With summer soon coming to a close, the busiest wedding season of the year will be ending as well. Great food, funny dancing, beautiful decorations … and some questionable fashion choices are standard for most these events. Once the DJ goes home, the cake is eaten, and the happily wedded couple are off on their honeymoon, what do you do with that bridesmaid dress that you don’t ever see needing (or wanting) to wear again? As expected, the folks working at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia’s Blueprint Magazine have assembled a nice collection of ideas on how to revise those silk taffeta nightmares into something you would actually be excited to wear on a nice night out or casual weekend.

If the thought of wearing that bridesmaid "beauty" again gives you cold chills, there are other options. Author Cindy Walker published an amazinglytongue -in-cheek book called 101 Uses for a Bridesmaid Dress in 1999, but the tips are still relevant. Though there are no actual patterns of directions in the book, Walker does offer an intriguing collection of part-joking, part-serious ways to reuse that hunk of fabric hanging in your closet, such as "you can never have too many hair scrunchies" and "how about a taffeta hammock?"

Maybe you have long since donated your bridesmaid gowns to a non-profit, but can’t help but be reminded of the happy moments and unique experiences you went through to help one of your close friends have the perfect day. Then there is a book for you as well. Meg MateoIlasco’s You Can Wear It Again: A Celebration of Bridesmaids’ Dresses "pays loving tribute to fifty years of bridesmaids’ dresses, as featured in real-life weddings." While there is no doubt that bridesmaid dresses will never be "in fashion", this book is also a great gift for that bride that you care so much about that you spend a whole day wearing a puffy, peachy nightmare for.