Weddingbee Blog

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?