Birmingham Wedding Gown Care Blog

Finding a Qualified Wedding Gown Cleaning and Preservation Specialist

Here's A Story of What Can Go Wrong With Wedding Dress Cleaning, Preservation and Restoration.   Plus Three Tips on How To Find The Right Wedding Gown Specialist For You.

We love hearing happy stories about a successful wedding dress restoration and preservation.  When done properly, this process can help bring an antique family heirloom back to its early glory, and there are few things more exciting than feeling the history of a bridal gown that has been worn by loved ones in the past.

Unfortunately, there are times when a wedding gown preservation and restoration is not done successfully, and this can result in an extremely disappointing experience.  Sometimes a bride will catch the problem right away.  Sometimes the problem cannot be corrected.  And sometimes the problems will not become evident for months or years. 

A Story About Wedding Gown Preservation

Take this story, for example, of a young woman who wanted to wear her grandmother's wedding gown.  She was not yet engaged, but knew that this would be the dress for her when the time finally came.  The dress was stained on the train, and under the arms, but the wedding dress restoration specialist that she visited said that would be no problem.

 

This woman went home with hope, excited that she would be able to share this bond with her grandmother on this special day of her life.  She anxiously waited for the specialist to call with the news that her wedding dress was ready, and finally the call came.

 

When she went to pick the dress up it was wrapped in paper and plastics for safe keeping.  The wedding dress restoration specialist claimed that this wrapping would protect the dress, so she should keep it wrapped up for as long as possible.  So this is what she did.

 

When she was finally engaged, she knew it was time to take the dress out and get any necessary alterations done.  When she brought it out of the packaging she was shocked to see that the original stains were still there, and just as strong as ever.  She felt she had been duped, and it was years after the fact that she figured it out!

We don't like these stories and they don't happen every day.  But we don't like to hear about brides being overly stressed out during the time before a wedding.  Make sure this doesn't happen to you by choosing a trusted wedding dress restoration service.

Here are three suggestions for finding a wedding gown preservation specialist that is right for you:

1. Use a wedding gown preservation or restoration service located close enough to you where you can examine the gown before it is packaged and preserved.

2. If the wedding gown preservation specialist is too far away and you must ship your gown to them, be sure to remove the gown from the packaging when you get it back and examine it yourself.

3. If your wedding gown preservation service says you cannot remove the gown from the preservation packaging without voiding your guarantee, I suggest you find another wedding gown specialist.

A preserved gown handled properly can be removed from the packaging, examined and successfully returned to the packaging for long-term preservation.  Be sure to use clean hands to handle it and even wearing cotton gloves is a great idea.  I have written other articles on this subject.  Here is a link to one of them.

One final thought on finding the right wedding gown specialist for you.  If your wedding gown specialist says that it won’t be a problem to remove a stain or other discoloration even before beginning the work, be very wary.  Until a trained wedding gown specialist works with the gown, he cannot be sure it the stain will come out or not.  If your hear optimism about removing a stain...that's good. If you hear a promise to remove it, I suggest you look elsewhere.

 

Find A Wedding Gown Cleaning and Preservation Specialist

Here is a link to find a Certified Wedding Gown Specialist™ near you.  The Association of Wedding Gown Specialists is the only organization that trains and accredits the specialists who clean, preserve and restore wedding gowns.  They are represented by members in over 500 cities around the world.  Champion Wedding Gown Specialist is proud to be a member.

We Will Clean and Steam Your Wedding Dress In A Week...Or Less. Just tell us when you need it and we'll do everything in our power to get it done...on your schedule.  Please call 205.588.4120 for an appointment. Champion Wedding Gown Specialsit 2548 Rocky RIdge Road Birmingham, AL 35243 Read more about our services.

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