Should the cost of a wedding dress influence the cleaning cost?
We ventured out into Brunswick, Melbourne this week to speak to bridal gown shops in one of the two main ‘wedding dress centres’ in Melbourne.
We were thrilled by the positive feedback about our MyDressbox message – that cleaning, boxing and storing a wedding dress doesn’t have to be yet another expensive wedding cost.
That being said, we got some really interesting comments like “If you’re spending $15,000 on a wedding dress, you expect to pay $1,000+ to have it cleaned afterwards.”
Really? The amount you spend on a wedding dress should be linked to the amount it costs to clean it? No matter how much fun you had in it on the big day, no matter how much wine was spilled, no matter what the weather was doing? Or how long the grass was at the venue?
Being one half of a married couple myself, and also a part of the wedding dress ‘industry’ (as well as founding the MyDressbox wedding dress cleaning services in Australia and New Zealand, we also own Vanilla Bridal Boutique in the sunny Bay of Plenty, New Zealand) – we are all too familiar with some of the ‘wedding’ pricing that goes on in the industry.
Should Wedding Dress Cleaning be subject to the “wedding tax”?
We don’t think so!
In fact, we shared a tale of our own wedding planning experience with Isabella from Belle et Blanc (www.belleetblanc.com.au) when we met her yesterday; when talking to a potential wedding venue at a beautiful winery in Waikato, New Zealand, we had negotiated a price to use the entire vineyard for the day, it was a bit pricey – even more so as we were obliged to use their food and beverage suppliers – but it was sooo beautiful we could live with that. As we had the run of the venue, we thought we may as well have the ceremony there – it really was stunning and would mean guests wouldn’t have to change venues between the wedding ceremony and reception – brilliant.
Anyway – we suggested this to the venue and they told us to bring a celebrant on to the property would cost an additional $500!! Huh??
To add further insult to financial injury, we weren’t allowed to bring a microphone and speakers, but they were happy to provide one for $250. We couldn’t believe it, and it brought a swift end to our ‘negotiation’ with that particular venue.
Btw – we eventually ended up getting married in Rotorua at VR Rotorua (www.vrrotorua.co.nz) – highly recommend if you’re looking at getting married at a wonderful venue in North Island, New Zealand.
Anyway – back to the point – we thought this kind of ‘wedding tax’ pricing stopped on the wedding day – and wouldn’t extend to cleaning your wedding dress afterwards!
I mean really – when you walk in to petrol station and select a Car Wash, do they ask you how much you paid for your car? And if you ring around for quotes to have your house cleaned, should you pay based on how much you paid for the house? Or the size of your house, and how dirty it is and how much cleaning needs to be done?
We started MyDressbox to make wedding dress cleaning simpler, more accessible (if you’re not lucky enough to live near a specialist wedding dress cleaner) and more affordable.
Whilst there are absolutely stunning dresses out there where you might want to pay $1000+ for a clean, and of course there are fabrics, like silk wedding dresses, that we do not currently cater for, there is absolutely a place for highly specialist cleaning.
But for 95% of brides who want to have their wedding dresses cleaned the wedding day and have them put in a suitable box for storage – take it from us – it needn’t cost you an arm and a leg.
Big Fat Greek Weddings aside, and the occasional silk wedding dress we get sent by mistake – we have never received a wedding gown that we haven’t been able to clean with our MyDressbox Extra Wedding Dress Clean and Box. And if we ever do… we’ll send it back to you free of charge with a full refund, no questions, no hassles! 😊