Safeguard Your Wedding Dress

You spent hours trying on countless gowns before finding the dress for your big day. Now that your wedding is over, what should you do with likely the most expensive piece of clothing you’ve ever purchased?

Some brides hang their dress up in their closet to serve as a reminder of their recent nuptials. Others place it back in its garment bag with good intentions of cleaning and preserving it sometime soon. And, there are some fortunate brides who don’t have to think about any maintenance details; their mother, wedding planner or a friend scoops up the dress and arranges for its cleaning and storage.

Whether a wedding dress is a vintage hand-me-down or a brand-new gown by a famous designer, planning for its proper cleaning and preservation will ensure it remains a treasured keepsake for generations to come.

Some advice from wedding-dress experts:

Don’t delay. Have your wedding dress cleaned and preserved as soon as possible. Why the rush? Stains left untreated can damage the gown’s fabric. Sugar spots can dry without leaving a noticeable mark but will caramelize and turn brown over time without proper handling. Salt from perspiration can cause a dress’ lining to eventually become brittle. Most dry cleaning solutions do not remove sugar or salt without pretreatment. Be sure to review the actual condition of your dress with your dry cleaning professional.

Look for experience. One of the best ways to locate a reputable wedding-dress cleaning and preservation professional is to ask the staff at the store where you bought it. Bridal shops frequently send gowns out for cleaning and pressing, so their recommendations are useful. Get a reference from more than one place, if possible, and do some research on your own. Make sure the professional specializes in wedding-dress cleaning and preservation regardless of whether they perform the work on premise or send it to a wholesale cleaner. Find out what types of cleaning methods are used and make sure they correspond with the care label in your dress. Some fabric and detail work—like sequins and beads—will require special cleaning methods. Find out if fresh solvents will be used to clean your dress. This is a must; dirty solvents can transfer impurities to your dress during the cleaning process, leaving your gown smelling like cleaning solvent.

Decide whether to seal, box, or bag. Once your dress has been professionally cleaned, decide which preservation method best suits your needs. The three main types of preservation—sealing, boxing and bagging—employ a variety of methods to help protect your dress from oxidation spots, yellowing, mold and mildew, light, dust and permanent creasing.

Sealing involves packaging a gown using acid-free tissue sealed tight in an acid-free box. However, this method does not allow for future inspection (to catch any oxidation, yellowing or creasing issues); can cause permanent creasing (since the dress won’t be refolded every few years); and increases the chances of mildew (since the dress cannot breathe).

Boxing is similar to sealing except the box is not sealed, which allows for inspection, future refolding, and air circulation. Sealing and boxing methods appeal to brides with either a large dress or a small closet.

Bagging employs a technique used by museums to preserve historical clothing. The dress is hung on a padded hanger and enclosed in a 100-percent acid-free cotton bag. It remains unfolded, so permanent creasing is avoided. Bagged dresses are easy to inspect and need very little, if any, maintenance. The only drawback is a bagged dress can require a fair amount of storage space.

Do not use a plastic garment bag for your dress, as plastic fumes can cause the garment to yellow.

When shopping around for your preservation professional, be leery of a service that discourages you from inspecting your dress once it is preserved. Read guarantee materials carefully. Don’t assume that even if a company offers a warranty against discoloration or damage that you will be reimbursed for a new dress.

Regardless of which preservation method you choose, never store your dress in an attic or basement. Even preserved dresses require a space with minimal temperature and humidity-level changes.

Won’t you be glad you went to all this fuss when perhaps your own daughter (or even a granddaughter) wants to wear your still-beautiful gown at her wedding?