Keeping your wedding dress preserved for the rest of your life shouldn’t be a luxury. It should be a given. Unfortunately, many brides don’t have the foresight to plan that far ahead, and they end up with only a few short years to use their dress before it starts to fall apart. Or worse, it’s irreparably damaged from one too many spin cycles in the washing machine. This isn’t an uncommon problem for modern brides, who are frequently pressured by society and family to marry someone sooner than they might like or feel ready for. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t preserve your wedding dress, so you can enjoy it for decades to come! With just a little bit of planning and preparation, you can keep your dress safe from damage and make sure it lasts forever.
Why You Should Preserve Your Wedding Dress Right Away
First and foremost, you should preserve your wedding dress as soon as possible because the older it gets, the more it will deteriorate. Some materials will start to break down and discolor, especially if exposed to excessive heat or light. Other fabrics could get stained and smell bad as bacteria grows on them.
In addition, the longer you wait to preserve your dress, the less likely it is that a professional cleaner will be able to restore it to its original condition. You’ll also be less likely to find a company that works with your specific type of fabric, especially if it’s a rare or discontinued fabric.
If you wait to preserve your dress until it’s already damaged, you’ll have to pay a lot more money to restore it—if it can be repaired. All of these reasons make it worthwhile to preserve your gown as soon as possible.
Dry Cleaning is Extremely Bad for Your Dress
The most popular way to clean wedding gowns is to send them to a dry cleaner. Unfortunately, this method can damage your dress, especially if it’s a delicate fabric like silk or chiffon. The harsh chemicals in cleaning solutions can damage the fibers and brittle materials, which can break down over time and lead to holes and tears in the dress.
Even if the cleaner is careful, there’s always a chance that the dress will still be stained or discolored. Unfortunately, it can be tough to restore the original color of a dress that’s been dry-cleaned and to remove stains once they’ve set in.
If your dress has already been cleaned, there might be nothing you can do to save it. Fortunately, you can avoid all these problems by preserving your clothing while it’s still in good condition. This way, you’ll be able to clean it carefully without triggering any damage or discoloration.
Professional Preservation is Worth Every Penny
If you want to ensure your dress lasts forever, you must preserve it professionally. This will protect it from damage and make it easier to clean. You can send your dress to a cleaner specializing in wedding dresses and get it preserved with a unique process designed to extend its useful life for decades.
Preservation specialists can sew a bag or special lining into your dress to protect it from being damaged by insects and pests. They can also repair any small tears or weak spots in the fabric and reinforce any weak areas with patches or stitching.
This extra work will ensure that insects and pests can’t get into your dress and damage it. It will also make cleaning your clothing easier since you won’t have to worry as much about stains and odors. This can save you a lot of time and money in the long run.
3 Different Types of Wedding Dress Preservation
There are three general categories of wedding gown preservation. Each one will keep your dress in excellent condition, but they also have different levels of cost and effort. The least expensive and most common method of preservation is called garment bagging. This process involves cleaning and repairing your dress, then putting it in a special bag that will protect it from insects and pests.
The next step up is garment bagging with special or rare fabrics. This means placing your dress inside a bag and then wrapping it in an additional layer of cloth to prevent bugs from getting to it. This extra layer of fabric is designed to make sure that delicate fabrics are protected from being crushed or becoming too warm.
Finally, there’s hand-binding, which is the most expensive and time-consuming way to preserve your dress. This process involves carefully wrapping the dress in special fabric to protect it from insects and pests. Then the cleaner will sew the fabric in place with a decorative stitch to make your dress look even better than when you first bought it.
2 Additional Steps to Help Your Dress Last Even Longer
There are two other things you can do to ensure that your dress stays in great condition throughout the years. First, you can store your dress in a non-humid environment. This will help prevent mold and mildew from growing on your dress, which can be very difficult to get out once it starts to form. A closet or special cabinet is usually the best place for long-term storage, although some people choose to hang their dress on the wall or display it on a mannequin.
Another way to help your dress last even longer is to put it in a garment bag or wrapping and freeze it. This can kill any insects and pests that are currently in your dress, then become dormant and die when the dress is brought back to room temperature. Freezing your dress once every five years can extend its useful life by a decade or more.
Wrapping Up
Wedding dresses are an important part of any couple’s special day. Unfortunately, they are also very delicate and fragile. If they aren’t preserved properly, they will quickly fall apart and be unusable. The good news is that it’s easy to preserve a wedding dress and make sure it lasts for decades. All you have to do is send it to a preservation specialist and choose one of the three most common methods of preservation.
You can also protect your dress by storing it in a non-humid environment and freezing it every few years to kill any pests that might be living inside it. Wedding dress preservation is an important part of any couple’s special day, and it’s also a great way to make sure you can enjoy your dress for decades to come.
