Wedding Gown Preservation Pre-Stain Tips

The top of your wedding cake is boxed up, all the guests have gone home and you and your new husband are off to Cancun.  But what about your precious wedding gown?  If you don’t have time to order your wedding gown preservation kit before you leave, there a few things you can do before you pack up your flip flops and your bikini top.

Treating common stains

We offer full gown cleaning during our gown preservation process, however, you’ll make our lives much easier if you perform some basic pre-stain treatment on your dress before you let your wedding gown sit too long.  Here are common stains that occur during a wedding and how to pre-treat them.

• Chocolate.  We all love it but we don’t love it on our satin wedding dresses. This can be a bit tricky.  As with most of our tips start by soaking the area in cold water.  This lifts the proteins in the chocolate and serves to loosen up the stain.  Use a dishwasher detergent (never use bar soap) to lightly scrub the area.  We find a soft bristle tooth brush works well, just make sure not to scrub the area too much and damage the gown’s fiber.  We’ve also heard that cascade dishwasher soap works really well.  Remember, you’re just pre-treating, not eliminating the stain. That’s our job.
  
  
• Candle Wax.  Hopefully the majority of the wax landed on your dress and not your skin.  The first thing you can do is put your dress next to those frozen peas that have been sitting in your freezer since 1996.  We’re serious!  Remove the dress in a few hours and use a spoon to chip away as much of the now brittle wax from the dress.  Don’t use a knife as you risk the chance of pulling fibers.  After you’re done grab your ironing board and clean towel that you don’t mind throwing away after.  Place the thin towel on your dress and let your iron sit on top of the towel for 20-30 seconds.  This should pull the wax away from the dress and absorb into the cotton of the towel.
  
  
• Soda, coffee or tea.  The most important thing to remember with these is not to soap as this will permanently set the stains into your dress.  Instead use white vinegar (2/3 water and 1/3 white vinegar) in a spray bottle.  Spray, let it sit for a minute and rub with a cloth or soft tooth brush.

Order your wedding gown preservation kit before you leave and when you come back send the wedding dress to us and we’ll take care of the rest.