Mrs. Lollipop, Pittsburgh
Age and Occupation: 26, Computational Linguist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Project Manager
Engagement Date: August 2, 2006
Wedding Date: September 2, 2007
Blogging Since: July 17, 2007
Venue: The PPG Aquarium at the Pittsburgh Zoo
About Me: I'm a Pittsburgh transplant who grew up in the deep south. I have a weakness for exotic alphabets, DIY projects, mobster movies and international travel. My fiance and I are both non-native Japanese speakers and we have a bullfrog named Skinny.
What Is The Deal With Wedding Gown Preservation?
October 24th, 2007 @ 1:48 pm by Mrs. Lollipop
I didn’t save many things from my wedding, but my dress is one of the things I wanted to preserve for the long term. I was a little sad that my mother didn’t have her own wedding dress, so I wanted to preserve mine in order to give future offspring the option.
However, I was unprepared to deal with the complications of the wedding gown preservation industry. It turns out that cleaning a gown is nothing like cleaning a coat or a blouse, the beading and embroidery require extra care…and extra money. This Martha Stewart Weddings guide is particularly helpful in providing information for selecting the right cleaner.
Among other things, one should look for a preservation service that will not…
- …use one-size pricing policies. Pricing should differ according to the amount of damage and details that will make cleaning more complicated, like lace, beads or thread work. Quoting a single price is an indication that all gowns will be treated the same.
- …void any guarantees if the box is opened. This policy prevents brides from inspecting their dresses to see that they were cleaned properly. Furthermore, dresses should be taken out of their box and re-folded yearly to prevent permanent crease lines.
- …um, not stand by their warranty for years, even against invisible stains. Some stains take years to discolor a dress, and are a sign that it wasn’t thoroughly cleaned.
I took my dress to a dry cleaner that I thought specialized in gown preservation. I was a little bit wary when the person behind the counter couldn’t answer any of my questions. Instead of cleaning gowns in-house they are sent away for six weeks to a month to a service called Keepsafe. I couldn’t even point out the specific stains to them. My dress is pristine except for a few wax stains near the hem. I managed to remove most of the wax using the ol’ paper bag technique, but there are still imprints of the stain left, enough so that I’m worried about them ruining the dress permanently. I’ve called several cleaners in the area and no one has been able to give me a straight answer about whether this can be fixed. Worse yet, Keepsafe has no contact information in its pamphlet so I can call and see if they have any experience with this kind of stain. Plus, they have no website. Arg.
Readers, if you have any recommendations for gown preservationists in Pennsylvania, Ohio, DC or Atlanta I am all ears. Mrs. Bee, I know you looked in to J. Scheer & Co. Were you happy with the service? Or did you decide to shoot your dress out of a cannon?
8 Responses to “What Is The Deal With Wedding Gown Preservation?”
I was a little overwhelmed with the whole gown preservation thing, so I just took mine to a local cleaner, talked to the owner and paid $50.00 to get it cleaned and boxed it myself (white cotton gloves and a large sheet spread out on the floor). It’s not sealed or anything, but I don’t need it to last 300 years. And what good is a guarentee if the company goes out of business?
Maybe just try calling up local cleaners and asking about wax stains in general? There are plenty of non-wedding outfits with beading and lace, so it can’t be too terribly rare.
Commenting from my blackberry! 
j scheer did a fantastic job tho it was very pricey. But I paid a lot for my gown so I didn’t want to risk it ya know? iit would be awesome if my daughter wears my gown, but hopefully she isn’t as short as I am. I have some more info for u that ill dig up once I’m back at a computer.
We went with http://www.wedclean.net since Mrs. Tomato blogged about it and recommended them and I was too overwhelmed to come up with any other alternative. It was super easy and relatively cheap compared to other specialty places, and from what I can tell my dress looks fantastic. One thing I liked is that they don’t do any repairs (like reattaching loose beading etc) because I didn’t want to pay extra for that now since if anyone ever DOES want to rewear my dress, they’ll have to get it altered most likely anyway, so I don’t care that it’s in perfect condition now; I just didn’t want any stains that couldn’t be fixed later. Regardless, my main concern was that I didn’t want anyone to actively mess it up (which is why I was wary of just walking into a local dry cleaner) but I didn’t want to pay for the super extra exclusive crazy preservation either. I think I found a good compromise.
If you have a relatively simple gown, you might want to just bypass this whole process. I had a bridesmaids gown in ivory, so I definitely did not want to spend more on cleaning than I had on the actual gown. I threw it in the washing machine on the gentle cycle and hung it up to dry…it turned out perfectly, and it’s now stored away safe and sound.
If your gown is polyester, just flip it inside out and wash it in the washer. If your gown is silk, get it professionally cleaned at a trustworthy place and store away from the sun. Sun damages silk a LOT.
I’ve taken mine to Busy Bee (that may only be a Canadian company), they are really great, and can also box it for you. I didn’t realize until I spoke to them that there are a lot of don’ts regarding presevation (no tissue paper, no cardboard boxes etc). Expensive, but so was my dress so I think it’s worth it.
Arg, I was totally back and forth on this one too - my gown is 100% polyester and I REALLY (I mean REALLY REALLY) wanted to try washing it in the washing machine. I am the opposite of sentimental, and knew that I was eventually going to try to sell my dress anyway. Which is why DH convinced me to have it professionally cleaned (who would want to buy a used dress that wasn’t professionally cleaned?). We took it to our local cleaners, and they cleaned and preserved it for $150 (sigh).
Based on several recommendations I had my dress cleaned and preserved through the Affordable Preservation Company (www.affordablepreservation.com) for $129. My dress came out great! I was hesitant to send off my gown at 1st, but it was super easy and was delievered right to my doorstep in a few weeks. If you go to their website there is a link to video that shows you how the whole process works - very cool!
