Cleaning a wedding dress

Maydot

Looking for some advice...I have found a used dress that I love but apparently it needs cleaning. I've heard the price to dry clean a dress is somewhere in the region of £70 which makes the dress a lot less affordable (added onto the P&P that I'd have to pay).

I can remember reading somewhere that it is possible to wash a dress inside a quilt cover on a delicate machine wash or that they can be carefully hand washed in a bath. Does anyone have any experience of this and did everything turn out OK?

The dress looks like a satin material, there is fairly minimal embroidery and I can't see any sequins or beads (if there are there are very few). It is quite a full dress though so it probably wouldn't fit inside my washing machine...was thinking maybe a launderette machine might be better.

Any advice gratefully received!

lindaatno9

we used to wash SOME sample dresses at Pronuptia, but I wouldn't recommend it. You then have to iron it!!
Best thing is to ak a dry cleaners how much they charge. Some prices include a nice storage box afterwards so it depends whether you want that.

Dizzie77

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=29106855&highlight=wash+wedding+dress#post29106855

this was the thread from a week or so ago - some of these are quoting much cheaper prices to get the dress cleaned, so it might be better to phone a few dry cleaners for quotes first.

Horace

Johnsons drycleaners are pretty reasonable - the local bridal shops near me send their gowns to them and I have used them in the past for one wedding dress that I have in my possession.

Maydot

Thank you for the replies....I knew I'd read it somewhere but didn't realise it was here!...another "senior moment"

Will call Johnsons tomorrow and see what they quote me.

The_Moog_2

I have yet to get off my bum and do it myself, but a few brides I met on another forum washed their dresses inside in an old duvet cover on delicate. I have never heard of any getting destroyed in the process.

Tigerlilley1980

I need to get mine done, but haven't got round to it yet. I think I'm going to try the duvet trick on a delicate wash, I don't want to pay £20, my dress only cost £65 from China lol! x