A plastic bag, padded hanger and some mothballs just won't cut it. To look phat years from now, your gown definitely deserves some TLC. Here are some tips to help keep your dress fresh and lovely.
- 1. Take your dress to a professional dry cleaner within a month of your quince. The longer you wait, the greater the chances that any stains on it will bond and seal permanently to the material.
- 2. Think pre-quince prevention to avoid possible problems post-cleaning. For example, take care to spray your body”not your gown” with perfume. The alcohol in fragrances and other beauty aids like hairspray can leave ugly yellow stains you won't see until after your beautiful dress has been dry-cleaned. Ay carramba!
- 3. Don't drive around with your dress in the back of your parents' car waiting until someone has the time to drop it off at the cleaner's. Sunlight and heat in a closed car may fade your garment and weaken fabric fibers.
- 4. Shop around for a dry cleaning business specializing in caring for formal gowns. Check out those that handle wedding dresses and prom wear.
- 5. When choosing a dry cleaner, don't be shy about asking how they'll care for your dress. For instance, your quince gown should be turned inside out to protect any beads, sequins, delicate embroidery and/or lace work.
- 6. Ask that your dress be cleaned individually, not with other gowns. Request that stains be hand-treated, and be sure to ask about the use of an anti-sugar stain treatment to remove sugar stains (icing or champagne-toast spills), which regular dry-cleaning fluid won't normally dissolve.
- 7. Pack your tiara and hoop skirt separately. The tiara may catch on or tear fabrics, as well as rust/brown your gown. The hoop skirt may overcrowd the gown, creating a wrinkle factor; the hoop skirt's metal parts and rubber waistband can also cause browning. Remove bust pads to prevent possible yellowing from adhesive glues.
- 8. Check for and repair loose hems, tears and rips, lost beading or other decorative elements.
- 9. Ensure all storage packaging is acid-free. If the box has a clear window, make sure it's acetate instead of plastic; the former is acid-free, while the latter isn't.
- 10. To guard against unwanted surprises, ask to see the dress before it's packed, then watch it being placed in the acid-free packing box. Even if it's already been sealed, request it be carefully opened for viewing. (To help prevent contamination, examine with gloves before re-sealing.)
Sadly, you can't always trust the dry cleaner or the outside agency they may have sent it to for cleaning," comments Edania Maldonado, a quince mom. "My sister insisted on seeing her wedding gown after it had been 'cleaned' and packed. Good thing, too, because when they opened it before her eyes, they found it was wrinkled, dirty and even had a dead fly sealed along with it! So, I wasn't taking any chances with my daughter's gown and opened the box in front of the manager before making my final payment. Luckily for us, everything was OK and we re-sealed the gown in its box. But imagine if my sister had not had the foresight to check. She might have opened her dress box years from now only to find it ruined and with no way to prove the fault lay with the original dry cleaner. The same thing could just as easily have happened to us or to any other quince mom and daughter. I mean, for all we knew, it could even have been someone else's dress packed away by mistake!"
- 11. If you do encounter problems with shoddy or incomplete work upon inspection, don't pay and go elsewhere. If you think it was an honest mistake" the store owner may have sourced it out to an outside vendor and sincerely believed the work was professionally performed—insist on getting it done right at no additional cost, or free of charge.
- 12. Store your gown in a place with low humidity and even temperature. Keep away from basements, attics or garage storage areas.
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