I have a wedding dress hanging in my closet. It was half paid for when I called off my wedding, the deposit was non-refundable, I loved it... So when the second half was due, I swooped into the bridal shop, paid, muttered something about rescheduling my first fitting, and took it home. And put it in my closet.

The only thing I've ever used it for was a camera test for my thesis film short in film school.

I've tried it on a couple of times. It's really fun to wear with an awesome, swishy, full organza bottom, which is why I love it. It's beautiful.

It fit - meaning it zipped up easily - before I packed all my things to move to L.A. - When I was in the best shape of my life after a semester of post production, screenwriting, and the occasional small job on a 1st year's summer project. These activities plus free access to the college rec center meant I was in great shape, since I love to exercise when I can. Yes, I bought a dress I was going to have to lose a few pounds to fit into. I'm not proud of that choice, but there it is.

It wouldn't fit now. Indeed, ten years since I bought it, I'm not sure *what* to do with it. Would I even wear it now were I to have a wedding? I'm not sure. Certainly that's what I thought when I kept it; that I would wear it someday. Now I probably wouldn't even buy an actual "wedding dress" to get married in, much less a white one.

I also always thought that maybe a perfect opportunity to gift it would come up that would find me parting with it. That hasn't happened either.

So it continues to hang in my closet. Which is exactly what it would be doing if I had gotten married in it, I guess.

Beyond the preserving or the trashing, what else have women done with their wedding dresses?

Sonya Naumann is traveling the world with her Thousand Dollar Dress (h/t Offbeat Bride, who did an interview with Sonya):

It is my goal to photograph 1,000 individuals wearing my $1,000 wedding dress within the context of their own or chosen environment. I plan to travel with the dress, video camera, and camera to build upon this idea while showcasing it at www.thousanddollardress.com. At the project's end, I aspire to have 1,000 portraits and a documentary including interviews from individuals of all ages, backgrounds and diverse marital situations speaking to the concept of marriage and its politic. I seek to create an open dialogue regarding the institution of marriage and explore the diverse views attached to its conception amidst the current culture war regarding its exclusive definition.

Yes, Sonya Naumann is totally cool and the pictures are amazing, although they play without commentary or individual context on the website. You can apply to be photographed wearing the dress via her contact me page.

A bit more on the traditional side, but totally sweet, Rose from Blessing Inspired Creations created an LO (LO = Lay Out - see how I Google for you?) scrapbook page about her wedding dress as a response to a challenge:

This LO was created for Mrs. Wresh's Week 3 Challenge on her blog. She challenges you to scrap an inanimate object that means a lot to you. My Wedding Dress is one of those objects.

The precious page is the second down on the post - Her daughter's baptismal gown was made out of the train, and she has a wonderful picture of the two of them in their "special dresses."

But what about the single girls? I can't be the only never-married with a wedding dress in her closet.

Well, Irina Zoe Zerkin has been wearing a wedding dress for 30 days and blogging about it on Committed! She threw a wedding for herself on April 5th, and she's been wearing the dress ever since! May 5th is the final day:

Committed! is a massive, decadent multimedia spectacle that
combines elements of performance art, theatre, costuming, filmmaking,
photography, arts & crafts (in the felt and hot glue sense, not the
Gustav Stickley sense,) and painting, although not in the traditional
sense.

You thought wearing the same brown dress for a year was something! Well, OK, that really was something, too - but considering all that a wedding dress is, 30 days in a wedding dress is really something, too. It's really interesting to read about her project - why she's doing it, her reactions to it, and, of course, the reactions of the people she interacts with:

Today I strolled around the plaza with this guy for an hour and I was shocked by the number of people who wished us congratulations. Yes, I said "us." Now try and picture this - I've got my dress, my veil, my pearls, my lipstick, and this guy walking with me is wearing a gray hoodie and black jeans and really worn out black boots and a black hat, and these big silly aviator-ish shades, and on top of that he has a really young face, so basically he looks like he just skipped out on his high school algebra class or something. What on Earth makes people think that the two of us have just gotten married?! And yet, just the same, people are so blinded by their romanticism that
all they notice is a happy bride and the male who surely must be responsible for her happiness. All anyone manages to see is a sweet little woman who has finally found a man to give purpose to her otherwise empty existance.

Ha!

Her project is pretty amazing. I, however, will not be wearing my wedding dress for an art project, for any amount of time.

I did just pull it out and pull it on though - I figured, hey, I just took a shower, what the heck. I managed to get it over my butt, but it indeed doesn't zip up the back. And ten years later I may be too old for the little bows in the front that I loved so dearly.

Oh, who I am kidding? I still love the damn thing, that's why it's hanging in my closet! It really just needs new side panels in the bodice, aka massive alterations.

So it stays in my closet. Hope on a hanger, keeping the faith.

Contributing editor Liz Rizzo also blogs at Everyday Goddess.

Related Posts:

• Wedding Phobia: When Every Little Girl's Dream is your Personal Nightmare.
• Weddings - Intimate, Impromptu, and Offbeat
• America's Next Top Designer?

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