We're all familiar with your typical, small-town (or big city) corner dry cleaning business. You may have brought your winter coats to them each fall for their ritual yearly cleaning and your father most likely has had his work shirts cleaned and pressed at that same family-owned dry cleaning business for years. Most towns have 3 or 4 options when it comes to businesses you can take your dry cleaning to and many of these businesses have been using the same process and the same equipment for years with no real hiccups. While these techniques and equipment may be great for your father's cotton work shirts, can you be sure they'll be equally effective and most importantly, safe for the delicate materials your wedding gown was artfully crafted from?
The answer you're looking for depends on what your purpose is in having your wedding dress cleaned and preserved. If you're looking to sell your wedding gown in the very near future, then a clean-only option might be sufficient. If you're looking to transform your wedding dress into a family heirloom that can one day be worn again, then full preservation is in order. The reason for this is that the Preservation Chest will protect your gown in the long term from yellowing, dust, stains and UV light.
Your wedding dress, veil, and keepsakes create cherished memories and preserving those pieces for future generations can be done with just a bit of care. The key to preserving a wedding gown or any type of fabric like baby clothes is to protect it from the elements, especially light and moisture. With proper handling, the gown and accessories should last for hundreds of years.
How to Clean a Wedding Dress
Planning for the future preservation of your wedding dress begins on the day you start shopping. When you find "the dress" be sure to ask the sales consultant how the dress should be cleaned. Look for special instructions on how to clean any delicate trim, beads, or sequins.
Every wedding gown should be cleaned before being stored away for more than a few weeks even if it doesn't look soiled. Perspiration, food and drink stains, and makeup stains can show up later and become much more difficult to remove. Look for a professional dry cleaner that specialises in wedding gown preservation. Be sure to point out any stains and any loose trim or buttons. Also discuss, if you know, how the trim is attached to the gown. Some designers use an adhesive that could dissolve during the dry cleaning process.
If the cleaner is going to pack your dress for storage, ask your cleaner to allow you to inspect your gown before it is packed in an acid-free box to help prevent contamination. This will prevent surprises when you open your sealed box years from now. There are horror stories of missing gowns and veils or the wrong dress packed away.
If your gown is simple and made from fabric that can be hand-washed at home, pretreat the stains and be sure to check the dress well for damage before you store it away. One important tip is to allow the gown to dry completely before packing away to prevent mildew growth. Keep the gown away from both artificial light and natural sunlight to prevent fabric damage.
A woman's wedding gown is one of her most prized possessions. Whether it's before or after the wedding, every woman literally worships their gown and takes care of it more than they do everything else they own. One of these ways, of course, is cleaning it before the wedding and after so you can store it as a memento or if it was hired to return it in good form.
There are many ways of cleaning a wedding gown such as:
- Dry cleaning- Using a chemical called tetrachloroethylene and a dry cleaning machine to remove stains and dirt instead of water.
- Laundry cleaning- using hot water and normal detergents in a washing machine to remove stains and dirt.
- Hand washing- Using water and detergent at home on a basis and hand washing the gown.
Check out our Wedding Dress Cleaning services.
Things to do before Dry Cleaning a Wedding Gown
- Check the care label. The first step is always checking the care label so you can be sure of how to clean it and if some chemicals or methods are not compatible with that particular fabric. Old, vintage and antique dresses don't do well under the harsh chemicals used in dry cleaning so they shouldn't be dry- cleaned.
- Inspect the dress for stains and to see where it's mostly dirty. Also, inspect the trim with the dry cleaner to see if it's supposed to be dry -cleaned since most of them aren't. Dyes used in trims tend to fade when after dry cleaning.
- Inspect embellishments and decorations. Most modern decorations are very substandard, and they dissolve if mixed with very strong solvents and if they don't the glue connecting them to the gown will leaving the dress without decorations. One must check what kind of embellishments are on the gown and what is holding them to the fabric.
- It's advised strongly that a wedding gown should never be stored with stains, but it should be dry cleaned immediately before the stains become permanent.
- Lastly, do not under whatever circumstances unless you are a professional dry cleaner try to clean a wedding gown on your own. There are things that only a dry cleaner can know so always take it to a professional.
No bride leaves their wedding with a pristine dress. While you may never wear it again, your gown is a precious keepsake and if perfectly preserved, can even be passed to future generations for their weddings if you were in any doubt about getting your dress dry-cleaned by a professional.
If you're interested in wedding dress preservation check out our blog.
Why you should dry clean your wedding dress
Eliminate stains
Act fast and have your dress cleaned sooner rather than later to ensure the best chances for stain removal. Some stains are not visible to the naked eye and will surface over time when it becomes too hard or even too late to get rid of them.
Standard dry-cleaning procedures are not delicate enough or efficient enough to clean a wedding dress, and that is why it's imperative that a specialist dry cleaning company.
MyDressBox is are wedding dress cleaning and preservation specialists servicing all major cities in Australia and New Zealand, including Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra, Hobart, Gold Coast, Newcastle, Sunshine Coast, Wollongong, Geelong and many more.
Prevent discolouration
White, ivory and cream dresses are prone to yellowing, and even the colour in pigmented gowns will begin to deteriorate over time if you don't have it cleaned, especially if the dress is exposed to sunlight.
Use cleaning which uses a non-toxic, odourless, silicone-based clear liquid which has many advantages over traditional dry cleaning processes. It is eco-friendly, very gentle, keeps whites bright, fights fade, eradicates stains and, of course, is better for the fabrics and our environment.
Stop fibre stretching
If you leave your dress hanging in your wardrobe, the fibres can gradually stretch. As such, it is better to box your dress so that the material is loose and free of tension.
Your wedding dress should be cleaned and delicately packaged in a beautiful, custom handmade preservation box. The boxes are sturdy enough to eliminate light, strong enough to protect from accidents, and are made from a breathable material lined with fine acid-free tissue. This method provides an easier long-term storage solution and offers additional protection.