Preserving Your Wedding Dress While In Storage

Your wedding day should be one of the best days of your life and your wedding dress adds to that excitement. Even though you will only be wearing your wedding dress for a few hours, you will still spend a good bit on it. In fact, the average amount spent on a wedding dress in 2013 was $1281. This is a lofty investment for a dress that is only worn for a short time. To help make the investment more worthwhile, many brides are choosing to resell the dress or pass it down to their daughters. In order to be able to do this, you have to make sure you are storing the dress properly. If you have a professional preserve it for you, you could end up paying between $250 to $700. If you would like to do it yourself, here are some tips for preserving your dress while in storage, at a location like Add-A-Room Self Storage. 

Get it Cleaned

Before you start to store your wedding dress, you want to make sure it is completely clean. In order to do this, you will need to take it to a professional cleaners that handles wedding dresses. They use special cleaners designed to preserve the materials on the dress without harming them. Even if you don't see any stains on the dress, any type of added debris on the dress can end up changing colors over the years through a method called oxidation.

Fold the Gown

Instead of hanging up your dress while storing it, you will want to fold it up. This should be done with extra care as you don't want major creases in it when you go to pull it out of storage. In order to fold the dress properly, you want to tuck the sleeves under the torso of the dress. The dress should be folded at the waist allowing the skirt to wrap over the torso. Folding at the seams will help prevent any creases from occurring. 

Protecting the Features

If your wedding dress contains any additional attachments like beads, sequins, or pearls, you want to make sure this section does not touch any other section of the dress. When folding the dress, you want to place acid free tissue paper in between the layers. This will not harm the dress, but instead offer an extra layer of protection so the adornments are not snagging another part of the dress. 

Store It in a Box

The best place to put it while in storage is in an acid-free box. Before placing the dress in the box, you should wrap it with a layer of muslin. This will help keep your dress its original color and provide additional protection when in storage. 

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