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Gown care

Wedding Gown Care

Before and After Your Wedding


Our Certified Wedding Gown Specialist™ will give you a free consultation and an estimate for the care of your new wedding gown or your vintage wedding gown. If your vintage wedding gown has yellowed, our Certified Wedding Gown Specialist™ can restore it to the true color. If your wedding gown is a sample or was pre-owned, there is no need to wear a soiled wedding gown. Our Certified Wedding Gown Specialists™ take every precaution to protect delicate beads, trims, and lace during the cleaning process. Our thoroughness and attention to detail guarantee great results!

Click here to find our Certified Wedding Gown Specialist™ near you.

beautiful plus size bride in a vintage lace dress

Before Your Wedding Day


Pressing

Our Certified Wedding Gown Specialist™ will press your wedding gown with meticulous care. Whether our Certified Wedding Gown Specialist™ prepares your wedding gown for your wedding day or for shipping to your destination wedding, your wedding gown is protected with a bodice form as well as tissue to keep it wrinkle-free. Many of our members offer free pressing for your wedding day as well as free pick-up and delivery.

Hand Cleaning

We know you may worry about cleaning your wedding gown before the wedding. We are Certified Wedding Gown Specialists™, and you can trust us to carefully hand clean your wedding gown with gentle solutions that dissolve the different kinds of stains. Once all stains are dissolved, your wedding gown is rinsed in pure solvent until it is completely clean and ready for pressing.

After Your Wedding Day


Wedding Gown Cleaning

The members of the Association of Wedding Gown Specialists clean wedding gowns according to standard museum-quality practices. Extra steps are taken to be certain all stains, both seen and unseen, are removed because wedding day spills such as soda, wine, and cake can dry without leaving a visible mark.

These sugary stains, which are not dissolved during ordinary dry cleaning, will caramelize over time into ugly brown stains that cannot be removed with ordinary dry cleaning. Only a special process called restoration can remove such stains.

Wedding Gown Preservation

Turn the memory of your special day into an heirloom with the wedding gown preservation service you can trust– guaranteed! Our highly trained Certified Wedding Gown Specialists™ inspect your wedding gown personally before it is carefully layered with acid-free tissue and folded into an acid-free, archival-quality wedding chest that protects it from exposure to light and air. No chemicals are added, and our preservations are carbon neutral because we buy carbon offsets from Carbonfund.org, who fund reforestation projects worldwide. When your gown is to be used again, return it to any member in more than 500 cities around the world, and your wedding gown will be inspected and pressed at no charge.

Selling or Donating Your Gown

Thinking of selling or donating your wedding gown after the wedding? Featured in newspapers and television such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, CNN and Martha Stewart Weddings, PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com is one of the best places to sell your gown online. For a nominal one-time fee (and no commission on the sale), you may list your wedding dress as long as you like. Or, if you would prefer to donate your wedding gown to a charity, consider Wish Upon a Wedding, Brides for a Cause, and Brides Against Breast Cancer.  Wedding gowns donated to  Fairy Tale Brides support education for disadvantaged children. Brides Across America accepts cash donations to fund wedding gowns for military brides.  In Australia, sell your gown through Stillwhite, or you may donate your gown to the Angel Gown Program, Australia’s first supplier of baby and children’s burial gowns, or to  The Salvation Army

GOWN CLEANING AND CARE TIPS:

For Very Special Care of Your Very Special Wedding Gown

Always . . .

hang your wedding gown by loops inside your wedding gown that are connected to the sturdy side seams, never by the fragile shoulder seams that can stretch or sag under the weight of your wedding gown.

Always . . .

avoid storing your wedding gown in a plastic bag (even a clean sheet is better than a plastic bag) or in a vacuum-sealed, plastic-wrapped container because plastic bags emit fumes that can yellow your wedding gown and shrink-wrapped containers trap moisture that can mildew your wedding gown. Also, the static electricity from the plastic plus the trapped moisture combine to set wrinkles that cannot be pressed out of your gown.

Always . . .

ask to inspect your wedding gown personally before it is put into the container, which should be a completely acid-free, archival-quality wedding chest lined with fabric or acid-free tissue.

Always . . .

ask who, today or thirty-five years or more from today, is going to honor the guarantee.

Always . . .

avoid storing your wedding gown in the attic or basement where there are extreme changes in temperature or humidity.

bride and groom kissing on waterfront

Download Our Free

Gown Care E-Book!

Get the best resource for caring for your cherished gown by accessing our free gown care e-book.

Find A Specialist Near You!

Click here to find a Certified Wedding Gown Specialist™ near you!