What are my Wedding Dress Preservation & Cleaning Options?

Newly married brides usually experience difficulty when planning to clean their gowns after the wedding. However, there are multiple options for what you can do with your gown after saying your vows. Professional wedding dress cleaning and preservation ensures that the gown receives an intricate and delicate treatment.

Wedding gown preservation typically involves an experienced specialist's assessment. Depending on your dress's fabric and condition, the specialist will create a unique treatment plan to eliminate all the stains.

Does Cleaning Your Wedding Dress Matter?

After your wedding, chances are that you'd love to store your wedding gown and pass it down to your children and grandchildren. Cleaning the dress professionally ensures that you preserve it and keep it in pristine condition for years to come.

Deodorants, soda water, skin oil, and white wine can all stain your dress on your special day. Failing to clean your gown after that increases the chance of fabric yellowing. It is always a good idea to neutralize the gown's fibers before storing it.

Working with a professional wedding dress cleaner offers access to fabric care equipment that can restore your gown's brilliance. Besides, you can count on your cleaner's experience to identify and remove hidden stains.

Failing to clean your gown exposes it to multiple issues, including:

• Fabric yellowing
• Permanent fabric creases
• Brown oxidation spots
• Mildew and mold growth

What are your Wedding Dress Cleaning Options?

There are multiple wedding dress cleaning options available for newly married brides. While some prefer a professional dry cleaner, others may opt for online wedding dress cleaners. Here are a couple of wedding dress cleaning options to consider:

• Clean the gown yourself
• Find a local dry cleaning company
• Ask an online wedding dress cleaning company to clean the gown
• Store your dress until you're ready to seek professional cleaning services

Do your homework about the available options before settling on one of them. Performing sufficient research ensures that you make an informed decision based on your circumstances.

Wedding Dress Dry Cleaning Costs in 2022

Different factors influence the overall wedding dress dry cleaning costs. The extent of damage to your dress often significantly affects how much you'll pay for the cleaning services. Expect to incur additional charges if you have a badly stained or yellowed dress.

Your cleaner may also factor in the dress' age and the average local wedding dress cleaning prices. Some dry cleaners will charge you more if you have a vintage wedding gown. The additional charges arise from the delicate hand processing required to keep its fabrics intact.  

Bridal boutiques in Upstate NY tend to charge less for wedding dress cleaning compared to those in Manhattan's Upper East Side. Both of these boutiques may still seek the services of the same 3^rd party gown cleaner. If you opt for an online cleaner, you will eliminate the living upcharges cost and pay the same rate regardless of your location.

On average, expect to pay between $180 and $250 when seeking professional dry cleaning services. Our service runs $195 to clean your wedding gown. If you opt for wedding dress preservation, you may have to pay an additional $50-$100. Our preservation service start at $249 and we do not charge any additional feels.  For example, other companies may charge a additional costs of up to $50 to remove oil out of the gown. If you request professional boxing and wedding gown preservation services after the cleaning, that also could be a additional charge. With our services you pay a flat fee no matter the gown, no surprise charges!

Cleaning gowns with a natural fiber like silk often requires more time and high expertise, resulting in additional costs. Intricate trims and cuttings may also call for increased labor to guarantee their protection. If your gown has any damages, you might also incur additional repair charges.

Should you clean your Wedding Dress Yourself?

Cleaning your gown may be a viable option if you enjoy DIY projects. Brides who've purchased second-hand dresses are also more likely to clean them by themselves. However, gowns with delicate materials like taffeta or silk are not ideal for home cleaning. Traditional cleaning detergents can quickly cause damage to such sensitive materials.

If you're confident about handwashing, avoid using bleach when cleaning your gown. You may ruin your wedding dress permanently and forfeit the opportunity to pass it on to future generations. Additionally, it would help if you worked with soft-bristled brushes that won't fray the delicate fabric.

Ensure that you press your gown's material delicately if it has organza details. High heat can cause this material to lose its crispness and glow. Other guidelines you can keep in mind while cleaning your wedding dress yourself include:

• Handle the wedding dress with white cotton gloves
• Spot test your fabric in a hidden area to ensure that your cleaning won't cause significant damage
• Wrap the gown in acid-free tissue paper once you clean and dry it.
• Stuff the dress' sleeves and bust with enough tissue paper to maintain their shape.
• Hang the cleaned gown in a cool, dry closet using an acid-free plastic garment bag
• Avoid hanging your dress on a wood or wire hanger

Finding a Local Dry Cleaner to Clean your Dress

Local dry cleaners offer a suitable alternative for brides looking to keep their wedding dresses in pristine conditions. Before settling on one company, shop around and compare the local dry cleaners' services and prices. You can always ask for referrals from other brides that have used these services before.

Besides, you may also want to know if the local wedding dress cleaners clean the dress on-site or seek the help of a 3^rd party. Local dry cleaners who rely on 3^rd parties tend to charge you more than the average prices. Chances are 3^rdparty cleaners are sending it to a cleaning plant which you can do yourself by buying a preservation kit online (Work direct with us to save money).

 You can trust your dress to cleaners who've invested in the proper equipment needed to clean delicate wedding gowns. Such cleaners will do a good job. Be cautious as very few cleaners have the needed equipment to do so.

If you go with a local dry cleaner, make sure they offer warranties or certificates of the guarantee. These cleaners are more likely to perform their duties efficiently. Ensure that you also ask about a company's packaging principles. Ask your local dry cleaner to use an acid-free box to pack your gown.

Online Wedding Dress Dry Cleaners

Wedding dress professional cleaners offer the best cleaning and preservation services. Most of these companies have specialized in cleaning wedding gowns. A typical online wedding dress cleaner invests in the best equipment to guarantee top-notch cleaning. You will also get access to highly experienced cleaners who constantly seek more education about fabrics.

With online gown cleaners, you'll need to order a preservation kit. Your cleaner will work to ship the gown to a preservation studio. Once they clean and preserve your wedding dress, they send it back to you in immaculate condition. This is usually the most efficient way to get your gown cleaned.

What should you consider Before Settling for an Online Wedding Dress Dry Cleaner?

While online wedding dress dry cleaners promise a lot of quality, you'll need to perform your homework to ensure that you don't receive substandard services. For one, ensure that your preferred company has spent enough time in the market. Read the wedding gown preservation reviews.

Also, ask them to elaborate on the payment package. Some online dry cleaners may ask you to pay the shipping costs separately, forcing you to incur additional unforeseen charges. Overall, ensure that the cleaning and preservation costs do not go beyond $400.

You may also want to partner with an online dry cleaning company that allows for extra items. Most brides prefer to preserve their veils, shoes, or purse. An ideal dry cleaner will create room for such things in the preservation box.

Should you prepare your Wedding Dress before Professional Cleaning?

Most professional cleaners won't require you to do anything to your wedding dress before the actual cleaners. Professional cleaning services have more efficient equipment, skilled hands, and treatment products than home cleaning options. Let your dry cleaning company worry about any block spots or yellow stains on your dress.

If you must perform any initial steps, you may want to examine your wedding dress to identify the stained and spotted areas. You can inspect your dress in these areas when your dry cleaner returns it.

The Perfect Time to Send in Your Wedding Dress for Cleaning

Seeking the services of a wedding dress cleaner and preserver early ensures that the stains won't set in. Stains that set can be more challenging to remove. Besides, exposing your fabric to light for several weeks or months might cause it to degrade. Degrading fabric will eventually alter your wedding dress's quality and affect how you preserve it in the long term.

Storing the gown in a plastic garment bag will degrade your dress further. The plastic tends to emit chemicals that will accelerate the yellowing effect on your white dress. These garment bags are only for short-term storage of the wedding dress.

If possible, send your dress for cleaning immediately after the wedding. You could opt to pre-purchase your preservation kit when you order your dress. This move allows you to send your gown for cleaning before you take off for your honeymoon. However, it is never too late to clean and preserve your wedding dress for future generations. Partnering with a skilled preservation specialist ensures that your gown maintains its beauty many years down the line.

Finding the best wedding dress preservation services ensures that the gown retains its fabric, shape, and color. Wedding gown cleaning and preservation is ideal for sentimental value and passing it down to future generations. 

Make sure you view our Traditional Preservation Kit and Celebrity Preservation Kit. To watch how the process works, click here to see the video.