Why Your Wedding Dress Needs Some Professional TLC After Your Big Day

With the average price that a bride pays for her wedding dress standing at around $1320, such a garment represents a sizeable financial investment. There's no right or wrong price when you've found the perfect dress. Once the dress has served its intended purpose it also takes on a significant amount of sentimental value, which cannot be calculated in terms of money. There are three key reasons as to why you should keep your wedding dress in as good a condition as possible in the years after the big day:

• A wedding dress is such a singular look that is unlikely to find its way into your regular wardrobe rotation after it has been worn for its original purpose. However, you might one day wish to wear the dress again if you were to renew your vows.

• You might want to keep the dress in as pristine a condition as possible so that you could pass it down to your children when the time comes for them to get married.

• Keeping the wedding dress in mint condition also puts you in a better position if you should ever decide to sell it.

Professional Cleaning

At an absolute minimum, the dress will need to be professionally cleaned after the ceremony. Even if you've opted for a no fuss, low key style of dress that claims to be machine washable, professional cleaning can help to preserve the dress in the long term. A dry cleaner is certainly an option, but it can be advisable to utilise the services of a professional wedding dress cleaning company for a truly thorough job.

An Expert's Eye

A company that has experience with wedding dress cleaning will know how to identify and remove stains that can be practically invisible and yet will degrade the garment if left untreated. This includes stains such as those caused by white wine, perspiration, as well as those stains you might be able to see yourself. Take your dress to be cleaned in the days after your ceremony. Don't wait weeks or months and allow those stains to really take hold.

Types of Service

The level of dress cleaning will depend on your budget and your future plans for the dress. It can be returned diligently cleaned on a hanger, with protective wrapping (similar to dry cleaning). It can also be preserved in a box which has had all its oxygen removed, creating an airtight environment for the dress. This latter option is the way to go to keep the dress in mint condition, and yet it makes it difficult to take the dress out and admire it from time to time. Still, this could be the best option if the sentimental value of the dress is secondary to selling it as a vintage wedding dress in the years to come.  

Both in terms of financial and sentimental value, your wedding dress will require some professional attention once it has served its original purpose.