Best value wedding dress cleaning.

newmrslockwood

Hi all. I was wondering if anyone knows the cheapest place to get a wedding dress cleaned. I have just looked at my dress that is in a suit bag ( I thought it was protected) and damp has got in and it desperately needs cleaning.
We are really skint at the moment but i cant let it sit there and be totally ruined.
Any help would be totally appreciated.

Becles

Would you risk washing it yourself?

I've washed two wedding dresses in the washing machine. I turned them inside out and washed them on a delicates cycle, then hung them on a hanger from the shower curtain pole to dry. They both came out fine.

One had hoops in, but I split the seam and took the hoops out for washing, then poked them back in and sewed the hole up afterwards.

Contains_Mild_Peril

What type of fabric is it? If polyester without extra decorations or structural supports, it can be washed without harm, and dried hanging up, e.g. from a shower curtain pole as Becles mentioned. If it's polyester with plastic beads etc and/ or a boned bodice, it can still be hand-washed with care. If it has any metal decorations then it could be a bit more awkward; excess weight dragging on wet fabric could cause wear, and there's a risk of rust staining (which is virtually impossible to remove) if it's not dried quickly enough.
If the dress is silk, I think your only safe option is to take it to a professional. If you have a wedding dress professionally dry cleaned, the dry cleaner will often provide a suitable bag or box for future storage. If not, or if washing the dress yourself, get a breathable suit/ dress bag, and put a sachet of silica gel or other desiccant in with it to absorb any moisture. There are shoe freshener sachets available from £1 shops which are suitable for this purpose.

newmrslockwood

Thanks for your replies. The dress is boned and intricately beaded so i really don't want to attempt to do the job myself. The silica gel tip is a good one though. I will do that when the dress has been cleaned. It was stored in a breathable suit bag so i don't know what went wrong. Good job i noticed now and not before it was too late.

iwanttosave_2

A lot of girls on confetti have washed their own on the confetti forums, there is a massive thread on the newlyweds section. Even girls with beading/crystals and boning have done it.

Most have gone with a vanish stick on the dirt spots and then placed it in a duvet cover (a light coloured one) and put it in the machine on a delicates or wool cycle.

If you didn't know this already, thats how they are washed in a bridal shop, they just bung them in the washer.