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David Whitehurst is the owner of Champion Wedding Gown Specialist and Champion Cleaners. 

 David Whitehurst, owner of Champion Wedding Gown Specialist

David is a Certified Wedding Gown Specialist serving Birmingham and the entire State of Alabama with expert wedding dress cleaning, wedding dress preservation, alterations, and vintage dress restoration.

Ric Pevey, General manager in Birmingham, AL

Ric Pevey, General Manager, is also a Certified Wedding Gown Specialist and personally handles the wedding gown cleaning, preservation and restoration work at Champion.

Ric also coordinates wedding gown alterations with our expert seamstress and dressmaker who can provide all types of wedding dress alterations, from simple hems, to bustles, to complete restyling of a vintage wedding dress or a second-hand wedding dress.

Call Ric at 205.588.4120 for information.

Birmingham Wedding Gown Care Blog

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Protect Your Wedding Dress Before The Wedding - Six Easy Ideas

Posted by David Whitehurst on Fri, May 14, 2010
  
  
  
Add to delicious  delicious  
  

Of course you will do everything in your power to avoid spilling red wine on your gorgeous wedding gown during the wedding reception.  But what can you do to protect your wedding dress before your wedding day?

Here are my suggestions for protecting your wedding gown before the wedding...so your wedding day will be perfect.

  1. Before your wedding, store your wedding gown where it will be protected from kids, pets, heat and moisture. There are many stories out there about all four of these culprits causing pre-wedding damage to a wedding dress.  Keep it in a protective covering before the wedding but remember to check it for wrinkles before the wedding so you can get it steamed pr pressed if needed.  Often the wrinkles will fall out on their own.

  2. When you unpack your gown, be sure to unpack it in a clean, uncluttered area away from food, children and pets. Be sure your hands are clean and dry and remove all jewelry when handling your bridal gown. 

  3. Remember to keep all labels and anything that came with the dress that covers care for the dress and fabrics used in the wedding dress. You'll need them later.  They'll help your wedding gown specialist clean your wedding dress. Please don't remove the care labels from your wedding dress.  If you don't have the labels, don't fret.  An experienced wedding gown specialist can determine the fabric and proper treatment in most cases...but it still helps to have the labels.

  4. Inspect your dress after your pictures for soil, especially on the hem lines on a floor-length wedding gown and around the collar from makeup.  Have the gown cleaned if necessary.

  5. Before your wedding, locate a qualified Wedding Gown Specialist and discuss your wedding gown cleaning and preservation. Be comfortable with the people who will be cleaning and preserving your wedding gown.  The best way to get that feeling of confidence is face-to-face discussion of the care for your wedding gown.  Don't do it over the phone.  Don't just take it to your local dry cleaner.  Take it to a Wedding Gown Specialist...someone who is qualified and experienced in wedding gown cleaning and preservation...someone who will clean the gown himself...not ship it to some distant, wedding gown mill.  Arrange to see your wedding dress before it is placed in the preservation chest.  Take a look at the problem areas...the grass or wine stains.  Make sure it is your dress being packaged.  That's the advantage of using a local wedding gown specialist.  That's why I'm in the wedding dress preservation business in Birmingham, Alabama.

  6. My final suggestion is to arrange for someone (your Mom, your Mother-in-Law, your Maid of Honor, your brother...anyone) to take your gown to your selected wedding gown specialist immediately after your wedding.  The sooner the expert receives your gown, the better are the chances that any problems can be corrected.  Have your wedding dress preservation done as soon as possible...because there are risks of leaving it hangling in your closet (remember the kids, pets, heat and moisture).

If you have any other ideas for wedding dress care before the wedding, please let me and the other readers of my blog know by responding to this post.

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Comments

I have a question rather than a comment. My daughter fell in love with a dress that she tried on, but no date is set - and could be a long ways off. She decided she wanted to get this dress, so we did. We purchased a bridal garment bag, that is cloth, to store it in. My concern is keeping it white for a year or possibly more. Any advice other than what was said above? 
 
thanks, 
Amber
Posted @ Wednesday, September 21, 2011 8:22 PM by Amber
Amber,  
 
I have written a couple of other articles on related subjects. Take a look at "All Posts" at the bottom on the blog page and find an article on "How Should I Store My Wedding Dress Before My Wedding" and "Should I Preserve My Wedding Dress A Year Before My Wedding" 
 
But here are a couple of suggestions: 
 
1. Since you are likely to be storing it for a while, be careful if you place the dress on a hanger. Seams will stretch over time and that can damage the dress. If you place it on a hanger and dress is heavy or has a heavy train, hang it so the extra weight is shared on another hanger...any way to protect against seam stretching. 
 
2. You should consider preserving the dress. This would include a thorough cleaning and placing the dress in a preservation chest. Members of my Association of Wedding Gown Specialists will preserve a dress and then press it when you need it at no charge when you're ready for it. This would be the best way to protect the dress for an extended period of time. But again, you can protect a dress without preserving it. But it is often a little riskier that way.  
 
Keep it away from kids, pets, heat and moisture and keep it covered with a muslin garment bag that allows air to pass through to the dress. 
 
 
 
+
Posted @ Wednesday, September 21, 2011 9:56 PM by David Whitehurst
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