THE wedding season has begun with gusto and so, for all you excited soon to be brides, here’s a Friday Five especially for you.

Here are five things you can do with your wedding dress, after the big day. Once you’ve laughed, cried, posed and danced in it and made ridiculously happy memories.

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Keep and cherish it

Ok, I’m starting with the obvious, but if like me you’re a sentimental gal at heart, my guess is that you’ll want to admire it forever. I’ve been married nearly five years and still occasionally get my dress out to look at it. *Sighs*

So do what women have done for centuries before us. Keep it, store it and cherish it for many more years to come.

Don’t leave it hanging in your wardrobe gathering dust though. Make sure you get it professionally dry cleaned and then store it away neatly in a specially designed wedding dress keepsake box complete with acid free tissue paper. This way you’ll keep the dust, dirt and moths at bay.

Alternatively, if you want to get creative and your dress is relatively slimline for a wedding frock, how about getting it beautifully framed? That way you’ll be able to hang it on a wall and swoon over it nostalgically every time you walk past.

Trash it

Fear not, I don’t mean it in a literal sense (unless you’re a recent divorcee perhaps). No, no, no. I mean ‘trash it, rock it, shoot it’ in a cool photographic way.

Wedding day images are all about romance, love and elegance so why not do you and your dress a favour and wear it again but with some edge.

Wear it with wellies (which is what I did), jump in a lake with it on, go swanning around a forest or just give it some ‘fashion’.

Make sure you’ve got a decent photographer to capture you rocking your wedding dress in all of it’s glory and then sit back and enjoy the pics.

Sell it

Wedding gowns can cost the earth so it makes sense, that if you don’t want to keep it or could do with some cash, that you should sell it.

If your dress is by a well known designer and is in excellent condition then you can make hundreds of pounds back on what you originally spent on it. Try eBay, your local newspaper or even a wedding dress shop. Many stores now sell pre-loved gowns which are growing in popularity thanks to savvy brides to be.

Pass it on

Make somebody’s day and pass your wedding dress onto a charity who will use your dress to help make the world a happier place.

Not only will you help a cash strapped bride to purchase their dream dress, you’ll also do some good. Think of it as a lovely legacy from your very special day.

Alternatively you could pass your dress on to a dear sister or friend or keep it for future generations, which is what I’ve chosen to do. I’m hoping that if Elsie ever decides to tie the knot one day, she may want to consider wearing or using my beautiful wedding dress.

Alter it

Can’t bear the thought of never wearing your wedding dress again? Then why not think about altering it? Go to an experienced seamstress or if you’re handy with the sewing machine, get your thinking cap on and think about how you can change it.

Besides altering the length, you could remove or add sleeves, change the neckline or even dye it! Wedding dresses can make beautiful evening gowns or funky prom-style frocks. So use your imagination and go wild.

You could even use the material from your wedding dress to create a beautiful christening gown for your first born that could become a cherished family heirloom. See, who says it can only be worn once?

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What are you planning to do with your wedding dress? Or what did you do? I’d love to hear your ideas!

Katie

*All images in this piece are from my wedding or ‘trash the dress’ shoot. They were taken by the incredibly talented Jane Hewitt. Check out her wonderful work here. x