Deciding what to do with your wedding dress once the hype of big day is over is no mean feat, and having to make this decision post-divorce is even worse. It may be tempting to shove it in the nearest dumpster, douse it in gasoline, and watch the flames dance, but there are way better options—here are just a few of them.
- Say ‘Dye Dye Dye’ not ‘Bye Bye Bye’.  A friend of mine had her gorgeous, slinky silk gown professionally dyed and wore it as a guest at someone else’s wedding. She was super smart about it and had it initially dyed a light sandy color. She then took it back a few months later and had it transformed again by taking it to a shade of pinky-peach. The material is such good quality that it will be able to resist so many more dye processes than most other garments you’ll ever buy. Plus, you can style it out differently each time by varying accessories, makeup, and plus ones! No-one needs to ever know.
- Disney it up. If you have kids, you could take a leaf out of Angelina Jolie’s wedding guest book. She had her kids’ drawings transposed onto her dress for the big day itself. Perhaps coloring sections of the dress together or bedazzling it with diamantés and fabric glitter could really take the sting out of discussing your divorce or separation with your kids. You can never have enough rainy-day activities up your wedding dress sleeve. Plus, you’ll be well ahead of the game if you’re invited to a Disney princess ball!
- Trick and treat it, don’t beat it. The options for turning your dress into a haunting Halloween costume are countless. You could be a zombie bride, the Princess Bride, the Corpse Bride, the Bride of Frankenstein, Julia Roberts in Runaway Bride, Morticia Addams, or even… yourself!
- Put a Barbie-bright smile on the faces of some local children. Think of how happy you were to find “The One.”—I mean the dress, not the partner! Now imagine how many little Barbie doll dresses you could make out of it. There are so many underprivileged young kids who’d be ecstatic to receive such a decadent outfit for their favorite toy.
- Drop a paint-bomb. If you’re still suppressing a bit of post-separation rage or you’ve just bumped into your ex’s outwardly perfect current girlfriend, get involved in some art therapy. You can kill two birds with one paint bomb by revamping your dress whilst creating a piece of modern art. All you need is your dress, an outside space, your besties, some paint-filled balloons and a good right arm.
- Don’t linger over lingerie. There are plenty of specialist companies and local seamstresses who are experts in turning outerwear into classy, sexy and outright incredible underwear. If your wedding dress has great chest support, why not keep it and use it as a bra? Or, you could double your do-gooder points and have the underwear sent to an area such as West Africa where bra-fabricating facilities are scarce.
- Wear it on laundry day. Just totally style it out and wear your dress for a practical purpose like on laundry day or when you’ve unexpectedly lost a bunch of weight and nothing else fits you. If you haven’t seen the episode of FRIENDS when Rachel, Monica and Phoebe don their dresses, sip beer and watch TV, please just go and watch it. In fact, why not group text the girl squad and make an evening of it?
- Do absolutely nothing and don’t apologize. My own wedding dress was chosen for myself and I’ve probably never felt as beautiful or special since I last tried it on (for the record, the last time was not my wedding day). I chose the material I liked, the fit I wanted and the style that was the best representation of me. It never really had that much to do with my ex, to be honest. So why on earth shouldn’t I be able to keep it, re-wear it to death, and feel great?
