Prevent Mosquito Bites

After her lover called the wedding off in 2004, Lauren Bailey, 28, of Cardiff, UK made her wedding dress into a mosquito net to take backpacking in India. Just don't put the cart before the horse. In Uganda a campaign to stop prospective brides using malaria nets as wedding dresses appears to be having an effect

When I got married we pulled down our bed net and gave it to the village tailor," recalled 55-year-old Atyanga Kolofrida."He made the gown in a few minutes. The tailor charged only 10,000 Ugandan shillings (US$5). "We did this because we could not afford to sell our only cow to get the money to hire a gown from Tororo town." But addressing his congregation at the St Jude's Catholic Church, Father Thomas Outa says: "It's useless to come here to tie the knot and to die minutes later in your home because of malaria."

Donate Your Dress

Don't ever plan to get married again (not to the same guy anyway)? Don't want to bother with cleaning those stains out. A charitable organization called Making Memories accepts gown, veil, and slip donations. Just pack your items in a box and send them to the address listed at www.makingmemories.org. The foundation asks that you include a $10 check to pay for the expense of preparing your wedding gown for sale. Be sure to include a self-addressed stamped envelope inside your package so that Making Memories can return a tax-deductible receipt for you. Making Memories hosts a Brides Against Breast Cancer, Nationwide Tour of Gowns, and the donations it receives are used to grant final wishes for men and women suffering from terminal breast cancer.

Ask not what your fabric can do for you, but what you can do for your fabric.

There are many folks who are passionate about making their wedding dress a part of their lives forever. Here is one who was brought to tears by her feelings about quilts - from Quilts by Cindy. "Dearest Cindy, Tears were brought to my eyes when I opened that box and saw the work you had done.!!! Oh My!!! FedEx arrived and when I saw my wedding dress box, I got all excited like a child at Christmas time. The Quilt is absolutely GORGEOUS!!!! It is magnificent, more awesome then I had ever imagined !!!! The pillow and the bag are gorgeous. Thank you so much, I can not express my pure joy that I feel about your work. It is so amazing. can not wait to display it in my room. This means so much to me, you have no idea. Thank you for giving me some pieces of my dress as well. Really, thank you so much Cindy....I really, really am glad that I discovered you and you were willing to do this project for me. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! Your Friend, Lynne 06.13.06"

You Dog!

We are not fans of making dogs wear people clothes. It is cruel, inhumane and not very funny. But if your bitch finds that special stud and wants to make a life-long commitment, it is only fitting that she dress appropriately. If your wedding dress was beautiful enough for your special day, why not share it with your pooch.

Fix Your Car

Come on. Seriously. There is nothing else you can think of wearing while fixing the car other than your wedding dress?! At least it will be easy to tell if there is an oil leak.

Invent The Electric Motor With Your Husband

Emily Davenport's wedding dress was responsible for the electric motor. In the spring of 1833 her husband Thomas Davenport heard some curious news that changed his life (and her gown). The momentous news that roused the blacksmith's curiosity was that the Penfield and Hammond Iron Works was using a new method for separating crushed ore using a magnet developed by Joseph Henry Thomas Davenport had no prior knowledge of discoveries in magnetism and electricity when this new process stimulated his interest. With her husband Thomas Davenport and his colleague Orange Smalley, Emily Davenport invented the electric motor and electric locomotive circa 1834. She cut up her wedding dress into strips of silk to insulate the wire windings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Daven

There Is Going To Be A Hanging

Instead of hanging your dress in your closet, or in the garage, make it the masterpiece of the living room. With a frame from GiftStumped you can relive the big day, everyday.

Go Swimming

Back in the early 20th century, women wore bathing suits that looked a lot like wedding dresses. Now they are doing it again.

A Wedding Dress is the Best Pillow

Benjamin Franklin said, "Fatigue is the best pillow". We disagree... clearly your multi-thousand dollar wedding dress would make a much better pillow. But we weren't the first to come up with this brilliant fashion item to household accessory transformation. Starting at $300, www.myweddinggownpillows.com will create your special headrest in what sounds like a surgical environment - "completely separate from all other gowns at all times." If you want a less sterile experience there are dozens of other craftspeople available online who can help you out.

Going once, going twice... SOLD!

From the time you were a little girl you have been dreaming about your wedding. Since your engagement a year ago you have spent more hours planning it than you would need for a commercial airline license. It took you months to find the perfect dress. Now its time to auction it off to the highest bidder on Ebay. At last count, there were 36,747 dresses and accessories available.

Stage a "Worst Best Man Ever" Wedding Video

It is a warm Saturday afternoon weeks after your wedding. Some friends are over hanging out by the pool. Your minister happens to be there too. You have everything you need to make an overnight Youtube sensation... now you just need to find that old wedding dress.

Runaway Bride...

21 minutes and 30 seconds. That is how long it took one of the participants in the Cincinnati 5k Run and Walk to finish the race in her wedding dress (and heels?). We have long felt that hi-tech running garb is out of style and frankly not as comfortable as silk and chiffon. Just make sure you wear deodorant, sweat stains are a real bear to get out!

Trash Your Dress

We aren't sure what emotions drive a bride to destroy her wedding dress after the wedding. But to have the whole affair photographed.. well, that is almost like wedding dress voyeurism. TTD ("trash the dress"). This article from the New York Times is a great description -

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/fashion/weddings/10trash.html?_r=1
June 10, 2007
Is This Any Way to Treat Vera Wang?
By CAREN CHESLER

FORGET throwing your wedding dress into a plastic bag and storing it in the attic. Enter the Trash the Dress photo session, in which the bride, post-wedding, jumps back into her gown and puts it through its paces — swimming in it, wearing it on horseback, even burning it — all while her photographer clicks away.

Brides have long had an admittedly complicated relationship with their wedding gowns, which they struggle to find, spend a small fortune on, and sweat over making fit properly — all for a fabric confection that is typically worn once.

Christa DiPaulo Becker, 31, said that sitting in 2005 for her post-wedding Trash the Dress shoot with John Michael Cooper, the Las Vegas wedding photographer credited with starting the trend, seemed appropriate because she was feeling pretty “antiwedding” after the whole affair. Besides, she had no plans to wear it ever again despite the $2,500 cost of the gown. So submerging it in a mossy spring in Nevada (above) was no loss, she said.

Her only reservation? “The water was hypothermia cold.”

The photo trend in fact began with a yawn. Mr. Cooper, 41, said he was bored with the same old wedding photos, and so he persuaded several of his clients to pose after their weddings in grungy offbeat settings. “In fashion photography, they often put really pretty people in very ugly places,” he said. “I’m applying that technique to weddings.”

Interest in these photos has even led to the creation of a Web site, trashthedress.com, which Mark Eric, a 35-year-old photographer from Alexandria, La., said he started to display his own Trash the Dress images.

So, what of the tradition of saving the dress, possibly to pass on? Ms. Becker said: “I felt a little nostalgic for a second, but then I thought it was so cool to have that photo. I’d rather have that than to look at a dress in a box that is perfectly preserved.”