Surely, not everyone wants to preserve their wedding gown as there are many other options available to them. For instance, some may decide to opt for “wet and wild” photo session, which may well ruin the dress. Others, can think of actually selling the dress or donating it, or simply giving away to a friend being tight on the wedding budget. Finally, re-purpose is also quite popular, giving the fabric a chance of extending its life in some other garments like lingerie or cocktail dress.

Yet, in case you do want your perfect dress to remind you of happy times, love and joy, simple hanging it in some storage place is definitely not good by all means, wedding dresses tend to be exposed to yellowing of the fabric over the time, come up with brown oxidation spots, mold and fabric creasing are also quite likely to take place. Hence, preservation needs to be treated with respect, special attention and budget, which in fact may range something in between 250 and 750 USD. Oh well, let’s walk though the key points as follows.

Dry cleaning and preservation are not synonyms in this particular case, no need to mention how delicate the fabric can be but also, there is a need for professional assessment before considering any particular cleaning methods. For instance, solvents can be very different, and not only in terms of their cleaning characteristics but even in smell. By the way, reading the label also helps, none of the instructions or advice provided are not to be ignored.

Time scale is very important, you cannot afford yourself to postpone the preservation process much as for instance, many people may only think of it after 4-6 weeks, well after the honey moon. However, some stains, initially invisible, may appear by the time and the worst part, turn into more or less permanent state. Even in case, the dry cleaners guarantee the result, do double check their policies as to not just refunding the cost of cleaning but the whole potential damage to the garment.

Storage is not just about cool, dark, stable temperature and dry place but also, the professional preservation box, acid-free, air-tight, where oxygen is replaced by nitrogen, which probably quite reasonably explains the range of the budget mentioned earlier. That is to say that storing your dress in regular zip up plastic bed is also out of scope, as it may contain acid as well as hold moisture, which may potentially discolor your dress.

Why not DIY? At the end of the day, taking into account all of the complexity of understanding the decision to go for preservation of your dress, you can always opt for DIY option. However, in this case, we do strongly recommend you to google step by step professional instruction, clearly outlining the sequence of your actions, chemicals to be used as well as any additional tools and instruments you may require, in additional to the essential knowledge.