Now, now, before you all start flipping out with questions like “How could you?!?” and “What about your daughter?” let me just say that I did in fact discuss the issue with my daughter first.

I have always been one to notice that it doesn’t seem like very many girls wear their mother’s gowns in today’s day and age.  Styles change over the decades for sure and with shows like Say Yes to the Dress and all that jazz, it’s like every girl’s (and mom’s) dream to get to go into a salon and try on all kinds of styles until she finds ‘The ONE’.  So how could I deprive my daughter (and myself) of that very special moment?  I mean, it is in fact a once in a lifetime moment, right?

Now this gorgeous gown is in fact something I was so absolutely amazed by and excited about on my wedding day:

When I first tried on the Maggie Sottero SaBelle, I was not sure that it was the one.  But after carefully going over the dress and every single one of it’s amazing details (the beading, the lace, the sweetheart neckline, the pickups and gathers, the unique split front/side and the ruching and fitted bodice) I mean it had everything that I had wanted in my gown and more!

So, my hubby and I decided that there was no reason to save it.  Instead, I would try to sell it.  Now I didn’t rush out to do this right away because as you know, we just this week had a post wedding shoot which provided me an opportunity to don the gown one last time.  But while I was browsing that web site I told you about going through wedding classifieds looking for photographers, I noticed that they had boards to sell and ask for wedding gowns as well.  So I just did a quick search for my gown and found that there was a girl many, many months ago who was looking for my exact gown.  I left a comment on the post asking is she had ever found her gown indicating that I was considering selling mine.  Well, lo and behold, about a week ago a young lady from Canada contacted me saying she saw my comment and wanted to buy my gown.

I shared the details of the dress with her – size, color, alterations I had made – and we discussed her height compared to mine and all that jazz.  Though she is about 6 inches shorter than me, we contacted our tailors and asked them about the concerns regarding altering a dress like this for a shorter woman.  Well, she decided she was too in love with the dress to let it go by.  She had already tried it on in some bridal salons and was in love with it.

So we negotiated a price which gave me a 60% return on my original cost of the gown and I told her that as soon as I have the gown cleaned this week, it’ll be shipped off to her for her wedding next year!  I am so excited that I didn’t have to put hardly any effort into selling it at all and that I am getting to help out another bride who also loved my precious beauty.

And since there’s that whole nostalgic tradition thing that I am losing by parting with the gown, we came up with an alternative family tradition.  Instead of saving my gown for my little girl, I decided to share something else with her on her wedding day.  I received so many compliments on the custom designed brooch necklace that I had made for our wedding that we have decided to keep it in the family as a treasured ‘hand me down’ from one girl to the next.  I will keep the necklace and as each young lady in our family marries she will have the option of wearing the necklace on her day.  This way not only my daughter but also our nieces, cousins, etc will be given the opportunity to have something borrowed and ‘old’ that has been used in many family weddings.  I already have one niece who can’t wait to don it on her day

Sorry I don’t have a clearer picture of it.  So, what do you think ladies?  What are your plans for your gown after the big day and are there any other items or things from your weddings that you are considering using in future family weddings?