A lot of brides dream about their wedding days years in advance. One of the things they dream about the most is how they will look in their wedding dress. There seems to be this unknown mythological wonder that is hoisted in the process of picking out a wedding dress. It can end up leaving a lot of soon-to-be brides feeling extremely overwhelmed and stressed out. Many seek perfection which isn’t actually something that exists.
Once you think about the fact that you are really only going to wear the gown for a total of 10 hours maximum for a period of one day, it can make a large sticker price extremely difficult to swallow. That being said, if you have your heart set out on a specific brand or dress, it is likely to be one of the things you are willing to allocate a lot of your budget towards. If that’s how you feel, you should be willing to do so. That being said, following some of the ideas below can help you ensure you get the most out of your wedding dress purchase even after you wear it for your big day.
1. Get It Professionally Cleaned
First things first, you will want to ensure that you are getting it professionally cleaned. No matter how careful you were and no matter if you wore it inside or out, your dress likely got stepped on and dirty at some point. By getting your dress cleaned soon after your wedding, you will be able to minimize the chances that you have stains set. Likewise, even if your dress isn’t dirty, it is a good thing to do prior to either storing your dress or reselling it.
If you are planning on going to your honeymoon directly after your wedding day, you can always ask your Maid of Honor or your mom to drop your dress off at the professional cleaners the day after. This can ensure that you are able to keep your dress as clean as possible to avoid having stains set in and ruin it forever.
2. Preserve Your Dress
Wedding dress preservation is something that you should be thinking about from the very onset of your wedding. In fact, you should begin thinking about this as soon as you find your wedding dress. You want to ask the consultant to assist you or simply look at the dress’ tag to see how the dress can be cleaned and preserved.
Every wedding dress will need to be cleaned prior to being stored or preserved. Therefore, you don’t want to skip the first step mentioned above. You want your cleaner to allow you to go over the dress to ensure it is fully cleaned prior to storage. If you are looking to wear it again at some point or even pass it onto your kids, you will want to ensure that you are packing it safely in an acid-free archival box.
3. Storing It
As soon as your dress has been professionally cleaned and gone through the appropriate preservation process, you are going to want to store it. It’s important to know that you want to keep your dress and the box you are storing it completely out of any natural or artificial light as it can negatively impact the fabric. Thus, you want to try to store it in a dark room such as your closet. Also, you don’t want it to be placed and stored in a humid environment like your basement or anywhere that it will be exposed to extreme temperatures.
4. Sell The Dress
If you happened to empty your bank account just to get the wedding dress of your dreams, it might be a good idea to resell it. This is one of the best ways to ensure that you are able to get the dress of your dreams without having to weigh the burden of buying it forever. Luckily, it is now easier than ever before to do this which makes it a viable option. You can get a lot of the money you spent on the dress back and it can give you the opportunity to pass your dream dress on to another bride who can enjoy it.
If you are looking to sell your dress after the wedding, there are plenty of options to consider including eBay.
No matter what you end up deciding, you want to keep your dress in its best condition prior to storing or selling it.
