Your wedding is one of the happiest days of your life. Thanks to some fabulous hair, makeup, and the wedding dress of your dreams, it will also be a day you will look your absolute most beautiful. Your wedding dress is something you’ll want to cherish for the rest of your life and even something special that you may want to pass down to your daughter or granddaughter for generations to come. 

But for as beautiful and stunningly white as a wedding dress is on the day of the wedding, without proper wedding dress preservation it can become quite unsightly over time as that white slowly turns to a pale yellow, like coffee-stained teeth! 

If you want your wedding dress to last for generations, wedding dress preservation is an absolute necessity. Follow our advice and your dream dress will stay as white and as beautiful as it was the day of your wedding.

Get it to the cleaners right away

Proper wedding dress preservation starts the day after your wedding, not after you get back from your honeymoon! This is the biggest mistake most brides make when it comes to caring for their dress. In all the excitement to get to their tropical honeymoon getaway, they don’t arrange to have their dress cleaned until weeks later. 

Your wedding dress can go through a lot on your big day. Wine spills from overzealous wedding guest toasts, frosting from your cake, dirt on your dress from trying to get “the perfect shot” for your wedding pictures, sweat from an evening of dancing the night away, and makeup stains all threaten to leave unsightly marks and stains your dress and will only get worse if left to linger. If you can’t get the dress to a cleaner yourself, arrange for a family member or someone in the bridal party to help you out and drop it off for you.

Request a preservation box

Proper wedding dress preservation isn’t just about getting it cleaned. The way it is stored plays just as big of a role. If not stored in the proper container, age will still take its toll and turn that sparkling white dress into a yellowy mess. Don’t you dare think about just putting your dress in a plastic bag or jamming in a drawer. After you get your dress cleaned, request that it get put into a special wedding dress preservation box!

A preservation box will ensure that your wedding dress is stored in a safe environment that is protected from the damaging elements of time and nature as best it can be. The air-tight packaging prevents yellowing and can also help protect your dress from excessive moisture that can cause molding over time.

Store in a safe place

Once your dress is properly cleaned of any wedding day mishaps and has been securely packaged away in the proper container, it is time to find the right place to store it. One of the biggest contributors to yellowing and mold growth on your beautiful gown is humidity and extreme temperature changes. So when choosing where to store your wedding dress, consider those factors carefully.

Although you may be tempted to stow it away in your attic, let us assure you this is perhaps the worst place to keep your dress. Most attic spaces are not designed with humidity protection in mind, so leaving it in your attic for any extended period of time is sure to ruin it. Same goes for your basement, particularly if it isn’t a finished basement. Your basement may also be prone to humidity and temperature shifts, not to mention the risk of flooding that may occur during the rainy months. Find a nice clean, dry, and cool space in your closet that can lay peacefully without heaps of other clothes being stored on top of it, crushing it and creasing it.

Refold it to avoid permanent creases

Now, just because it is preserved doesn’t mean you should never ever touch your dress again! On the contrary, don’t be afraid to take it out if you’re feeling nostalgic about that blissful day or want to show it to friends and family. Just remember that every time you take your dress out of preservation you open it up to the possibility of being harmed, so if you do take it out, exercise caution and maybe leave your wine or coffee in the other room!

However, there is a practical purpose to taking your dress out of preservation every now and then. If it is left to sit for decades, the places it is folded may create permanent creases that will damage its beauty. Every three years or so, it is a good idea to take it out and refold it in different places to prevent these creases. It also gives you a good opportunity to give the dress a quick glance to make sure if any yellowing or mold has begun to grow you can take it back to the cleaners to take care of before it gets any worse.

Want your wedding dress cleaned and preserved the right way? Wedding dress preservation is Morellis Cleaners’ speciality! Our cleaning staff has experience in cleaning wedding gowns, reattaching any embroidery or beads, and can provide our customers with premium quality, acid-free, preservation boxes that maintain color and prevent yellowing.

Have a flight to catch and your mother-in-law can’t make it to the cleaners? Our new home pickup and delivery services can make sure your dress gets taken care of fast! Call 317-803-2644 or visit one of our eight locations across Indianapolis to learn more.

Please call our Customer Service Manager on 317-213-2643 if you have any questions, or visit one of our eight locations on the north side of Indianapolis, to learn more.