To preserve, or not to preserve

So you've already spent hours and tons of money in getting your dream dress. Then once it comes in you have to spend another couple hundred on getting it altered to fit you perfect. This leaves the wedding industry scratching its head, once you are done with all that and are ready to wear the dress how can they get more money from you?

Oh, wait. I know, gown preservation!

So, let me get this straight. They take your dress that you just peeled out of, clean it, add in some paper and then stick it in a box so you can shove it under your bed and pull it out whenever you want to wave at the little man in the box.

I think I'm still missing something here. It's a dress you'll never wear again, and due to ever changing fashions, I kinda doubt anyone else will ever wear again. My mother's dress was the perfect early 80's dress and that one wasn't gonna happen. I'm sure by the time I have kids there'll be some weird fashion trend so my boring ol V neck dress will just seem weird.

So I was quite excited to see that there is a place you can donate your old wedding gown to. It's called Brides against Breast Cancer. And they will take your dress, clean it themselves, and then put it in a trunk show for other brides to buy and donate the money to breast cancer research. As my grandmother died from breast cancer, this was a very easy decision to make.

You can also donate your dress or a prom dress to a company that will make burial clothes for babies that have passed on. Or if you have some old bridesmaid and prom dresses just taking up space you can also donate them to various companies that will get the dress to people who couldn't afford one.

If it bothers anyone else in your family that you won't have your wedding gown hiding under your bed for the rest of your life, you can just tell them that you're recycling or it's a good tax ride off. For me it was an easy decision, and for those of you who are hesitant to spend $200 to have your gown preserved maybe you can look into sharing it to make someone elses day.

R-E-C-Y-C-L-E, Recycle

As any good child of the 90's knows, we were all mercilessly taught the three R's of that little green triangle. I think I may have gotten that speech more often than the "never eat your Halloween candy before an adult checks it" and "if you touch it, it'll fall off." What a wonderland childhood was.

Well as the new it color is green, I figured there is probably something I should do with all those bridal magazines and planners that I have somehow acquired since getting engaged. From people giving them to me as presents, somehow getting on a mailing list and getting one free, and a small gnome that gives them out each time you pass the tree I have a pile that threatens to fall in on itself and create a black hole.

My first thought was to go back to my old Girl Scout days (where we didn't get to go camping, build fires, or learn how to build a hatchet) and make myself a magazine christmas tree. But halfway through of folding one up I realized that I am no longer allowed to play, I mean use, spray paint without adult supervision.

So I was quite excited and happy to find out that a friend of a friend had just gotten engaged and she'd love some planning info. I stopped stuffing the magazine pages into the walls for more insulation and loaded them all into a bag to give to my friend of a friend.

Hopefully she can find a good use for them (aside from looking at pictures of dresses that only a model could wear or afford, full coverage of "we could have gotten a house" weddings, and the one kinda helpful article in each one) as for me, I'm moving onto cutting up milk cartons and turning them into biospheres for some fish.

What all are you doing with all your planning stuff once you don't need it anymore?