Preserve Your Treasured Memory for Future Generations

THE DEFINITIVE

WEDDING DRESS PRESERVATION GUIDE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Reasons Why You Should Clean & Preserve your Dress

• The History of Gown Preservation

• DIY Home Preservation

• Taking your Dress to a Local Dry Cleaning Company

• Mail-In Internet Wedding Gown Cleaning & Preservation

• How to Store Your Dress After it has been Preserved

• Beyond the Dress: Post-Wedding Checklist

Cherish Your Treasured Memory

REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD CLEAN AND PRESERVE YOUR DRESS

WHY CLEAN & PRESERVE YOUR DRESS?There are many great reasons to clean and preserve your dress. Your wedding gown is representative of the first time your friends and family will see you as you make one of the biggest decisions and commitments of your life. It’s also one of the largest investment you’ve most likely made on your journey to becoming a bride and your gown deserves a little extra care and attention before you’re whisked off to your honeymoon destination.

Having your dress cleaned and preserved gives you the peace of mind in knowing that your child will someday have the option of honoring you by wearing your gown to make her day even more special.

WHY CLEAN & PRESERVE YOUR DRESS?

Top Wedding Dress Dangers on Your Big Day

If left unattended, stains & marks can wreak havoc on the delicate materials that comprise your dress. Remember, those fabrics are organic and anything organic has the potential to break down over time. Many of these stains can be invisible to your eye but can cause yellowing over the years. These include:

Sugar Stains

Sweat Stains

Grass Stains

Food Stains

Dirt Stains

Pen Marks

Deodorant Stains

Alcohol Stains

From Ancient to Modern Days

THE HISTORY OF TEXTILE PRESERVATION

THE HISTORY OF TEXTILE PRESERVATION

Ever since the ceremony of marriage became a tradition, efforts have been made to preserve the ceremonial garments from the wedding day celebration. While traditional wedding attire has been worn for well over 500 years, it is believed that modern technology allowed gowns to be preserved in the mid-1700’s. The earliest known preserved dress that is still on display is that of Princess Charlotte who wed in 1816.

As technology and the understanding of how fabric ages advanced, the process of wedding dress preservation went beyond royalty to become available to the public in the nineteenth century.

THE HISTORY OF TEXTILE PRESERVATION

The Advent of Mail-In Wedding Dress Preservation

Having begun his business in 1912, Robert Shapiro began his business as a small town dry cleaning operation. Over time he invested in equipment that was built specifically to treat the delicate materials found in wedding dresses.

Today the Wedding Gown Preservation Company stands as the largest mail-in wedding dress preservation company in the world and relies on it’s network of distributors to sell the kit to the tens of thousands of brides across the country that utilize the service every year.

THE HISTORY OF TEXTILE PRESERVATION

The Strangest Dress Preservation in Modern History

In 2010 music artist Lady Gaga shocked the world by wearing a dress comprised of meat (beef) to that years MTV Music Video Awards show. Although much speculation was made over the statement she was trying to make, no one could deny the shock value of the dress as she made headlines across the nation.

The dress was preserved and put on display at the Rock-And-Roll Hall of Fame in 2012 where it is still on display.

For Brides in a PinchDIY HOME PRESERVATION

DIY HOME PRESERVATION FOR BRIDES IN A PINCH

While it’s not highly recommended that you attempt to clean and preserve your own gown, you may not be able to preserve your dress right away due to time constraints or a tight budget.

The bottom line is that stains such as sugar from icing can do irreparable damage to you dress if left untreated for a long period of time and are the #1 cause of yellowing.

Instead of simply hanging your gown in your closet and hoping for the best, there area few tips and tricks you can follow to make sure stains don’t do too much damage before you can take it to be professionally cleaned and preserved.

PREPARE YOUR DRESS FOR STORAGE BEFORE IT CAN BE CLEANED

If you can’t have your dress professionally preserved right away, your best bet is to do the best you can to keep your gown in it’s current condition until you can send it off.

Store your gown in a cool dark place like a closet in your main living area in a loosely tied plastic dry cleaning bag.

Examine your gown before putting it in storage for stains and use sticky notes on the outside of the clear dry cleaning bag to make a note of problem areas.

Try not to let the stains sit on the dress for more than a month as any longer will allow the stains to set in the organic material making for a more difficult cleaning down the road.

What You Should Know and Ask

TAKING YOUR DRESS TO A LOCAL DRY CLEANING COMPANY

LOCAL WEDDING GOWN CLEANING AND PRESERVING

One option a bride has after her wedding day is to take her wedding gown to a local cleaners for a cleaning and preservation. While there most likely are quite a few dry cleaners in your area, very few are equipped properly to handle the delicate materials wedding gowns are comprised of.

Local dry cleaning normally takes 3-5 weeks and requires you to drop off your gown and pick it back up at their location.

Be sure to describe in detail the materials your gown is constructed with and if the person behind the counter doesn’t ask you this question, it’s usually a good indication that you’re better off taking your gown elsewhere.

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS TO ASK A LOCAL CLEANER Do you have the onsite equipment to spot clean and dry clean delicate wedding gowns?

Do you send out your gowns to another location and if so, what company do you send them too (you can normally save hundreds of dollars on your preservation by using a direct to dealer online company)

Does the cleaning come with a professional preservation box or do you put the dress in a plastic bag for storage?

How long have you been preserving wedding gowns and what is your specific process?

Does your company guarantee the work they perform?

What type of chemicals are used in the preservation process?

The Safe and Affordable way to Preserve

MAIL IN WEDDING GOWN CLEANING & PRESERVATION

WHAT IS ONLINE WEDDING GOWN PRESERVATION?

While the thought of sending your gown away to a company to be preserved might sound a bit daunting, it is many times more safe much less costly than having it cleaned and preserved locally.

The Wall Street Journal performed a study a while back and determined that mail-in wedding dress preservation was superior to using a local dry cleaning service. The study also found that the local dry cleaning companies also sent the gowns away to the same mail-in cleaning & preservation companies but simply marked up the cost of the service as opposed to ordering direct from an online distributor.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHEN PRESERVING YOUR DRESS ONLINE

Mail-In Wedding Gown Preservation Checklist:

Does the company offer included 2-way shipping ?

Does the company include shipping insurance?

Does the box have a window to view your dress without opening the box?

Does the company offer to preserve accessories?

Does the company guarantee the work they perform?

Does the company have a tracking system in place so you can track the process from your computer?

Does the company offer a low price guarantee to be sure you’re getting the best price on your preservation?

Does the company only perform gown preservation or is the service secondary to normal dry cleaning?

The do’s and do not’s of gown storage

HOW TO STORE YOUR DRESS AFTER IT HAS BEEN PRESERVED

HOW TO STORE YOUR DRESS AFTER PRESERVATION

What you should do:

Check your preservation box over before storing

Store in a dry place with moderated temperatures

Be sure the area you’ll be storing your dress is away from places where moths or other bugs reside

Take out your box once a year to check things over

What you shouldn’t do:

Do not take your gown out of the preservation box, the box is designed to let the material breathe on it’s own.

Do not store in the attic or basement.

Do not store in areas that get direct sunlight

Do not store box in a sealed plastic garbage bag

POST WEDDING CHECKLISTHaving your gown cleaned and preserved is just one of many items a bride needs to remember before she’s whisked away on her honeymoon. Below is a post-wedding checklist to help you remember the

little details after your big day.

“Thank You” Cards for Guests

Name Change Paperwork

Obtain a Copy of Marriage License

Update Drivers Licenses

Update Name on Bills

Update Name on Financial Accounts

Apply for a New Passport

Photograph New Home/Apt for Insurance

Create/Update Living Will

Write “Thank You” Notes to Vendors

Announce Your Wedding in Newspaper

Return all Rented Clothing (Tuxedo)

Put your Mail on Hold

Set up Care for Pets while you’re Away

FURTHER READING/RESOURCESWe’ve put together a list of resources to help you learn more about wedding dress preservation.

Read more about the online preservation process

Watch a video overview of how online preservation works

Watch an online preservation video review from a bride

Read a Wall Street Journal preservation review article