The wedding day is over, your skin is freshly sun-kissed from your honeymoon in the Bahamas, you love your wedding pictures *wink*, and you’ve come back home to reality.
As you unpack your suitcase, you open the closet doors and see your gorgeous wedding dress hanging front and center. Your face has a faraway smile as you remember twirling the night away in that gorgeous dress. You blink and think, “Now what? I definitely want to keep it, but what do I do with this dress?”
I think this is something all of us brides unexpectedly run into after the wedding, so we’re on a mission to find some answers! Who better to ask than our friends over at the fabulous Modern Brides in Huntsville? They were sweet enough to share with us some of their best tips for wedding dress preservation!
1. Why should you preserve your dress?
The decision to clean and preserve your wedding dress is very important! Understanding the delicate nature of your special garment may help make the decision to preserve your dress just a bit easier.
2. What might happen if you do not preserve your dress?
In normal wearing, skin oils and perspiration are absorbed into the fabric. Wine, champagne or other sugar-filled beverages may have even spilled on your dress. These organic compounds will undoubtedly damage the fabric if they are not neutralized or properly removed. You do not want to open your dress 5 years after your wedding and see a huge yellow stain where your hands once touched!
3. Does it matter how long you wait before preserving your dress?
The average wait time our company suggests is 3 years, at the most. Each year you have not preserved your dress, it is susceptible to any damage or stains. Your dress may have noticeable stains from food or make-up, or the hemline may be brown. Even if your dress looks clean to you, don’t be fooled: spills from alcoholic beverages or clear soda may dry clear, but they oxidize with time. These clear stains can turn brown and become more difficult to remove later. Body perspiration may cause the dress lining to become brittle over time. Your dress needs to be preserved in order to keep it in the best condition possible. Don’t procrastinate wedding gown preservation!
4. What are the steps of preservation?
Our wedding gown preservation company has several different processes that are used for cleaning. Each gown is carefully evaluated upon its arrival in order to determine the best cleaning process for that particular gown. All the processes are safe, gentle, and environmentally safe. Your gown is then fitted on an acid-free bust form and packed into our acid-neutral preservation chest.
5. I’ve heard stories of beads and lace getting destroyed. I want my dress to be safe!
The process will not change the look of your gown at all. No beading will be lost, none of the lace will be affected. In the preservation, they are able to remove approximately 95% of all stains – including tar, blood, perspiration, grass, mud, grease, food, and sugar stains from cake icing, wine, and other beverages.
(P.S. This is why we recommend going through a professional wedding vendor for your dress preservation! They understand how important those memories are and only want the very best for your dress!)
6. How is the gown displayed after preservation?
All companies are different. Our company displays your wedding gown in a gorgeous closet display box. It is a white display keepsake box. Some fun ideas: you could place in this in your daughter’s bedroom, or even display it in your room with wedding photos!
How beautiful to have the opportunity to love on your dress years from now! Every one of those wedding memories is precious and part of your story.
We want to say a huge THANK YOU to our amazing friends at
Modern Brides in Huntsville! Pat and her team do an incredible job making sure that your perfect dress search is fun and exciting! Totally check them out! (P.S. They also have accessories that are to die for!)
*hugs*
Amber
