Cleaning Your Wedding Dress

No matter how careful you are during the ceremony and reception, chances are you will experience a small spill or staining scenario before the honeymoon begins. Relax, because there are dry cleaners available to help. Before you store your wedding dress you should have it dry cleaned by a trusted professional to ensure the stains do not set in. If you are leaving your reception and heading straight to the honeymoon, it is a good idea to designate someone, such as the Maid of Honour to be in charge of getting the dress to the cleaners as soon as possible after the wedding.

It is highly possible that stains you did not see on your wedding day will show up over time as the dress is in storage. This is why it is especially important to inspect the dress every year to see if there are any new stains. If any new stains have shown up on the fabric, take the dress to the dry cleaner's again. It is not a good idea to attempt to get the stains out on your own, because you may damage the fabric.

If the gown is made from polyester, hand washing is safe and will work to remove any water based stains that dry cleaning may not be able to remove. If you have any doubts as to whether not your dress is safe to hand wash, speak to the dry cleaner first. If you are brave enough to hand wash the dress yourself, do so very carefully, massaging the stain with a tooth brush rather than scrubbing it with a cloth. This will work better to remove the stain without damaging the fabric. Watch the cleaning solutions you use because some of them may cause discolouration of the fabric. It is best to use a mild soap and warm water. Don't forget to rinse the dress, because leaving the soap on it for extended periods of time can also damage the fabric. Line dry the dress. When it is completely dry, store it in a proper wedding dress box that is acid free, pH balanced, and contains no window. But certainly for the safest option, use a professional dry cleaners!