Out of the (storage) box: Ideas to give your gown life beyond the wedding

If you have ever been a bride, you probably spent countless hours searching for the perfect wedding dress. But after the big day has come and gone, does your beautiful bridal gown have to be wrapped in tissue paper and boxed away forever?

If you want to save your wedding dress for a future daughter or granddaughter to wear, it can usually be re-sized by a good seamstress.

Carolyn Robinson, who does sewing and alterations in Cape Girardeau, has re-sized wedding gowns, but says it takes a lot of time. Another idea is to take items like lace trim or buttons off a cherished family wedding gown and add them to a newly purchased dress.

"That way, you can have the memories of your mother or grandmother's dress incorporated into your own wedding gown," says Robinson.

Pinterest, the online "how to" website, lists all sorts of clever ways to repurpose your wedding gown.

Home decor ideas include decorative pillows, a lacy coverlet for a bassinet, a memorable wedding quilt, a delicate Christmas tree skirt or a luxurious throw made from the train of the gown.

A great re-use of a wedding veil is to drape it over a plain lamp shade to give the room a feminine touch.

For inventive fashion items, consider making a beautiful envelope clutch purse or stunning jewelry and a jewel bag from your wedding gown. Some brides have even had their wedding dresses made into a more casual dress or a dressy top and matching clutch bag.

Keepsakes to pass down to future children are popular choices when repurposing a wedding dress. Christening gowns and bonnets, ring bearer pillows and pocket squares for sons to wear when they get married are all great ways to incorporate your bridal gown into future family milestones.

If you don't mind sacrificing your wedding dress for ghoulish fun on Halloween, bridal gowns make great "Bride of Frankenstein" or "Corpse Bride" costumes when decorated with a splash of red food coloring for fake blood. One Pinterest entry even suggests hanging an assortment of bridal gowns in a spotlighted tree on Halloween to give an eerie ghostly effect.

Many charitable organizations accept used wedding gowns, which are then resold to fund the charities' missions or donated to women in need.

Brides Against Breast Cancer uses money raised from the resale of donated wedding gowns to contribute to wellness and educational services for people affected by cancer. NICU Helping Hands accepts donated wedding gowns so "Angel Gowns" can be made for families who have lost a premature baby in the hospital. The charity provides a beautiful gown for final photographs and the burial service.

Other charities that accept wedding gowns include Adorned in Grace, The Arthritis Foundation, Brides Across America, Brides for Haiti and The Bridal Gardens.

A bold idea for brides who want to make a fun statement with their wedding gowns is a trend called "trash the dress" photo shoots.

Tyson Zahner, owner of Tyson Zahner Photography in Jackson, offers trash-the-dress photo shoots for brides who want to get a little extra mileage out of their wedding gowns.

"I did one trash the dress shoot where the bride actually laid on the railroad tracks in downtown Cape, and we did some back alley shots downtown as well," says Zahner. "Most trash-the-dress shoots are just an extra fun photo session we do after the wedding day, where we can go to several locations that we may not have had time to go to on the actual wedding day."