Wedding Dress Cleaning

When you’re ready to have your wedding dress cleaned, you do have a few options available to you.  While we’d like to see every bride have their dress professionally cleaned and preserved, we understand that not all brides will be up to the task after the expense and busyness surrounding their wedding day.  Your options are the following: store your gown until you’re ready to have it professionally cleaned, attempt to clean the gown yourself, take it to a local dry cleaning company which is properly equipped to clean the delicate fabrics of a wedding dress.  Regardless of which option you go with, be sure to do your research beforehand and be sure you’re comfortable in your decision.

Having Your Wedding Dress Dry Cleaned

Another option for cleaning your wedding dress is to take it to a local dry cleaning company.  Below are some tips on having your dress cleaned locally.

• Is the cleaning performed on site? Ask if they clean your dress on the premises or send it off to another company.  Most local dry cleaners don’t have the proper equipment needed to clean the delicate materials of a wedding gown and often send it off to a professional company, marking up the cost in the process.  If this is the case, skip the middleman and go straight to the company who will be doing the cleaning and you’ll save yourself hundreds of dollars in the process.
• Shop around.  You’ll find that local wedding dress dry cleaning costs can vary by hundreds of dollars, even if some use the same exact service to have your dress cleaned and preserved.
• Ask if they have a warranty and ask for referrals.  The best way to see if a dry cleaner will stand behind the work they perform is if they can issue you a certificate of guarantee.  They should also be able to provide a list of other brides who have used the service in the past who you can speak with to put your mind at ease.
• How do they package the dress after cleaning?  Some dry cleaning companies will place your dress in a simple dry cleaning bag rather than placing the gown on a bust and placing into a preservation box.  Hanging your gown in a closet can cause permanent stretch to the fabric where the gown sits on the hanger.  Also be sure there is a viewing window so others can see your gown without having to handle the dress and transfer oils from their skin onto the delicate material.