I'm in the midst of cleaning out my closet and I've come across old wedding pictures, cards, invites, my wedding dress and an autographed elvis costello album which is addressed to my ex and myself.

My ex and I are on pretty good terms (he has our dog, so I try to keep things civil at all times), but I don't really give a sh*t about all this wedding stuff. Plus, all of my wedding pictures are from when we were enormous, so it's not like we're going to show off the pictures.

And this Elvis Costello record. The ex paid a lot of money to have the thing matted, and I mean, it's Elvis. But, it says "To Eric and Jasmine...". If I get remarried or even start dating again, how the hell is that going to look on my wall?

Would you toss this stuff, or what? Thanks.

definitely keep the wedding photos. put them in a box in the deep recess of some closet and never open it again. it might feel right to dump them now but who knows in 20 years? might get a good chuckle or show your kids or something out of them. it's really a part of your life andbottom line is that they're irreplaceable (sp for shit).

i'd keep the elvis costello thing too. if you don't want to look at it now put that away too but it's pretty cool and later you might regret it. who cares if it's autographed to the 2 of you. if it pisses off a new beau later they should be more secure than that and deal with it.

as for the other stuff. i'd chuck it but that's me--not a huge fan of weddings at all. hey, do you have a niece or someone who might like the ddress as a dress up thing? my daughter would have loved it as a kid.

so there's the suggestion from the old and cynical side of the board.

don't throw anything away. packrat, and packrat hard. one of my greatest regrets so far in life is throwing away pretty much all the souvenirs of my youth in a chemically-induced paranoid haze days before i moved out of the house to go to college. keep everything and let whoever inherits it decide what to do with it.

goddamn you guys. ayah, i thought for sure that you'd tell me to set the shit on fire or something.

oh well. guess i'll put it in storage.

Yeah, don't throw it all away.

I still have the photo album and the damn dress from my first marriage.

The photo album I have because I know my son would like to have it. And the dress I keep meaning to sell to a secondhand store but keep forgetting it's in that particular closet.

The marriage may have died but my ex and I are still friends and of course my son was the one awesome part of it.

yeah, well you basically guessed right. and i've done that with a lot of stuff. like if i didn't have a kid to give the wedding dress to to play with it would really be fun to watch it burn in my fireplace. that's me.

but i'm a sucker for photos. i've got tons of photos of old lovers and stuff that i've put away and still do not look at after 25 years but who knows. my kids get a kick out of seeing me with a boyfriend. Hah. me too.

exactly. if anything, it's good for laughs later, even if it only causes pain now. you cna't tell me that in 30 years you won't look at some of those photos and smile a little. keep em.

I'd keep the EC album...do whatever feels right with the rest.

I'm not a believer in the idea that you have to keep the photos. I used to line the top of the trash can with pictures of the ex-wife before cleaning the litter boxes. I don't think I have many pics left of her/us but I probably got more joy out of dumping cat shit on her head then I would have gotten out of looking at those pics at some later date.

MY HERO!
who knew guys did stuff like this too?

Not divorced myself (shit, I don't give a fuck about my photos either and it's been less than a year!) but I know I really appreciate the photos of my grandparents marriage, even though they divorced. Granted, you don't have children, but it's a history of your life and your future children may want to see some.
I'd totally ditch the dress though. I want to sell mine but my mom won't let me!

i ended up keeping one of the horrid bridesmaid's dresses i was forced to wear once and it came in handy one halloween when my son and i went out as frankenstien and frankenstien's mom. we won first prize.

Sounding off in the minority here, I'd offer anything the ex might want to him, and turf the rest. I don't have any mementos from wither of my marriages. Don't want any, either.

I'm with tentoze here. Unless there's any chance or desire for rekindling anything...toss it. I'm not very nostalgic however so keep that in mind.

...further proof of your wicked-coolness.

edit: Oh and red, just in case you wanted another opnion:

I'm with ayah. Old pictures of parents, grandparents etc. are always cool for the next generation---and it's your history. Offer the Costello record to your ex because it sounds like he might want it. And get rid of the rest.

evil ayah: just wait.
good ayah: you guys have what it takes. god bless.

simplestarighlazylate

c'mon, pierre, you can do better than that.

dudeman, help me out. i'm completely lost. my friend rachel was no help.

how about this

laughing too hard to tell right now....

this is a good sign.

He doesn't want anything that reminds him of me and that includes the Costello record. That's why this is so painless because he doesn't want the shit, either.

I want to sell my wedding dress, but I'm worried that someone will ask me why I'm selling it. I don't want the dress to seem cursed... "My husband left me", "my marriage crumbled", "my husband's dead", "i never want to be that fat again". I don't know... not very good sales pitches in my opinion.

Not for nothing, but this sounds more like a YOU problem.

Just sayin'.

hey, admitting to a failed marriage isn't an easy thing. i just think that if i was looking at a used wedding dress, i'd want to know why it was being sold. but then again, i'm really nosey and look for a story behind everything. eh.

fair enough. can't you avoid those questions by using a consignment store?