Your wedding gown may not have been the most important part of your wedding day, but it certainly holds a lot of sentimental value. You spent countless hours researching, daydreaming, and shopping for the perfect wedding dress, and now that the big day has come and gone, you may be left wondering what to do with your dress?
Brides have several options when it comes to what to do with their wedding dresses. Some sell them, some repurpose the fabric, some brides trash their dresses, and others choose to preserve them. There is no best option; you need to pick the one that speaks most to you.
However, unless you are indeed going to destroy your dress for a photo opportunity, wedding gown dry cleaning as soon as possible after your special day is crucial.
Whether you are going to keep, sell, or transform your wedding dress into something new, wedding gown dry cleaning is a must to preserve delicate dress fabric.
No matter how careful you are while wearing your wedding dress, stains are almost guaranteed to happen. The good news is that when cleaned promptly, an experienced dry cleaner can manage to get most of them out. Red wine from that last toast? No problem. Grass stains incurred nailing that perfect, totally unposed bridesmaid shot? Your dry cleaner can make it disappear. You get the point. But time is of the essence; the sooner you get your wedding gown dry cleaned, the easier it will be to remove these imperfections.
Most wedding dresses are made from some combination of polyester or other synthetic fibers. Left untreated, these materials tend to yellow over time; suddenly, your beautiful white dress isn’t as beautiful anymore.
When you dry clean your wedding gown, not only are all potentially damaging stains removed but a non-toxic solution can be applied to preserve the crisp white or ivory colour.
Dry cleaning isn’t the only option for cleaning your wedding gown. Some cleaners also offer wet cleaning. What’s the difference?
Wet cleaning is exactly what it sounds like, just on a larger scale. Using commercial machines, your dress will be washed and dried according to the care instructions for that fabric. Wet cleaning is an option for many kinds of synthetic fabrics and could be preferable for dresses with lots of intricate beading that might react poorly to the solvents used in dry cleaning.
Dry cleaning utilizes a special solvent rather than detergent and water to get a garment clean. While clothes will get a little wet during the process, the solvent contains almost no water and evaporate much quicker than water, protecting delectate fabrics that can’t handle getting wet in a traditional washing machine.
These solvents are very good at removing stains, especially oil-based stains that can’t be treated with wet washing solutions. If a dress has many water-based stains, like wine or watermarks, the dress will be spot cleaned and dried before being dry cleaned.
Dry cleaning is usually preferred to wet cleaning for most types of fabrics, but one is not better than the other.
Wedding gowns are an investment, and when having something with that much monetary and sentimental value cleaned, make sure you choose a cleaner who has experience with this type of garment. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about their process, cleaners, and fabric guarantees or insurance. When it comes to wedding gown dry cleaning, you should only trust the best.