I think they send you pictures of the little gowns they make too so you know exactly what has happened to your dress.

I haven't worn my dress yet but I'm considering this as I think it's a great cause.

I saw an endorsement for cherished gowns a few days ago but they're not currently taking in new dresses. You can add yourself to a waiting list though.

I'm not married yet so not sure how I will feel about it after we the wedding obviously. I thought about saving it and then making a christening gown out of it if we ever have children.

I put a similar post up just after my wedding and someone directed me to a lady on Facebook who makes beautiful teddy bears out of them. Bowman Bears is the page, they really do look lovely. I've been meaning to contact them now Christmas is out of the way as I really wanted to keep "some" of the dress, but I didn't want it cluttering up the house, or the hassle of cleaning and selling it, but couldn't bring myself to throw it out either.

Thanks for all your replies. I had seen the charity for still born gowns and thought it was a lovely idea, but after speaking with a few people who have sadly been in that situation they have confirmed what I suspected that they would prefer them to be buried in their own clothes.

I think the teddy bears are a great idea, although a little pricey for me at the moment.

I have decided it will become cushions, my Mum is going to help me although we might pay someone professional for the stitching as we do not have access to a sewing machine. There will be plenty of material so we might make one for my Mum too.

Nice little project for us to work on together and will hopefully give us nice keepsakes we can keep forever.