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RAVES FOR MY EX-WIFES WEDDING DRESS
A truly hilarious idea. An idea so mischievously zany that, once unveiled, it sparked interest and support from hundreds of thousands of people across the globe in fewer than three weeksdemonstrating the awesome power, and potential perils, of letting the world in on your personal life via the Internet. Today
When [Cotters ex-wife] told him to do what he liked with the gown, he did just that, coming up with 101 awesome and creative uses for it.The Huffington Post
Kevin has made great effort to start cataloging the humorous ways in which one could possibly reuse a wedding dress around the home. Obviously, none of them is very conventional, but thats what makes it fun. Finding uses for the dress and the process of writing a blog are an unusual yet practical way to cope with his loss as his humor is frequently mixed with thoughts of being a newly single father. Its therapeutic and cathartic in its own right, and were glad that its being done with humor and a side of creativity. When life gives you lemons (or a wedding dress), you floss your teeth with it and let the good times roll.Apartment Therapy
Cotters blog, My Ex-Wifes Wedding Dress, has become a viral phenomenon, showing him using that white lace gown for everything from flossing his teeth and straining spaghetti to making a yoga mat and dressing a scarecrow (complete with Darth Vader mask).AOL News
Kevin is now becoming an international star for turning the dress into everything from a piece of floss to a Darth Vader scarecrow to a pasta strainer.Expect this blog to be turned into a romantic comedy starring Jason Bateman by next summer.Dlisted
Kevin started a hilarious Web site and asked the users to help him come up with 101 uses for the dress. Well, Kevin has blown up. Hes since done interviews for ABC Nightly News and AOL.The Chive
Impressively, hes heartbreakingly honest about how difficult divorce can be.What I find so fascinating is how hes using the dress as a way to really home in on some of his feelings in the year after his divorce. Its kind of poetic, really. At the end of the experiment, hell have a tattered, torn, stained piece of fabricIm sure how the end of the marriage and the messy pulling apart felt. But then he can get rid of it and, hopefully, move on. Personally, Id read his book.Redbook
A jilted husband has exacted hilarious revenge on the wife who dumped him by becoming an Internet sensation with ingenious ways of using her wedding dress.Daily Mail(UK)
I must say hes very creative and has created a very funny Web site.You must see this for yourself.Cotter has gotten a whole lot of publicityIm talking worldwideon the blog site.Gather.com
While were personally fans of the scarecrow, Cotter has also used the gown for a drip cloth when he changes the oil in his Honda Element and a gas cap. Hilarity ensues. Autoblog.com
Big Business
LETS JUST START with a couple of comments about the typical wedding. The wedding industry in the United States is now estimated to be a $40 billion empire. Its mind-blowing, isnt it? But the idea of weddings as big business isnt entirely new. Okay, hundreds of years ago wives were snatched by men from neighboring tribes and brought home to spend their days literally barefoot and pregnant. But later wives were purchased in exchange for cattle. Can you imagine what those marital spats were like? I gave up my best milker and for what? So that I could come home to eat this crap? The Romans were the big liberals who decided that women could actually have the right to choose whether to marry. But even after that, marriages were often politically driven and used as a way of creating alliances between kingdoms. But still, thats a far cry from what weddings today have become. Between jewelers, reception venues, caterers, and tuxedo specialists, and six thousand bridal shows a year, there is a lot of dough being splashed out on a single day. At least, as Im about to show you, the wedding dress can be brought home and put to work after the musicians have packed up and the champagne bottles have been drunk dry.
Introduction
EXCUSE ME, SIR, but we dont allow pets in the store, said the smirking Starbucks barista from behind the counter. I had stopped in for a rare $3 cup of Joe. Not that it is unusual to find me drinking coffee or for them to be serving pricey brew, but for a frugal guy like me, it was an uncommon indulgence.
Nothing alive up there. Its just my ex-wifes wedding dress. Im using it today as a turban, I reassured her, not remotely surprised by her reaction.
I couldnt blame her for her confusion. At this point the once pristine white dress had been used for more than a few applicationssome of them very simple (like a towel or window curtain), others totally outrageous. The dress was looking pretty scruffy and probably could be mistaken for an animal by now. And by this point my brother, Colin, and I were used to the double takes, the stares, and the whispers. Together, and with the support and ideas of many people both far and near, we had been working to document my goal of finding 101 unconventional uses for my ex-wifes wedding dress.
Am I insane? No. And I can back that up with a statement from my therapist. No, I didnt snap when my ex-wife dumped me two years ago. Im just an ordinary guy who found an unusual way of working through a very challenging time. How did I get here? Ill tell you.
On July 5, 2009, my wife of twelve years announced that she was leaving me. It wasnt a complete surprise, as I knew things hadnt been going well, but the actual split was as raw and painful as it could be. This was a loss like nothing I had ever experienced. After all, wed been together for more than half my life. As she cleared away her belongings, I realized that she had left just one thing in her side of the closet: a giant white box marked To Have and To Hold. It was her wedding dress, sitting in its preservation box, positioned smack in the center of the middle shelf.
You left something, I told her.
Whats that? she asked.
Your wedding dress, I explained.
Im not taking that, she answered.
Well, I dont want it. What do you expect me to do with it? I lamented.
Whatever the *$ you want, she replied.
When my wife walked out after almost two decades together, she left a thirty-five-year-old father of two with no experience being an adult on his own. Wed been together since high school and suddenly we were no more. Of course, I wasnt without my blessings; I had my house, my kids, my job, my family and friends, and my Honda Element. Oh, and my ex-wifes wedding dress.
For a long while, the dress just stayed in the closet, staring at me from its perch. I didnt tell anyone at first that my wife had not only left me but also her dress. After all, it was sort of awkward and embarrassing. Like she was really trying to drive home a point about what she thought of our relationship. When I finally confessed to my family over dinner one night (one of the perks of a fresh divorce is free meals) that the dress was mine and I had no idea what I should do with it, well, the suggestions were immediate and forthcoming, generally in the form of a toilet paper substitution. Offhandedly my sister-in-law, Jenny, commented that there must be 101 uses for a wedding dress. Click. The wheels in my head started turning. Could the wedding dress possibly be used 101 different ways? The idea struck me as ridiculously funny and possibly therapeutic as well. Ive always thought spending an obscene amount of money on something that would only be worn once was kind of stupid, even more so now in light of what had happened. Maybe I could get some practical use out of it and give it back its value. I wasnt sure how my ex-wife would feel if I used her old dress as a doormat, but Id deal with that later. So I began collecting ideas and suggestions from family and friends, and before I knew it I had a list of over a hundred possible uses for my ex-wifes wedding dress. It was time for action.
