Why Clean and Preserve Your Bridal Gown? Keeping your wedding gown in the best possible condition should be your primary concern. Let’s face it. Weddings can be hard on a gown. You may be dancing and moving around. The people attending your wedding want to talk with you all the while everyone is eating, drinking, dancing and just plain having a good time. Your wedding gown is exposed to all sorts of abuse. The hem may drag the ground…dirt and grass stains are common. You might step on the hem and tear the seams or bustle. You might close the limo door on the gown and get grease on it. There are so many calamities possible that it is difficult to avoid them all. For these reasons, you need to address the care for your gown as soon after the wedding as possible.
For second hand wedding dress, including consignment wedding dressess, or wedding dresses borrowed from some else, you will likely need to clean and press your gown before your wedding. Champion Wedding Gown Specialists can help you with that.
Spills containing sugar, salt and acid will usually dry clear and invisible to the naked eye and will turn yellow or brown over time. Our unique anti-sugar stain treatment, featured in Modern Bride and Brides, ensures that all sugar, salt and acid, seen or unseen, is removed.
After the wedding, many bridal gowns are returned to the plastic garment bag that came with the gown. And there it sits…for months or even years. Maybe you planned to get it cleaned and preserved right after the wedding…but perhaps “life” gets in the way of these good intentions. So what can happen to this gown?
Oxidation of Stains. The first problem is oxidation of stains. Just don’t make the mistake of keeping your gown in a plastic bag for any extended period of time. This includes plastic bags from you dry cleaner or even the thicker bag that came with your gown when you bought it. Gowns placed in plastic bags are exposed to chemical fumes that are quite harmful to the long-term maintenance of your wedding gown. This is a common mistake but one easily corrected. These bags are intended to protect your gown during transport and for short periods of a week or two. Some gown cleaners may recommend cleaning and vacuum sealing the gown. Avoid this at any cost. It will damage your gown over the years.
What are the most common problems requiring wedding dress cleaning?
- Yellowing
- Oxidation
- Mold and mildew Stretched seams
- Permanent creasing
- Light
- Dust
Removing your wedding dress from the plastic bag, getting it professionally dry cleaned and then getting a wedding dress preservation by a Certified Wedding Gown SpecialistTM using totally acid-free materials to package your wedding dress are the best protections against yellowing.
Getting a wedding dress cleaning is the best method to avoid oxidation spots that usually appear within a year. These stains typically result from sugar, salt and acid deposited on the gown from food, perspiration and makeup. The sooner these are discovered and addressed, the more likely is your chance of success in correcting this problem. And the best way to keep these problems from recurring is to get a wedding dress preservation.
The best way to protect your gown against mold, mildew, light and dust is to clean and preserve it. Boxing your cleaned gown in a totally acid-free environment is the best method of preserving your gown successfully for the next generation. Acid will contribute to discoloration of a gown over years, so it is important to use totally acid-free tissue and boxes. Some boxes are represented as acid free when all they have is just an acid-free coating. Don’t be fooled. Acid-free coatings are not the same as totally acid-free and can lead to discoloration. So how do you know? It’s difficult for the consumer to be sure. The best way is to be able to trust your wedding gown specialists. Champion Wedding Gown Specialist uses totally acid-free packaging. Guaranteed! Our acid-free, museum quality, archival wedding chest is the best in the business for wedding dress preservation.
We also seal the box with tape. This doesn’t mean that you cannot remove the gown. But we believe a sealed box provides more protection...and less likelihood of someone breaking the seal and handling the gown "by mistake" or household pests
When you handle the gown, we provide white cotton gloves in your box to keep body oil from your hands off the gown. Body oils can cause a gown to yellow. And since we pack tissue extensively around the folds in the gown to prevent permanent creasing, you must re-pack the gown with the same extent of packaging in order to avoid these problems down the road. Proper boxing with tissue to cushion the folds is quite effective in preventing permanent fabric creases.
What is our wedding dress cleaning process? All gowns have their own unique composition requiring knowledge of fabrics, weaves, construction and components such as lace, embroidery, beading, and other endowments. And of course, stains, seen or unseen are always an important consideration. We evaluate all of this information in designing a treatment plan for your gown. Whether your gown is a simple wedding dress or an elaborate designer wedding gown, every gown needs to be cleaned after the wedding. And if you plan on keeping your gown for any reason, wedding gown preservation by qualified wedding gown specilaists is essential.
Inspection - Our process begins with a careful inspection, preferably with you present. Your knowledge of the gown including any “accidents” that may have happened is always helpful at this stage. We will look for signs of sugar, salt and acid stains and use special black lights to identify invisible stains that may yellow over time. We will inspect the hem to look for soil and wear as well as loose hems and seams. We will carefully inspect the gown and determine the fabric content since the fabric determines the exact cleaning treatment required. We will also check the gown for tears, which are not uncommon, especially with full-length gowns. We have an expert seamstress...a dressmaker...available to consult about repairs to your gown. It is your decision whether or not to repair the gown at this time.
It is important to understand that every wedding gown is cleaned individually with a treatment plan designed for that gown alone. We are not in the mass production business!
We will gladly provide a FREE EVALUATION of your gown or family heirloom and provide an estimate of our charge to clean and preserve your special memory.
Spot Treatment – We begin treatment by cleaning specific problem areas of the gown. We soak the hem line to remove soil and treat specific areas. We will hand-clean the sugar, salt and acid stains. We then inspect the gown again and will treat these same areas again until we are convinced that everything that we can do has been done to cure the problem.
Cleaning – Depending on the fabric content of all parts of the gown, we will either dry clean or wet clean your bridal gown. We always test to identify the fabric content of the gown. Some gowns may be 100% silk, some may be 100% polyester and others may have both silk and polyester or other fabric components. Some gowns are not properly labeled so we always test to identify the fabric with near 100% certainty…with or without a care label. Your gown may have more than one care label if the various components are made of different fabrics (for example the built-in slip may be polyester while the outer gown is silk). Beading and other adornments will also influence the exact treatment required. Needless to say, our experts will give your wedding gown exactly the right cleaning treatment.
Following the initial cleaning, we give the gown another inspection and look at all of the trouble areas. If needed, we will clean the gown again until it is as right as we can get it. Please understand that your wedding gown has been worn and, in some cases, seen rather harsh treatment. We cannot promise that we can restore the gown to its original look. But we can commit to getting it as near perfect as possible.
Bride’s Inspection - At this point, the gown is ready for your inspection. If it is possible for you to visit us, we will be glad to offer you an opportunity to personally inspect your gown before packaging. Any further touch ups or corrections will be made as needed.
Bridal Gown Preservation - Only when you are satisfied will we carefully layer your gown with acid-free tissue and fold it into an acid-free, archival-quality wedding gown chest. This is what we refer to as wedding gwon preservation. Your wedding dress will not yellow and there will be no latent stains that might eventually develop into dark brown or yellow spots because we have taken the extra steps to ensure that all stains, both seen and unseen, are removed from your bridal gown. This is our promise and it’s backed up by an International Guarantee. The museum quality chest we use is actually rated to last many lifetimes when stored properly. As the only Certified Wedding Dress cleaner in Birmingham, Alabama, we commit our expertise to Brides in Vestavia, Hoover, Mountain Brook, Homewood, Pelham and the entire state.
International Guarantee – We are committed to the lasting beauty of your bridal gown! By cleaning and preserving with Champion Wedding Gown Specialist, you may return your preserved gown to any of the more than 500 participating Certified Wedding Gown SpecialistsTM around the world who will inspect and press your bridal gown without charge. The International Guarantee of the Association of Wedding Gown Specialists is as follows:
“100% International Guarantee against caramelized sugar stains or yellowing of gown. Return gown to any participating Certified Wedding Gown SpecialistTM, who will inspect and press the gown at no charge. Improper handling of the gown without the supervision of a Wedding Gown Specialist may cause damage and compromise the true preservation of your gown.”
- By the Association of Wedding Gown Specialists.
Our commitment to quality bridal gown preservation and restoration has earned the endorsement of the Association of Bridal Consultants. A blind test of four nationally-known gown preservation services conducted by the National Bridal Service proved our MuseumCareTM gown preservation the cleanest, provided the safest museum quality packaging environment, and offered the most comprehensive guarantee.
Champion Wedding Gown Specialist also extends an unconditional 30 day money back guarantee. No questions asked. If you aren’t completely satisfied and you return the chest in original condition, we will refund the cost of your wedding gown cleaning and gown preservation.
Photo compliments of Emerald Couturies