I’ve been asked several times about a home remedy for removing grass stains from a polyester wedding dress. The important fact here…and don’t miss it…is this applies to a polyester wedding dress and not silk or other fabrics. Polyester is much more forgiving than silk so don’t follow this remedy for you silk wedding gown.
I was talking recently with a Birmingham-area photographer, Michael Ray Wright. He told me that he tells every Bride he photographs to expect to get grass stains on her gown during the photo session. So don't be surprised if your white gown gets a little green during summertime photo shoots.
When you find a grass stain on your polyester dress, try using a diluted mixture of water and Dawn…about a 1 to 1 mixture should work.
This is how you should apply it:
- Work the mixture in on the wedding dress with the back side (rounded side) of a spoon or even lightly by hand.
- Don’t over work the area and don’t apply much pressure. Just apply the mixture and let the process work…maybe 10 to 15 minutes.
Don’t let it dry before going to the next step.
- Blot the stained area with a wet towel. Don’t wring all the water out of the towel…let it apply some clean water and then blot the area to get off the excess water.
Don’t rub hard because the finish on the wedding dress can become damaged.
- Rinse out the towel several times and keep blotting with the wet towel until the Dawn, the excess water and the grass stain are out.
- If you still have some grass stain, “lather, rinse and repeat.”
- Once you’re finished, be sure to let the dress air out and dry.
This might not result in a perfectly cleaned area on the dress…but I bet it will look much better and probably not that visible except maybe to you.
Dawn is an amazing product.
It can clean Pelicans drenched in oil at the Gulf Coast…and get grass stain out of a wedding dress…without hurting the Pelican or the wedding dress.
And finally, get your wedding dress to your
wedding gown specialist right after your wedding.
Clean and preserve your wedding dress so you can keep your wedding memories.
Do you have any tired and true home remedies to get stains out of a wedding dress?
Let me know by clicking in the comments section below and I’ll pass them on to others.
(C) 2009 - 2010 Champion Wedding Gown Specialist. All Rights Reserved
A Bride from Hoover, Alabama contacted me this week asking if it would be best to steam/press her wedding dress prior to leaving for her destination wedding...or should she wait until she arrives at the wedding site to do this.
I asked her two questions. First, how was she traveling? If you travel by plane and the dress must be placed in a carry-on size bag, there is probably no benefit to steaming out the wrinkles before the trip. But if you travel by car, train or even boat (like on a cruise), it may benefit you to steam or press it before the trip. It's usually easier to transport a wedding dress without adding to the wrinkles when traveling by car, train or cruise ship.
The second question I asked was how wrinkled was the dress? If it has really bad wrinkles, you need to know how bad the wrinkles are...and where they are. If the dress is a used wedding dress, like a second generation wedding dress, and has been stored in some type of container but not properly cushioned at the folds, you could find your gown has permanent creases. You want to know about the extent of permanent creases before you travel to your destination. You want to make sure
One other tip. If you plan on having your wedding dress pressed or steamed at your destination, try to find the wedding gown specialist at your wedding site before your wedding. Even if you don't plan on using someone at your destination, you never know what might happen.
(C) 2009 - 2010 Champion Wedding Gown Specialist. All Rights Reserved
"How long will it take to do my Wedding Dress alterations?"
We get questions all the time asking about the time it takes us to complete Wedding Dress alterations at our gown care shop in Birmingham, Alabama. The same questions also come to us about Bridesmaids Dresses, Mother of the Bride Dresses, Maid of Honor Gowns and Prom Gowns. These questions are often in the form of e-mails and phone calls.
And the answer is......
...we need to see the dress first and then we can answer this question.
But let me try to explain the factors that enter into the answer to this question.
There are many different needs when altering and fitting a wedding dress. The actual amount of time it takes to do the alteration typically depends on three primary factors:
- the style of the wedding dress,
- the complexity of the desired alteration, and
- the backlog of work to be done by the wedding dress alterations specialist
Style of the Wedding Dress
A heavily beaded gown will require more time for an alteration affecting the beaded area than a simple wedding dress. Beads must be handled with care to make sure the gown keeps its look when altering an area of the gown involving beads and other adornments.
Hemming sleeves with buttons and beads require more time than sleeves without buttons or beads.
A wedding dress with multiple layers will likewise require more time for a hem or bodice alteration than a simple wedding gown. We must hem each layer when hemming a wedding dress...and the more layers, the more time it takes for the alteration. The number of layers and the structure of the wedding gown will also impact the job of replacing a wedding dress zipper.
Complexity of the Alterations
It often takes less time to hem a bridal gown than to take it in or let it out. Removing straps in a wedding dress can be simple, but if combined with a bodice alteration...and it often is, the process can become more complicated and more time consuming.
Adding a bustle might be simple. But again this depends on the complexity of the gown, especially the number of layers and type of fabric. Beading can also affect a bustle. When adding a bustle, I recommend adding more than one, even on a simple wedding dress. If the Bride steps on the hem or sits the wrong way, a single bustle can break...so always add more than one. Add even more when the train is heavy and extra long.
How Many Fittings?
One other common factor that can affect the time it takes to do bridal gown alterations is the number of fittings required to make sure your wedding dress fits perfectly. Again, a hem on a gown without extra layers or beading should take fewer fittings while changes to the design or taking in or letting out the bodice typically requires more.
As I've said in my previous wedding gown blog posts, the best solution is to purchase a wedding gown that most nearly fits you. But our commitment to our Brides is that we'll do whatever it takes to get your wedding gown alterations in Birmingham done right and on your schedule. All I suggest is to make arrangements ahead of time and meet with with your alterations specialist. Let her see the wedding gown to get a good idea of the complexity of the wedding gown and the required wedding gown alterations.
Backlog
A person can get only 8 hours of work done in 8 hours. But an experienced seamstress has fewer "start-overs" and can get more done than a less experienced seamstress. However, a major issue for completing wedding dress alterations is to make an appointment with your wedding gown specialist and keep the appointment...and all subsequent fitting appointments That will help insure timely completion of your wedding dress alterations
Experience Counts
One last bit of advice is to make sure your seamstress is qualified and experienced with wedding gown alterations. For successful wedding dress alterations, experience is critical. A seamstress or even a tailor who spends all of their time hemming pants and sleeves...or even making men's suits... might not be able to handle a wedding gown correctly.
My suggestion is to make sure your wedding gown specialist is a qualified dressmaker and has years of experience with wedding dress alterations. This will reduce the number of fittings required and get your wedding dress alterations completed on schedule. And you'll stand a better chance of getting it done correctly when your wedding gown specialist is qualified.
(C) 2009 - 2010 Champion Wedding Gown Specialist. All Rights Reserved
I asked wife about what the wedding gown really means to the bride after a decade or two. With our 40th anniversary approaching, Sherry is quite qualified to respond to this...but without her wedding gown. That's right, we're in the wedding gown preservation business and we don't have her gown. That's sad, but it's a fact.
This is how she answered that question:
"The wedding dress to a bride is like the proverbial glass slipper to Cinderella. When you finally find the right wedding dress, nothing else seems to matter quite as much. It becomes easier to pick out the cake, the invitations; even the menu is easier when you've found just the right wedding dress. Like the glass slipper that fit just right, you'll know when you found just the right wedding dress.
"It doesn't matter if you're looking for second hand wedding gowns, brand new couture bridal gowns or even vintage bridal gowns passed down from family members. When the dress is right, the feeling is right...wherever you get it.
"Looking for wedding dresses can be like finding the right man. There's one out there for every woman...but sometimes you have to really search and try on a bunch of them! But be careful. If you really like one and you put it back on the rack for others to try on while you're still looking, it might not be there when go back. You'll know when you've found the right wedding dress...and the right man.
"Your wedding gown will absorb your wedding memories like a sponge. Years from now, when you hold your gown again, these memories will come flooding back. It's like a line from a John Denver song I remember...‘It will fill up your senses, like a night in the forest.'
"That's the meaning, the emotion of a wedding dress to me. Maybe it's the months of planning for your wedding day, your relationship with your Maid of Honor, the emotions on the trip home after the honeymoon and much more. From the broken beading on the wedding dress, to the grass stains from the outdoor reception, these memories never fade as long as you have that wedding dress. After your wedding dress is cleaned, repaired and preserved, the details of the day remain in your mind when you revisit your gown...like a night in the forest.
"And that's why we're in the business of preserving wedding memories through wedding dress cleaning and preservation in Birmingham, Alabama."
(C) 2009 - 2010 Champion Wedding Gown Specialist. All Rights Reserved
Here's my Top 10 list on why you shouldn't spend any time or money on bridal gown care, including bridal gown cleaning and preservation.
10. Your gown is so UGLY that nobody would ever want to wear that wedding dress again...and it's so ugly that you don't ever want to see it again after your wedding.
9. You just plan on hanging your wedding dress in your closet and since you have plenty of closet space you can leave it there for the next 20 years. After all, you have no use for the half of the closet your wedding gown takes up anyway. A cleaned and preserved wedding dress placed in an archival-quality treasure chest only takes up the space of a medium-sized suit case. What will you do with all of that extra space then?
8. You don't plan on having children so no one will ever want to wear your wedding dress again, including your sister, your best friend, your aunt, a neighbor, your mother (well, it could happen!), a cousin, a niece, a daughter of your best friend...or someone who just can't afford to buy her own wedding dress!
7. You don't plan on selling your wedding gown, so it can just hang in the closet, stains and all, with the seams stretching. Who knows...over time you might have a beautiful, multi-colored wedding dress!
6. PETA loves you. You are kind to all sorts of critters. Moths and their larvae love to munch on traces of food. They just love wedding cake so leave some on your wedding dress and don't get your wedding dress cleaned and preserved. The critters will love your for it. This might even add some decorative holes to your wedding dress so there is really no reason to clean and preserve your wedding dress.
5. Since nobody sweats in Birmingham, Vestavia Hills, Chelsea, Hoover, Sylacauga, Homewood, Mountain Brook (I guess just about anywhere in Alabama)...especially in the summer, there is no need to clean your wedding dress.
4. You can save a couple of hundred bucks and invest it in the stock market rather than invest in a wedding gown cleaning. Think how much money you will have in 20 years. Nobody loses in the stock market!
3. You won't need to get your wedding dress cleaned since most brides in Alabama don't use makeup. Since you don't have to worry about makeup stains getting on your wedding gown, you just won't need to get it cleaned.
2. Because every bride-to-be who tried on that second hand wedding dress you bought at the consignment shop was clean and had washed her hands before she tried on the gown, you really don't need to clean the wedding dress before your wedding.
AND THE TOP REASON TO NOT CLEAN AND PRESERVE YOUR WEDDING DRESS IS...
1. You don't want to keep your wedding memories fresh and alive...for ten years, 20 years or even 40 years (that's where my wife, Sherry, and I will be on June 27 this year)...don't even consider finding a certified wedding gown specialist and getting your wedding dress cleaned and preserved. After all, who cares???
(C) 2009 - 2010 Champion Wedding Gown Specialist. All Rights Reserved
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Are your aware of the many problems that can arise with your wedding gown, both before and after your wedding? While wedding gown cleaning and preservation by a certified wedding gown specialist is absolutely essential for the long-term protection of your wedding gown, there are many things YOU can do to protect your wedding gown. Even a simple wedding dress needs your attention.
The three culprits that can cause many of the problems with the long-term protection of your wedding gown that you need to keep in mind include:
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Kids
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Pets
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Heat and Humidity
OK...so that's four...but I'll talk about heat and humidity in the same context.
Watch Out for the Kids
First, kids don't always know the significance of a wedding gown to the bride. This is always a concern both before and after the wedding. Of course, the little girls want to preen while imitating the big girls. So they may "try on" your gown just to feel like a big girl. Greasy hands, dirt, ice cream or just innocent oils from her hands can do a job on your gown. Guard against this.
And for the little boys and girls, they might just want to hide from their friends when playing inside. The bottom line here ladies...put your gown away so it's not attracting the kids. Don't let let your gown become an "attractive nuisance" to any youngsters exploring your home. Messy hands, noses, hair...and maybe some body parts I haven't thought of...can all cause problems for your gown. The last thing you need is to get your gown out to take it to your wedding site just to learn that little Billy ate some chocolate ice cream while hiding behind your bridal gown stored in the closet.
Plastic Can Help...But Only For So Long
If your wedding gown is in your possession for a couple of months before your wedding, it's OK to keep it in the plastic bag you might have received from your gown shop or the wedding gown dry cleaning specialist. But even two months is pushing it a little because plastic emits fumes that can cause a gown to discolor. Don't leave it in plastic for much longer than a couple of months. But your wedding gown needs protection, both before and after the wedding.
And What About Pets?
There have been problems with bridal gowns from pets on more than one occasion. Once, a frantic bride brought a gown in when she found out that she had locked her pet cat in the closet with her gown. It's amazing what a cat's claws can do to a wedding gown in just a short period of time. A couple of hours with a seamstress who is qualified to handle wedding gown alterations can work wonders with a scratched and clawed wedding gown. And while not perfect, I'm betting that no one noticed...but the bride.
I know of another case where a bride had her bridal gown dry cleaned after the wedding and was storing it in a closet. The cat got in, had her litter of kittens overnight, and made a mess out of her gown.
The bottom line here is to protect your gown...before and after the wedding. I believe the best way to protect your gown after your wedding is by dry cleaning and preserving by properly boxing your gown using the right materials...including acid-free "treasure chest" and tissue are essential. Hanging your gown in a closet for a long time will result in seam streatching and leaves your gown exposed to other risks...like kids and pets.
Coincidentally, I can help you with proper wedding gown preservation methods! We are a Certified Wedding Gown Specialist.
I'll give you the low down on HEAT and HUMIDITY in the next post! |
(C) 2009 - 2010 Champion Wedding Gown Specialist. All Rights Reserved