Have a gone too far?

[Aggie_Ama]

My wedding dress has hung in my parents closet for nearly 4 years. It isn't preserved, it just hangs there in the garmet bag. A week ago, I listed it on Craigslist. The only thing I can think is, hmmm that will buy quite a bit of bike stuff.

Truth be told, I am sentimental but can't figure out why I would keep a big old dress like that. A woman already responding looking for a dress for her daughter. I remember how ridiculous the dresses were and how hopeless I felt trying to find one. I hope she can wear and enjoy it, it is a stunning dress.

Anyone else sold something others would think you are crazy for selling and been excited about the bike stuff it can buy?

[velogirl]

I sold my car! everyone thought I was crazy.

[Duck on Wheels]

Well .... in the past 4 years: How many times have you used that dress? How many times have you used your bike(s)? Now imagine that in another 20-30 years' time you have a daughter thinking of getting married. Some might think "Oh, how romantic if she uses my old wedding dress." But how likely is it that the dress fits? How likely is it that she has the same tastes as you had 2-3 decades earlier? Did you enjoy picking your own dress? Would you deny her that pleasure? Of course, by selling the dress you're denying a hypothetical daughter one hypothetical option, but she could always use one of your wedding pictures and have a copy made to fit. So ... yeah, if you want to hang on to that dress another 100 years until it has unique cultural value as an antique, I'm sure the great-grandkids will thank you for the memories. Or, you can enjoy more bike stuff now and decide that the wedding pictures are enough as memories of the dress.

Of course, it's easy for me to say. I wore maternity pants and a Guatemalan embroidered blouse (lovely blouse, but later torn climbing in a window once when I'd locked myself out). :D So don't rely on my old-lady wisdom. Trust your own instincts; do what feels right for you.

[GLC1968]

My wedding dress has hung in my parents closet for nearly 4 years. It isn't preserved, it just hangs there in the garmet bag.

Mine too...but in MY guest closet. I need to get off my duff and do something about it! I like your thinking though...the idea of more $$ to buy bike stuff is a BIG incentive. Hell, for what I paid for that sucker, I could have bought one hell of a sweet bike. My how priorities change! :p

[7rider]

My wedding dress has hung in my parents closet for nearly 4 years. It isn't preserved, it just hangs there in the garmet bag. A week ago, I listed it on Craigslist. The only thing I can think is, hmmm that will buy quite a bit of bike stuff.


Just curious....did you have it cleaned before you hung it? Sadly, mine is also sitting in the basement for nearly 4 years, too. I fully intended to get it cleaned....right after the wedding. Did I?? Uh....no. :o Time gets away from you, ya know??

I'm in a similar situation...got this dress....don't know what to do with it. I'll never wear it again (it had a fancy French bustle made, which is lower so I wouldn't have such a BFA when I brought up the somewhat small train, and the seamstress labelled everything - in pencil - that would probably wash out and I"ll never figure out the bustle again). I have no daughter who would wear it. So why do I keep it around????

[Pedal Wench]

I just heard about this: http://www.makingmemories.org/brides_against_breast_cancer.html

It's a company that sells used wedding dresses and gives the proceeds to breast cancer research. How can you go wrong with that?

[Denise223]

Hi Everyone:

Originally posted by Aggie_Ama:

Anyone else sold something others would think you are crazy for selling and been excited about the bike stuff it can buy?

I have 3 beautiful guitars. One is electric - a '88 Gibson ES-335 (my avatar). My 335 has been signed by many of my "guitar/musician heroes" over the years. I don't want to part with this guitar, at least not yet.

The other two are acoustics. One is a '92 custom Lowden S-25 (made in Northern Ireland). The other is a '97 LTD edition Taylor GA-KC. Taylor made 100 of these LTD edition guitars - I have #33. These guitars, to me, are like beautiful, precious pieces of furniture.

At present, they're just sitting in their cases in the closet:( . They deserve to be played every day. The Lowden sounds very warm & mellow. The Taylor is very bright sounding. I really want them to be enjoyed & appreciated.

I have lots of reasons for wanting to sell my acoustics. I haven't played in awhile.....my wrists are fused & I can't play with the speed and dexterity I once did.....but, when I start thinking of putting them on ebay to sell, I start saying to myself, "I'm feeling the urge to play again.....":rolleyes: .

With the money, I could pay off some of my bills and put the rest in savings.
I'm not ready to buy another bike just yet. Of course, if that time comes, the cash would be there.
It's interesting......I "say" I'm not ready to buy another bike yet....but, I'm ALWAYS checking out bike sites every day, (Bianchi, Surly, Trek, Specialized, Lemond, Terry, etc.., etc....)
AND, when someone here at TE purchases a new bike, I think to myself...."hmmm.. that would be really nice....;) , perhaps one day..."

It wouldn't hurt to list my guitars on ebay and see what happens... right??

My wedding dress (1983-first marriage) was stored in my brother's basement. It was ruined when the basement flooded. (I spent waaaayyyyyy too much on that gown).

Have a great day everyone!

Peace & Love,
Denise

[mimitabby]

Interesting theme here.
Stuff. We love our stuff. but we only have so much room... and finances.
When we die we leave it all behind, so why wait, maybe someone else can use it?
Stuff like dresses that no one will wear..> I have the bed covers that my great grandmother made for my grandmother's wedding. What the heck can I do with it? she treasured it all her life and gave it to me. It's a sheet and a long thing that covers the pillows. We've never used it. It just takes up space. So get rid of that dress BEFORE it passes to your children who will not care about it but feel guilty because it was yourss...

Guitars. Ah, if you want to play guitar again, Denise, there are lovely new guitars on the market! sell those two while they are still in nice condition!

extra bikes? I want to sell one of mine one of these days too!

[Offthegrid]

My grandmother made her wedding dress, and I have this romantic idea that I'd wear her dress when I get married. But it's a small size so I doubt I'd ever be able to fit into it. :( Plus it has sweat stains under the arms so it'd need to be repaired. Oh, and there's this little problem that I haven't asked her if I could use it.

You have lots of pictures of you wearing it I bet, so if I were in your shoes I'd likely say goodbye to it also.

[Eden]

My husband (not having a wedding dress to sell :p - actually neither do I, we saved that money upfront by eloping...) sold a whole bunch of musical equipment to buy his bikes when he decided to take up bike racing. He knew he would only have time for one all encompassing hobby and the bike racing was definitely the healthier option. I have several pieces of camera equipment that I've sworn to put up on ebay to help pay for the race bike I bought last summer - now I just have to do it...

As for selling the wedding dress - Do it!! You'll never wear it again - and who knows what styles will be like later - I would've never wanted to wear a dress from the 70's when my parents were married, so why shouldn't it make as many people happy in the here and now as possible. Better that than ending up in a thrift store in 30 years.

[Ninabike]

Denise . . . guitars, you say? I spend an equal amount of time on line between bike sites and guitar sites. Just think of the bike stuff I could buy if I sold a few guitars - I have Taylors - 810ce, 814ce, NS72ce, T5 (my latest - it really replaces all others), also a Yamaha 12-string and a bass (not to mention several amps. mixers, pedals, all kinds of effects and loops boxes, portable studio digital recorders, mikes, etc. - I play mostly church gigs). Right now a friend is borrowing my NS72 and my 12-string. When I look on eBay, there is so much of this stuff out there, the prices are not good for sellers of these items. Didn't mean to hijack this thread - wern't we talking about wedding dresses? I still have mine in the closet after 32 years!! It would probably fall apart if I tried to take it out!!

[lauraelmore1033]

I was married when I was 19, during the ten minutes or so when I was "thin" and pretty. The dress was made by my grandmother and she used antique lace (100 years old, she claimed) and antique ivory buttons and ivory colored satin (since I'd been a naughty girl and "had" to get married I was only entitled to "off-white"...) with a victorian neckline. It was beautiful and unique and my mother had it cleaned and put in an archival storage thingie. It then spent twenty years taking up too much space in the front hall closet. My children piled junk on top of it, ripped the bag and the 100 year old lace by throwing their skates and baseball bats on top of it. It is pathetic and bedraggled and a size I could never hope to fit into again even if my life depended on it. I feel only guilt every time I look at it. I wish I'd sold it way back when and let it go to a better home...

[Bikingmomof3]

I just heard about this: http://www.makingmemories.org/brides_against_breast_cancer.html

It's a company that sells used wedding dresses and gives the proceeds to breast cancer research. How can you go wrong with that?

Pedal Wench-this is where I plan to donate my wedding dress and shoes. I had the professionally cleaned and preserved and now I am happy to see that I will be able to donate the dress and shoes for an excellent cause. :)

[roadfix]

Great suggestions!......I have 4 classical guitars which I no longer play. I just might put them on craigslist. I can use the proceeds to purchase parts for my next build....:D

[suzieqtwa]

My first marriage was a nightmare. The only thing good that came from it was my daughter. :) Anyway, I took my wedding dress to the dry cleaners ,and never picked it up. It reminded me of the crappy marriage I had ,and I didn't like the dress anyway. Guess I should have sold it ,but that was 24 years ago. My daughter wouldn't have wore it anyway.

[emily_in_nc]

I need to check into the Making Memories site. My wedding dress was not a "real" wedding dress but a white prom dress that my mom modified somewhat. It is pretty, but it's just made of a synthetic nylon/poly fabric w/lace, not an expensive, fine dress like most of you have. I think it cost only about $125 originally, but Mom dolled it up, adding some things to it, and it was perfect for my small, simple, morning, rose garden wedding at the age of 24. I wonder if they will take it or if they only want the very expensive satin wedding gowns that most women wear. It's hanging in a bag in the closet, and I don't have any children. I hate for it just to gather dust. It might have some good luck associated with it as I've been married nearly 22 years now!

If they won't take it, I'll probably just donate to a local charity.

Emily

[mimitabby]

they'll take it! Someone might think it's perfect!

[mimitabby]

I was married when I was 19, during the ten minutes or so when I was "thin" and pretty. The dress was made by my grandmother and she used antique lace (100 years old, she claimed) and antique ivory buttons and ivory colored satin (since I'd been a naughty girl and "had" to get married I was only entitled to "off-white"...) with a victorian neckline. It was beautiful and unique and my mother had it cleaned and put in an archival storage thingie. It then spent twenty years taking up too much space in the front hall closet. My children piled junk on top of it, ripped the bag and the 100 year old lace by throwing their skates and baseball bats on top of it. It is pathetic and bedraggled and a size I could never hope to fit into again even if my life depended on it. I feel only guilt every time I look at it. I wish I'd sold it way back when and let it go to a better home...
wow, offwhite because you weren't a virgin! people still do that!!!
outrageous! I wore a red long skirt and a white blouse because i wanted to!
and right, both pieces were polyester, who'd want that now?!?

[Aggie_Ama]

I am glad people here don't think I am crazy! I don't feel bad about selling my gown. It is gorgeous and I plan on selling it at 1/3 of its new price. We were on a fairly modest budget and the only reason I got this dress was my Pawpaw bought it for me. Sadly, he died before my wedding. I hope someone else can purchase it for a good price (the dress is still available at full cost in many shops) and have a beautiful day.

I think Pawpaw would get a kick out of me riding all the time. He would think I was crazy, but love the stories. So in my mind his purchase will continue to bring me joy if I sell it and get bike stuff.

On the idea of maybe having a daughter, that is probably a silly reason to keep it. I hope she won't be short and squatty like I was when we got married. I was 5'2" and 170. My husband is 6'2" and thin as a rail. I imagine a daughter will at least be taller than me! And I hope if we have a kid to have a boy!:D Plus I would have never worn my mother's gown, it was so dated.

[mimitabby]

Amanda; height genetics:

with a short mom and a tall dad you could get tall girls, tall boys, short girls, short boys and lots of blends in the middle!

GOOD LUCK, it's a crap shoot!

[Aggie_Ama]

Amanda; height genetics:

with a short mom and a tall dad you could get tall girls, tall boys, short girls, short boys and lots of blends in the middle!

GOOD LUCK, it's a crap shoot!

My college roommate is a doctor and explained this to me as well. I choose to ignore it. ;) I am the shortest adult member of both of our families, I hope to stay that way. Being so short can be a pain.

Even if a hypothetical daughter is short, the dress will still be dated. And I forgot to mention 1/5 of our budget was a photographer. She ended up wiht 650+ shots, I have plenty to remember the dress.

[Aint Doody]

When my wedding dress was about 10 years old, I gave it to my sister who cut it up and used it in clothing for her daughters. She was really into smocking and lace and stuff at the time.

[lauraelmore1033]

wow, offwhite because you weren't a virgin! people still do that!!!
outrageous! I wore a red long skirt and a white blouse because i wanted to!
and right, both pieces were polyester, who'd want that now?!?

well, they did in small-town Indiana when I was growing up. It was actually my brothers who insisted I shouldn't wear white, which is funny since one of them shacked up with his girlfriend before marrying her and the other got his girlfriend pregnant (and SHE wore a dress so white it was positively fluorescent!).

[crazybikinchic]

I am coming up on my 10 year anniversary. I have been considering selling my gown. I actually bought it at a resale shop, so I only paid about $350 for it, but it is hanging in my mother's closet taking up space. I do not have a daughter to pass it on to and even if I did, she would deserve her own gown with her own personallity.

[Pedal Wench]

I just heard about the Making Memories site. So, when my parent's get back into town, the gown from my first is going there - it's been hanging in their house for 19 years.
I took great pleasure in throwing my second wedding dress in the trash (it was just a white sundress, but it still felt great - wouldn't want to pass on the bad karma!)

[Offthegrid]

My mom's wedding gown was a mini skirt!! Apparently that was the rage. I wore the dress for Halloween in the third grade. How pathetically sad is that.

[Duck on Wheels]

Amanda; height genetics:

with a short mom and a tall dad you could get tall girls, tall boys, short girls, short boys and lots of blends in the middle!

GOOD LUCK, it's a crap shoot!

Yep. Dad was 5'11" (before prostate cancer made swiss cheese out of his bones), Mom was and still is about 5'2". Older bro' is, I think 5'6" (generously estimated), I'm the tall one at 5'9" and Trek420 is (as she says) the scale model -- Mom's height. Randomly assorted heights according to the roll of the DNA dice. But put us in identical wigs and we could almost look like triplets otherwise. :D

[LadyinWhite]

Hi everyone, I'm T - totally new to TE forums. I didn't know it existed til today and I'm genuinely psyched to find it. I just wanted to post that I love this thread and while I haven't sold my wedding gown yet (it's 22 years old) I'm sitting here taking a mental inventory of all my "stuff" thinking, hmmm.. what can I sell so I can buy more bike stuff. This after I just picked up two new shebeest cycloskorts today!! LOL

[Trekhawk]

Interesting theme here.
Stuff. We love our stuff. but we only have so much room... and finances.
When we die we leave it all behind, so why wait, maybe someone else can use it?
Stuff like dresses that no one will wear..> I have the bed covers that my great grandmother made for my grandmother's wedding. What the heck can I do with it? she treasured it all her life and gave it to me. It's a sheet and a long thing that covers the pillows. We've never used it. It just takes up space. So get rid of that dress BEFORE it passes to your children who will not care about it but feel guilty because it was yourss...

Guitars. Ah, if you want to play guitar again, Denise, there are lovely new guitars on the market! sell those two while they are still in nice condition!

extra bikes? I want to sell one of mine one of these days too!

Oooh Mimi did you know that antique linen costs a fortune if its in good condition. I actually collect antique linen (nothing like sleeping on beautiful linen sheets in summer). If you really dont want to keep it check out some antique linen dealers and you might get yourself a nice little bundle of dollars to spend on your bike.:)

[mimitabby]

Oooh Mimi did you know that antique linen costs a fortune if its in good condition. I actually collect antique linen (nothing like sleeping on beautiful linen sheets in summer). If you really dont want to keep it check out some antique linen dealers and you might get yourself a nice little bundle of dollars to spend on your bike.:)

antique linen DEALERS? there's such a thing?

[Trekhawk]

antique linen DEALERS? there's such a thing?

Yep sure is.

Here is a link to one but stacks exist

http://www.antiquelinen.com/

[annie]

My wedding dress was so 70's!!! Empire waist, huge bell sleeves.
Oh so dated! :D Plus starting to slightly yellow from age and neglect. No daughters for me to pass it on to. So....... this past Halloween, it morphed into a Fallen Angel Dress. Fit just right, with a little help in the boob arena (after 4 kids). Added some angel wings, a halo, and distressed make-up. Perfect. Great costume. Better than letting it sit and rot away in the closet. No regrets. Just happy it was useful again. :D

annie