As I go deeper into my decluttering journey in 2026, I’m finally ready to say goodbye to some items that survived my earlier decluttering efforts. When I recently went through a box of dress-up clothes and Halloween costumes, I discovered three old bridesmaid dresses from the 80s. It’s time for another Clutter Tale!

About Clutter Tales

Clutter Tales is a series where we tell the stories of our lives through our clutter. During my decluttering journey, I found a lot of things that took me back to a different place and time. Instead of casually discarding them, I decided to honour them by telling their story. I’ve written Clutter Tales about a high school shorthand textbook, an old airline ticket, a travel diary from my trip to France at age 18, notes from a visit to a fortune teller, and more!

Along with my own reflections, this series has featured posts by some of my favourite bloggers. If you’d like to write a guest post for Clutter Tales, please get in touch. I’d love to give you the opportunity to properly thank your clutter by sharing its story too!

Now, on to today’s Clutter Tale…

Always a bridesmaid

During a recent decluttering session, I found three old bridesmaid dresses that took me back to the late 1980s, a time when I felt like life was passing me by.

As my 25^th birthday approached, the old saying, “always a bridesmaid, never a bride” described my life perfectly. I had been a bridesmaid six times—for my sister Lorraine and my friends Bev, Heather, Julie, Doris and Christina. I accumulated a lovely collection of satin and chiffon bridesmaid dresses in my closet. You know the kind—the ones where the bride said, “You could totally wear that again!”

Three of the six dresses are long gone but, for some reason, I held onto these three for almost 40 years.

“You could totally wear that again” said every bride ever

When I visited my daughter Laura last fall, we went shopping for a bridesmaid dress for her friend’s wedding. Unlike most brides, Laura’s friend is pretty chill. She chose a colour, provided some general guidelines, and then left it up to each of her bridesmaids to find a dress that suited them.

That was a very different experience from most of the weddings I was in where everything had to match, and every bridesmaid wore the same style of dress…flattering or not.

Here’s a look back at me wearing the three dresses I found in the basement.

The pink dress is from my friend Doris’s wedding in 1987. In 1988, I travelled to England for my friend Julie’s wedding. Her aunt, who was a talented seamstress, made the purple dress based on a set of measurements I sent in a letter. Amazingly, the dress fit perfectly requiring only minor alterations when I arrived in England. Finally, the black and white dress is from my friend Christina’s wedding in 1989.

Despite my friends’ good intentions, those dresses didn’t end up in the regular rotation in my closet. With a few adjustments, I did wear the purple dress for my sister-in-law’s wedding a couple of years later. All my other old bridesmaid dresses were relegated to the back of my closet for years. I just needed my daughters to come along and give them new life.

New life for old bridesmaid dresses

When my girls were little, they loved to play dress-up. One day, they emerged from the basement wearing two of those old bridesmaid dresses. I think they had as much fun playing dress-up in them as I did when I first wore them years earlier. Laura even transformed the pink dress into a zombie princess costume for Halloween one year.

Laura and Colleen are a little old for dress-up these days, and I don’t see me wearing these dresses anytime soon, so it’s time to thank them for the memories and let them go.

As for my wedding dress…it’s still in the closet in the basement. I’ll save that one for another day.

I hope you enjoyed this installment of Clutter Tales. If you’d like to write a guest post for Clutter Tales, please get in touch. I’d love to give you the opportunity to properly thank your clutter by sharing its story too!

Do you still have your wedding dress or old bridesmaid dresses? Tell me your stories below.