Protecting Your Dress of Dreams: Wedding Dress Preservation

by Kerri Cooke

So much time and money is spent finding the perfect wedding dress.

While the main concern of a bride is feeling beautiful on her wedding day, it’s important to look to the future and take steps to protect your investment. Perhaps you will want to wear your wedding dress at a future vow renewal or save it to pass down to future generations.
Even while still wearing your bridal gown, you should be mindful of food or drink stains. Foods can leave behind oils and red wine can really sink into a while dress, so be as careful as you can while still enjoying your day.

As soon as you remove your wedding dress, hang it up so any sweat residue and other liquids will dry quickly. You will want to head to a dry cleaner that specializes in preservation as soon as possible. The longer the gown remains soiled, the harder it is to get out stubborn stains. Pack the dress in a garment bag and quickly bring it to the cleaners.

It’s important to bring your dress to a dry cleaner that specializes in caring for and preserving wedding dresses. “Your typical dry cleaner can do some cleaning, pressing and handling of wedding dress, but they are limited since they primary specialize in everyday wear,” says Lisa Atchison of AAA Drive-In Cleaners.

The dry cleaner will then determine if your dress needs a traditional cleaning or one specially tailored for vintage dresses. “There is a vintage cleaning for dresses that have very special material content and are 10-plus years old. Then there is traditional cleaning for most of your dresses sold today,” says Atchison.

Once the wedding dress has gone through the cleaning process, it will be sealed in a special box to protect it for the future.