Bride Cuts off The Bottom Half of Her Wedding Dress During Reception —Turns it into a Jacket (Exclusive)

"Most wedding dresses cost an arm and a leg and you only wear them once," Allie Goecke-Butler tells PEOPLE

Four months after Allie Goecke-Butler got married, she was at a craft show helping her mom Becky Butler sell jackets she makes as a part of her small business, Ginger Pop Designs. That's when a woman approached the pair looking for a jacket with lace, sparking an idea for the pair.

"My mom jokingly said something about using all my leftover lace from my wedding dress," Allie, 27, who wore The Abigail from Madi Lane dress to her wedding on Sept. 2, tells PEOPLE. "We both realized how good of an idea that was pretty much immediately."

The Temecula, Calif., explains that the leftover lace her mom was referring to was the bottom half of her wedding dress she'd cut off during her actual wedding day. Allie, tells PEOPLE, that her husband Alan Goecke-Butler helped her chop off the dress during the reception because she was overheating.

"It was really hot and humid and I was dancing a ton," Allie says. "My one bridesmaid, Kaelynn, had a little fan she was trying to cool me down with and I made a joke about wanting to cut off the bottom half of my dress. We laughed about it and then looked at each other like, 'Hmm well we could do that.' "

"We had scissors but they were not working well so one of the groomsmen, Tanner, pulled out a pocket knife, and that worked much better. Our photographers also ran over and took the BEST pictures of the whole process!" she continues.

She adds: "The only person I was nervous about was my mom and how'd she respond but when she saw it, she thought it was awesome."

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After Becky – who created the business following a diagnosis of an autoimmune disease and brain tumor – came up with the idea at the craft show, Allie bought her mom a simple jean jacket online and gave it to her along with the clean lace.

"She had my jacket done in about two days," Allie continues adding how her mom has the jackets for sale on Etsy. "She also posted a video about the jacket on Reels and currently has like 12 million views which is so exciting for her!"

Allie also posted a video of the jacket on TikTok, which has gone viral with 3 million views. "I could have spent a lot of $$$ to have it boxed and preserved but chose to spend the money on something would actually wear again!! Thank you Gingerpop Designs!!," she captioned the video.

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The former bride adds that she posted to show the work her mom did but also to showcase how cool it is to repurpose a wedding dress.

"Most wedding dresses cost an arm and a leg and you only wear them once. I just wanted to show that they can be upcycled in a cool way that's not the typical way of just cutting it short and dying it," she says. "I also am such a creator of comfort so I knew I was never going to wear my dress as a dress again. The jacket is something I can wear again and again while also being comfortable."

She adds: "I also knew it was a cool idea because the person who shows it off and brags about it the most is my husband, Alan. Whenever I wear it out to dinner or anything, he will tell anyone who will listen about my jacket and how it has my wedding dress in it!"

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