Wedding Dress Cleaning– Preserving your Memories
He’s finally asked the big question, and the day you’ve dreamed of since you were a girl is now just around the corner. So many things to organize: the venue for the ceremony and the reception, how far and wide to send the wedding invitations, dresses for the bridesmaids and, of course, your wedding dress.
Today’s weddings are more expensive than ever, regularly comparing in price to a new car. Not the least of the expenses is the wedding dress. For many married women, the wedding dress is far and away the most expensive article of clothing they will ever wear. While the occasion certainly warrants it – after all, it’s a rare event in one’s life – a wedding dress is typically expensive to acquire and, potentially when searching for professional wedding dress cleaning services, can prove expensive..
Although one never sees it in photos taken by a professional photographer several days before the wedding, the potential for your wedding dress to acquire stains is significant. Depending on weather conditions, inside temperature and the nervousness that is to be expected on your wedding day, you may have sweat stains form in the bodice area and elsewhere. Stains from food and wine at the wedding reception are another distinct possibility. Some of the most common ones, such as sugar stains from champagne and cake icing, are nearly invisible at the time they are created, and these stains can set and darken over time.
The good news is that, although your wedding dress will not likely survive the big day entirely stain-free, taking steps ahead of time to ensure that the dress is professionally cleaned and preserved within an appropriate timeframe will greatly improve the odds of your dress being restored to its original condition. Taking the dress for cleaning within one month of the wedding is sufficient for many wedding dresses (so no need to shorten the honeymoon to save your dress), assuming there are no stains that need immediate attention. Otherwise, arrange to have it cleaned within a few days or as soon after the wedding as possible.
All brides-to-be should understand the cleaning and preservation process for wedding dresses so that appropriate arrangements can be made prior to the day of the wedding. While considerably more complicated than that of most other special-care garments, a good bit of planning and forethought will ensure that your cherished wedding dress and future family heirloom will survive the decades as well as the new life you are about to begin.
First and foremost, understand that the care for such a garment will be considerably more specific and expensive than for most other dry-clean-only or other special-care garments. If the process seems a bit overwhelming and you feel as though you have been tasked with preserving a treasure, it’s because you have. With that in mind, you will want to begin by consulting with a specialty wedding dress cleaner. One way that you will know you are dealing with a reputable company is that they will not charge a flat fee for all wedding dresses. Different dresses have different cleaning and storage requirements, and the right wedding dress cleaner will recommend a telephone consultation or that you bring in your wedding dress to be inspected before they provide a quote for the cleaning and preservation.
Where preservation is concerned, you will want to make sure that your wedding dress cleaning company makes a point of preserving your wedding dress in acid-free tissue paper when storing it in an archival box. The museum preservation method is another option, but it usually costs more. Once you have had your wedding dress cleaned and preserved, be sure to store the dress in a cool, dark area free of moisture and sunlight. Avoid storing the dress in areas of the house such as the attic or basement, as they typically do not benefit from the climate controls in the main living space. If storing in a rented storage space, make sure that it is climate-controlled.
As with many other aspects of your wedding plans, it may seem as though the devil is in the details when it comes to having your wedding dress professionally cleaned and preserved. By knowing those details beforehand and making arrangements with a specialty cleaning and preservation company, you can rest assured that the dress in which you have made a substantial investment will be just as beautiful several decades from now as the day you walked down the aisle.
Imagine handing your precious wedding gown into the protection of the safest, most caring hands there are; gentle hands that will love it, respect it, nurture it and expertly clean and restore it, preserving the exquisite memories invested in every thread now and for the future.
At Dulais wedding dress cleaning, we are renowned for being at the very cutting edge and forefront of bridal wear care and we are committed to protecting our position as the best in the business. Which means you know that your cherished dress will be treasured now and for generations to come. We treat every dress as unique, whether it’s classic or contemporary, modern or vintage, hand-painted or handmade. Every cleaning process should be unique also, so here at Dulais, our highly trained technicians treat every dress as an individual, creating a bespoke cleaning process for your gown and your gown only.
Our techniques are painstaking, time-consuming, and highly successful, which is why our brides tell their friends about us, building our reputation through word of mouth alone. We are also used and recommended by some of the country’s most reputable wedding dress retailers and consultants within the bridal industry.
Whether your dream gown cost £400 or £40,000, whether it’s by Maggie Sottero, Iain Stuart, Vera Wang, or couture Dior – we understand best how to treat it and care for it so that you can always reach out and touch your special memories now and in the future.
To find out more about having your wedding dress cleaned and preserved why not contact Dulais specialist UK wedding dress dry cleaners now on 0800 028 3088.