A bride and groom's wedding day is one of the biggest and most expensive days of their lives. Every detail is meticulously thought out from choosing the most perfect venue, to finding the right centre pieces. The wedding dress of course is a huge part of the big day. A wedding dress is generally the most expensive item of clothing a bride will ever buy, so it makes sense to take good care of it right? After the wedding day is over, it's easy to just put the wedding dress into the closet and forget about it. We do not recommend you do this. It is best to get the dress professionally cleaned soon after the wedding. It doesn't have to be straight after the big day so don't panic if you are going away on honeymoon or anything like that. Just soon after the day; we recommend within a year of the wedding. Here at Vanilla Bridal, we recommend Mydressbox who are wedding dress cleaning specialists. Their process is a wet, hand cleaning process with no chemicals and is very gentle on the bridal fabrics. It's perfect if you have lot's of beads or lace, or even beautifully simple dresses.
If you have left your wedding dress in the wardrobe for a few years, don't despair, MyDressbox can still clean your gown and still have amazing success! They have cleaned dresses that have been sitting for 10 years after the wedding day and have still come out perfectly. This doesn't happen all the time though and some stains can really set in after a long period of time. If a dress is cleaned shortly after the wedding, it has a much better chance of all the stains coming out than if it's left.
Some brides like to keep their dress for their daughters, some like to just keep it for sentimental purposes, and others want to sell it. Any of these options, you should have it cleaned and boxed as this will give it the best chance of staying beautiful long term.