If you've stumbled upon this article, you probably think your stunning wedding gown is worth taking extra measures to preserve for future generations.
Excellent work!
There is no more iconic token of your most incredible day than your wedding gown.
You felt and looked like a princess as you walked down the aisle to meet the person you would spend the rest of your life with.
You can prevent your wedding dress from fading and staining in the future by storing it correctly, whether you intend to keep it in the family as an heirloom to be passed down to the next generation, or whether you choose your children to have the chance to don it once again on their wedding day, or whether you plan to one day sell your gown to the next bride.
She will love it just as much as you did.
Modern brides have many choices for how to dispose of their wedding dresses after the big day has come and gone.
Some people "trash it" with colour bomb photography, while others transform their bridal gown into lingerie or cocktail dress.
However, many brides prefer to keep the clothing they wear on their wedding day since it holds such a special meaning.
Therefore, preserving wedding dresses is crucial. There is no foolproof way to clean a wedding dress because of its elaborate designs and fragile fabrics.
If you have your wedding dress professionally cleaned and kept, you can wear it for years. If you don't take care to protect your wedding gown, you run the chance of having to replace it because of the following:
- The fabric has begun to yellow.
- Spots of brown oxidation
- Mildew and mould colonisation
- Continuous wrinkling of the fabric
What is Wedding Gown Preservation?
Wedding dress preservation, in a nutshell, entails having your dress cleaned and maintained by a specialist using methods and materials appropriate for a museum, so providing you with a guarantee that your gown will not yellow or become stained over time.
Because of the variety in wedding dresses, each one needs its specific protocol for removing stains and maintaining its pristine appearance.
The specifics of this strategy depend on numerous variables, including the kind of dress, the designer, the fabric, the embellishments, the colour, and more.
Preserving a wedding dress consists of several cleaning steps and uniquely storing the garment to maintain its original condition.
Wedding Gown Preservation vs. Regular Dry Cleaning
Instead of a generic dry-cleaning service, wedding dress preservation starts with a thorough examination by a trained professional.
The professional examines the staining at the hem and throughout the dress and then formulates one tailored to the specifics of the garment's fabric, stitching, and other aspects.
However, some laundromats also provide a specific service for cleaning bridal gowns.
You could use them, but you should verify their procedures first. Find a dry cleaner that has solvents that are mild and purified enough for a gown. Wedding dresses should be dry cleaned with a solvent designed explicitly for that purpose.
Some other solutions used for ordinary dry cleaning may include pollutants that might redeposit onto garments and produce a weird odour.
Only dry cleaners specialising in cleaning gowns should clean and preserve a wedding dress.
Digging into cleaning services or preservationist practices before hiring them is essential.
You should hire someone who promises they won't mess up the preservation. Look for a warranty that covers the total value of the gown (not only the protection) in the event of any damage.
Inquire how long the company stands by their preservation of the wedding dress.
Is There a Special Box I Need to Keep My Wedding Gown?
If the firm you hire to protect and preserve your wedding gown uses a specially made acid-free preservation box, your garment will be safely stored away for at least a century.
Eliminating variables that may lead to early yellowing or stains is crucial to keeping your gown for the long term, resulting in a wedding gown that will last for centuries rather than decades.
Standard shipping containers, such as the one in which you received your most recent order, are not suitable for storing sensitive materials for any length of time and will start to degrade after one year.
Discolouration and browning of the fabric at the point of contact with the cardboard occurs due to the rapid breakdown of the chemicals used in the production of a manufactured cardboard shipping box, a phenomenon known as "Scorching" in the textile industry.
Can You Put Your Wedding Dress in a Preservation Box?
That can't be! You must always keep one thing in mind if you want your dress to remain as lovely as the day you bought it.
Here it is: before placing your wedding gown in a preservation box, you must get it cleaned by a professional.
There are a variety of things that might permanently stain your wedding dress, including dirt on your hemline from the dance floor, perspiration spots, cosmetics particles, fragrance residues, food stains, and more.
Worse yet, many colours on your dress will be unnoticeable to your eye immediately following the wedding day but will turn into unattractive brown stains within only a year or two.
The most common cause of your wedding gown turning yellow or brown is the presence of contaminants in the delicate organic fibres used to make it.
If you want your wedding dress to look perfect when you take it out of its preservation box in 20 years, you must get it professionally cleaned.
Is Dress Preservation Worth It?
Your wedding dress may have been hanging in your closet for quite some time, or you may have just bought it a few weeks ago.
It's not an issue of whether or not you should preserve your gown, but rather whether or not the risk of having it yellow, discolour, and the fray is acceptable.
Let's get right into these three reasons why preserving your wedding dress is so important:
Wedding Gowns are Crafted with the Finest Materials
We all know that wedding gowns aren't exactly durable. The delicate fabrics used to make most dresses (lace, taffeta, silk) make it crucial that they are stored safely for the foreseeable future.
One of the worst ways to keep your gown is to leave it hanging in the wardrobe for years.
When a dress is hung up, the fabric can get stretched and creased around the hanger, and any time it is brushed against or moved, it risks getting a rip or a fray.
Store your dress in a preservation box atop a bust to maintain its shape, and you can be assured that the delicate fabrics will last for years to come without deteriorating.
To Create a Wearable Family Heirloom
Throughout history, we've seen countless iterations of wedding dress silhouettes and fabrics come and go.
Plunging necklines, sleeves, and bustles have all come back at various points in recent history.
What if the gown you wore to your wedding was suddenly in vogue again when it was time for your daughter's or granddaughter's big day? One of the best ways they may remember you on their big day is by wearing your wedding dress.
The best way to guarantee your wedding dress will look as stunning on its big day as it did on yours is to have it professionally cleaned and preserved.
You May Now Affordably Have Your Wedding Gown Cleaned and Preserved
The preservation of wedding dresses was once the exclusive domain of the wealthy, as the task necessitated expensive equipment that only the most prestigious dry cleaners could offer.
Mail-in wedding gown preservation services have become widely available with the development of the internet.
Preserving items by mail has been secure, insured, and guaranteed for over a century.
Even after factoring in the markup, local dry cleaners add to the cost of sending your dress out for preservation; using a mail-in service will save you hundreds of dollars.
How Should I Keep a Preserved Wedding Dress?
Your gown will arrive in a professional-approved storage box, but remember that even acid-free cardboard boxes can re-acidify with time.
Because cardboard absorbs moisture and promotes the formation of mould or mildew inside a storage chamber, not just any box will suffice. Use proprietary boxes made with the same material used to store historic costume collections.
It keeps dresses safe in an archival fabric storage container.
It is an unreactive material and a non-absorbent that gives better comprehensive moisture prevention and resists temperature and humidity variations.
Keep the package flat and upright after the preservation packing process is finished and your preserved clothing has been returned to you.
Keep your box in a cold, dark, and dry location with a constant relative humidity of 50% or where the temperature is adjusted for typical living conditions.
Avoid direct sunshine or extreme heat.
A gown should not be stored in a temperature-changing location like the attic or basement.
The temperature change between warm and cold could cause condensation, which would be detrimental to the preservation process.
Experts advise opening the box and evaluating the robe in case any abrupt discolouration, element exposure, and other issues go untreated for too long.
The oils and salts easily damage dresses and other delicate materials on your skin, so be careful when removing them from the box.
If you can't use gloves, at least wash your hands. To examine the dress, note how it was packed and remove the lid from the box.
It's impossible to close your clothing box while preserving it entirely.
By trapping condensation inside the box, mould and mildew can bloom, which will leave stains on the dress and degrade the fabric.
Also, if you seal a tube and then open it, the oxygen in the box will be re-oxygenated quickly, which is terrible for the fibres.
Can I Also Keep the Other Pieces of My Wedding Attire?
Discuss packing extras like jewellery and footwear in your box with your preservationist.
Your expert will suggest how to keep the items best, even if doing so isn't the best given the materials you plan to include.
Any additional options of interest you need can be discussed.
You may preserve your bouquet, shoes, and dress if you take the proper precautions.
Cleaning fabric footwear requires a soft cloth or sponge and some mild detergent. Care for leather footwear by polishing the soles.
You can take your badly scuffed shoes to dry cleaning. Put your freshly cleaned shoes in a box, and then wrap each pair individually in white tissue paper.
You may be able to put your shoes in the restoration box with your dress if they are made of the same fabric.
If you want to know if this is feasible, you should consult with your preservationist.
Preserving flowers in bridal bouquets can be done in several different ways; including There are many options for storing flowers in bridal bouquets, such as pressing, hanging, covering in wax, or utilising epoxy resin.
Is It Still Possible to Preserve My Wedding Gown?
Whether they tied the knot just last year or thirty or more years ago, this is the most frequently asked question by brides.
Although it is never late to maintain your wedding dress, it's best to have it professionally cleaned and conserved as soon as possible after the big day to prevent unnecessary wear and tear on the delicate textiles.Â
Damage from sunshine and oxidation increases with delay. Stains and dirt react with fibres in textiles, causing oxidation of the threads over time, which can alter the textile's chemistry and make it more difficult, if not impossible, to undo the damage safely.
The oxidation process can be slowed, and a longer time can pass between the wedding and cleaning if the dress is kept in a cold, dark, dry storage location after the wedding.Â
The delicate materials of your wedding dress will start to yellow in around six months if you don't take any special care of them after the big day.
All the sweat, antiperspirant, red wine, perfume, and other indistinguishable marks on your wedding day will turn an ugly black colour within a year.
More cleaning products and processes will be required to remove the yellowing and stains once they have set deeply into those sensitive fibres.
This is why you should have your wedding gown professionally cleaned and preserved a month before the big day.
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.
Conclusion
It's vital that bridal gowns be kept in pristine condition so that they don't get stained or fade over time.
Due to the delicate nature of most wedding dresses, there is no surefire method for cleaning them.
If you have your wedding dress professionally cleaned and kept, you can wear it for years to come.
Maintaining a wedding dress for future brides requires special care and handling at every stage of the process.
Wedding dress preservation begins with a comprehensive evaluation by a knowledgeable professional rather than a generic dry-cleaning service.
If you want your wedding dress to look as good as the day you bought it, proper storage is essential.
The presence of impurities in the fragile organic fibres used to create it is the most typical cause of yellowing or even browning.
To keep your dress in pristine condition, it is recommended that you keep it in a preservation box and lay it over a bust.
Sending goods to be preserved by mail is a safe, reliable, and insured option that has been around for over a century.
Put your antique clothing collection in crates manufactured specifically for this purpose.
You shouldn't keep a dress somewhere where the temperature rises and falls frequently, such a cellar or attic.
Be gentle as you remove dresses and other fragile items from the box, as the oils and salts on your skin can cause irreparable harm.
To avoid any sudden discoloration, exposure, or other difficulties, experts recommend inspecting the robe periodically by opening the box.
If you don't take extra care of your wedding dress after the big day, the delicate materials will begin to yellow in around six months.
Once the discoloration and stains have penetrated deeply into the delicate fibres, they will be much more difficult to clean.
Content Summary
- You can prevent your wedding dress from fading and staining in the future by storing it properly, whether you intend to keep it in the family as an heirloom to be passed down to the next generation.
- You may extend the life of your wedding dress by having it cleaned and preserved.
- Instead of a generic dry-cleaning service, wedding dress preservation starts with a thorough examination by a trained professional.
- Find a dry cleaner that has solvents that are mild and purified enough for a gown.
- Before placing your wedding gown in a preservation box, you must get it cleaned by a professional.
- If you want your wedding dress to look perfect when you take it out of its preservation box in 20 years, you need to get it professionally cleaned.
- One of the worst ways to store your gown is to leave it hanging in the wardrobe for years at a time.
- Store your dress in a preservation box, atop a bust to maintain its shape, and you can be assured that the delicate fabrics will last for years to come without deteriorating.
- Mail-in wedding gown preservation services have become widely available with the development of the internet.
- Even after factoring in the markup local dry cleaners add on to the cost of sending your dress out for preservation, using a mail-in service will save you hundreds of dollars.
- Have a discussion with your preservationist regarding packing extras like jewellery and footwear in your box.
- You may preserve your bouquet and shoes along with your dress if you take the right precautions.
- Although it is never late to get your wedding dress maintained, it's best to have it professionally cleaned and conserved as soon as possible after the big day to prevent any unnecessary wear and tear on the delicate textiles.
- The delicate materials of your wedding dress will start to yellow in around six months if you don't take any special care of them after the big day.
- This is why, within a month of the big day, you should have your wedding gown professionally cleaned and preserved.
FAQS ABOUT WEDDING DRESS PRESERVATION
Can you wear a wedding dress that has been preserved?
Yes. Most brides choose to have their wedding dresses adequately cleaned and kept so that a future relative can wear them at their wedding as a way to honour the bride.
What happens if you don't preserve your wedding dress?
You risk the fabric yellowing if you don't take steps to protect your wedding dress. There are brown oxidation patches—colonies of mould and mildew.
Why do people preserve their wedding dresses?
Your wedding dress will remain in excellent shape for years after preservation, making it ideal for passing down to future generations, donating, or repurposing into accessories like a purse or veil.
Can I preserve my wedding dress myself?
If you want to save your bridal gown for a long time, you'll need to invest in some acid-free paper. Dress fabrics are easily damaged by ink from other forms. Store the shift in the original bridal box by wrapping it in acid-free paper. Completely enclose it and seal it.
How long does a wedding dress stay preserved?
Professionally preserving your wedding dress can ensure that it remains pristine for years. Most businesses specialising in preserving wedding gowns guarantee at least 75 or 100 years.