Your wedding gown is the dress you've dreamt of and imagined yourself wearing on that wonderful day. It only makes sense that you want to take care of it the best you can. Follow these steps to make sure your dress remains gorgeous throughout the years to come.
The following steps should be taken BEFORE getting your dress professionally dry cleaned:
- Purchase a clean, undyed, undersized, unbleached cotton sheet. You can find this at almost any home outfitting store, like Bed, Bath & Beyond. Make sure the sheet has as little synthetic fiber as possible!
- Wash the sheet in hot water (without detergent) to remove any dirt or sizing.
- On your wedding day, as soon as you take the dress off, wrap it in the sheet. NEVER store your gown in a plastic bag. Plastics decompose, causing rapid oxidation of the fabric, which will leave acid residues on your dress!
- Keep the gown as flat as possible, away from sunlight and moist or damp areas.
- Take the gown to a reputable dry cleaner store (make sure they are specially trained in preservations) within two weeks of the wedding. If you will still be on your honeymoon, arrange for your mother, maid-of-honor or another trustworthy individual to take care of this for you.
After you pick your dress up from the dry cleaner's, choose one of the following two methods to insure flawless gown preservation.
Vacuum-Sealed Box Storage
- Purchase a sturdy, archival-quality (acid-free, lignin-free) box and archival-quality, acid-free tissue paper. These materials may be found at some dry cleaners. For a synthetic fiber gown, use buffered archival paper. For a natural fiber gown, use unbuffered archival paper.
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Author: Kathleen Roy