Runaway Brides, Jilting Grooms and Wedding Dresses

Cold feet – these are two simple words that can mean plenty of things beyond their dictionary meanings. For a podiatrist, cold feet are cold sensations to the feet owing to poor circulation, nervous system disorders and low thyroid condition. For engaged couples, cold feet is trouble brewing on the horizon of marital bliss even before you can enter the wedded state. In short order, brides can say goodbye to their wedding dresses. Sad but true.Just imagine being the runaway bride leaving your groom at the altar, waiting for nothing while the guests are left to wonder and wander. On the other side of the wedding jitters fence, imagine being the jilted bride waiting for your groom to come to his own wedding. (“Where could he have gone to this time?” you ask. You should have known that when he missed his final rehearsal dinner by becoming dead drunk, he probably will not attend your wedding. But that is digressing)

If you have been on both sides of the fence or you know many people who have been there and done that, here are perfectly logical suggestions to dispose of those dresses, maybe even make a few bucks along the way.

Sell On Auction Sites

Just as there are many jilted and jilting brides, there are also enchanted brides. You can sell wedding dresses through online auction sites like eBay, UBid Online Auctions, Amazon and Yahoo! Auctions where you can be as honest as you want or you can be as sly as you need to be. If you cannot let the whole world know of your dirty deed, you can always go to the thrift stores and sell your wedding dress for a discount.

Of course, you cannot expect to sell your wedding dress for its original value! Still, it certainly beats having it inside your closet and reminding you of your brush with disaster and of your tragedy, whatever is the case.

Donate to Charities

You might not make a buck but you can change somebody else’s luck with your donation of wedding frock. (Not yours only, of course. You can include your friends’ bridesmaid and bridal ensembles, too. That is, if they want to.)

For example, you can give your wedding dress to the Brides Against Breast Cancer/Making Memories Foundation. You will be contributing to a worthy cause from an unworthy affair, which is a good way as any to dispose of your wedding dress.

Recycle It into Something Else

If you are into arts and crafts, then you can always recycle, re-sew and reincarnate wedding dresses. After all, each and every part of your bridal ensemble can be put to good use from the cloth to the embroidery. You can turn it into pillowcases, doll dresses, handkerchiefs, photo album cover, small handbags, tablecloths and napkins, and even a shawl. Indeed, why give away a perfectly good piece of expensive cloth when you can use it yourself sans the fanfare?

Now, supposing you go the route of Maggie Carpenter (the title character of the movie “Runaway Bride”), you know what to do with all your wedding dresses to make it worth your while. Of course, you can always stomp on them, tear them to shreds, burn them to hell and throw them down a cliff never to be seen again, but then what good would that be?