Cleaning your Wedding Dress
Cleaning your Wedding Dress
April 2, 2005Posted By weddings
More articles on the Wedding Dresses topic: General Info
If you've purchased your dress "off the rack", or maybe it has been sitting around for a while before your wedding and you feel it could use a cleaning prior to your wedding, be careful.
If you take your dress to a dry cleaner, do not take it to a dry cleaner that you are not very well acquainted with. Assuming you do take it to one that you know, be very specific and ask for them to use "CLEAN" cleaning fluid, and not recycled.
Even hand washing can cause damage to some dresses. Check with your vendor before making an attempt. Make sure that they are confident about the fact that your wedding dress is hand washable, don't let them shrug you off with an "of course it is". If they can't inspire your confidence, check in with various online sources, like the alt.wedding newsgroup, or online forums geared specifically towards wedding dresses or textile professionals.
One great option is to ask your wedding shop to have them send it to their heirloomers for cleaning only. The cost should be under $200 and possibly under $100. If it is somebody the wedding shop trusts, then that should give you some comfort.
Different wedding dresses have different cleaning requirements. Lace is often very delicate, and even soaking it in some cleaning materials can cause discoloration and in some cases it may even begin to fray or tear.
Don't be surprised if you end up having to ship your dress somewhere for cleaning. If you don't live in a big city, it is certainly possible that there are not any local cleaners comfortable or qualified to care for your dress properly.
It cannot be stressed enough that you must have strong trust in the person you have selected to clean your dress. Search for references to them on the internet, ask for referrals and take a look at work that they have done previously. If your dress is ruined within a few weeks of your wedding, you may not have time (or money) to find a suitable replacement. In many cases, it is possible to get some money in return through small claims court, but the money is not what matters - it is your wedding that counts.
