Birmingham Wedding Gown Care Blog

Champagne And Your Wedding Dress

This is a 1960's wedding dress that has yellowed due to not being cleaned for years after the wedding.  It also has sugar stains, perhaps from champagne being spilled on the dress

Can Champagne Damage a Wedding Dress?

Many people say that there is no finer way to celebrate a special occasion than with a delicious glass of champagne.  This classic French drink is not only popular at weddings, but at black tie events, New Year's parties, and celebratory banquets.  Weddings are by far the most popular occasion to drink champagne.  But this drink and others like it pose a great risk to the sanctity of wedding dresses.

If you have spilled champagne or soft drinks like Sprite or 7-Up on something before, you may be aware that it doesn't appear to immediately stain.  Even when spilled onto a white wedding gown, it may seem like the champagne disappears with a few blots from a napkin.  Unfortunately, things are not that easy.

Have you ever started to eat an apple and then put it aside to finish later?  Then you will be familiar with the change of color that happens on the core of the apple.  While it is initially a light off-white color, after being exposed to air for a period of time it starts to turn brown.

This analogy is a good example of the way that champagne works on wedding dresses and other clothing.  While the champagne does not appear to stain initially, it will darken when left untreated and become very unsightly.  This is because the sugars that are contained within the drink, like the sugars in an apple, will become oxidized and transform to a yellow or brown color.

The last thing you want decorating your wedding dress is an ugly yellow or brown sugar stain from champagne, but this is exactly what you'll get if you don't take care of a spill as soon as possible.  This doesn't mean you have to run out of your wedding reception and find the nearest dry cleaner, but you will want to seek the services of a dry cleaner that is a Certified Wedding Gown Specialist before the champagne has too much time to set.  The longer you wait, the harder it will be to restore.  But, as you can see, restoration of this wedding gown was quite successful.

 

So to the question I posed above: 

"Can champagne damage a wedding dress?" 

The answer is a definite "Yes."

But it can be corrected with prompt wedding dress cleaning.

 

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