Cleaning a wedding dress

wendym

Not sure where to put this.

My daughter got married in a very un-wedding dress-y long dress from Monsoon. It does have some layers of fabric, and some beading.

Johnson's cleaners would charge nearly £30 if it went in as an evening dress, but their charge for a wedding dress is £65! For that, you could have the most enormous and complicated 'proper' wedding dress cleaned. Unfortunately, the label says 'Monsoon wedding' or words to that effect. She will not hear of cutting out the label.

Where do most people get dresses cleaned? (and I'm tempted to ask 'why?')

Mizz_Pink

The bridal shop where I bought my big pink meringue cleaned and boxed mine for over £100 i think (not sure on price) er it was filthy thats why I got it cleaned.

If the dress means a lot to her and it has a lot of detail on i would get it steam cleaned professionally and I dont think paying £65 is too unreasonable.

Have you shopped around or asked what the difference in service is at Johnsons ?

wendym

Thanks - I wondered why because, in her case:

She paid only £200-odd for the dress originally.
She will never wear it again, especially as she did the 'bride starves to get into a smaller size' diet
It just has a grubby hem.

I think I'll send the responsibility back to her.

Emms

I think Johnsons would prob clean it on the evening dress service. Would do no harm to take it in to ask them and if your a tesco clubcard person you can change your vouchers into johnsons vouchers. I got my wedding dress cleaned there and its not costing anything as ive used my clubcard vouchers

Emma

Sarahjovi

It depends on what the dress is made of and how delicate the features of it are! I was a bridesmaid a few years ago and I had a meringue style blue dress. However the material was 100% polyester, so I filled the bath with warm water and added a mild detergent and swished it around a bit, rinsed it and hung it on the line to dry! (on a very sunny day). Funnily enough my own wedding dress is still in a draw with grass stains on the hem as I refuse to spend £50 plus on cleaning a dress which cost me £130 to make! I am sure this would also have been fine washing it by hand too!

Check the label and see what its made of. If its a manmade fibre and a quick dip in the bath should be fine. If you are unsure, test a small inconspiquous bit first. Natural fibres are more likely to shrink or go out of shape. However a lot of shops put Dry Clean Only to protect themselves against people bring garments back if they've spoilt them by washing them on the wrong setting etc.,

Sarah:D

wendym

Thank to everyone - if it were my dress I really wouldn't spend a quarter of its original cost on cleaning it 'for posterity' but I think I'll tell her about the Tesco deal and leave it all to her. If she's old enough to get married, then.....

Nicki

I bought my wedding dress from Laura Ashley for about £200, and took it off and stuck it in a box after the wedding. I took it out a few weeks ago (more than 15 years later) and stuck it in the washing machine on a very low temperature, light spin cycle with some washing liquid and dried it on the clothes line on a sunny day, and it came up beautifully. Having said that, it didn't have any beading on it, and was made of a heavy brocade type material.

As for why, partly because I do want to keep the dress as a momento of the day, and don't want it to rot away or be eaten by moths because it is dirty, and also because just possibly my own DD may like to have it either to wear or to keep as a memory of me sometime in the future.

Becles

I turned mine inside out and put it in the washing machine on a delicates cycle. It had a delicate voile overlay with sequins and beads on. It came out fine

I've also washed another big meringue dress in the washer too. I took the hoops out of that one, then put them back in afterwards and it was fine.

Not taking any responsibility for anyone who copies me and ruins their dress though!

Pandora123_2

wendym wrote: »

Not sure where to put this.

My daughter got married in a very un-wedding dress-y long dress from Monsoon. It does have some layers of fabric, and some beading.

Johnson's cleaners would charge nearly £30 if it went in as an evening dress, but their charge for a wedding dress is £65! For that, you could have the most enormous and complicated 'proper' wedding dress cleaned. Unfortunately, the label says 'Monsoon wedding' or words to that effect. She will not hear of cutting out the label.

Where do most people get dresses cleaned? (and I'm tempted to ask 'why?')

How about unstitching the label, having it cleaned as an evening dress, then stitching the label back in?

:A

Contains_Mild_Peril

I have loads of clothes labelled "dry clean only" and most - including my wedding dress (which is polyester) tolerate washing. I hand wash beaded "dry clean only" stuff rather than put it in the machine. If the dress is silk, I'd probably look for a dry cleaner which would do at the evening dress price: if you have a little independent dry cleaner's nearby you'll have a better chance of being able to negotiate, or as Pandora suggests, the label could be carefully removed then put back afterwards without harm.
The last time I tried to have anything dry cleaned, I took 4 garments to Morrisons for their 4-for-£12 offer (which excludes long dresses etc). They refused to take 3 because they had no clear cleaning instructions marked, so I ended up taking them home and sponge-cleaning my velvet jackets again.

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

Becles wrote: »

I turned mine inside out and put it in the washing machine on a delicates cycle. It had a delicate voile overlay with sequins and beads on. It came out fine

I've also washed another big meringue dress in the washer too. I took the hoops out of that one, then put them back in afterwards and it was fine.

Not taking any responsibility for anyone who copies me and ruins their dress though!

I worked in bridal alterations and hire for years,you would'nt believe the state some dresses came back in and had to be ready to go out again a day or so later.We washed everything,did'nt matter what it entailed or how much it cost,it either went in the washer or was put in a bath and washed that way.Brides and bridesmaids did'nt know and what they did'nt know did'nt hurt them.They got the dresses ready to wear,packed in tissue in a nice box and they always looked perfect.Although I like the above poster don't want the responsibilty for anyone who ruins their dress,liquid detergent,cool water and care is usually all you need.Obviously you drip dry and never spin or tumble.