How To Store Your Precious Wedding Dress

With weddings on hold and many postponed for a year or so, we at Martels Bridal Boutique, have had brides asking us how to best store their precious dresses until their big day.  We thought we’d write a blog with some great help from the experts – classiccleaners.net (thanks guys).

With a plain and not-too-heavy dress you could store on a padded hanger in a garment bag in a cool, dry place for up to seven months.  Hang it in a cupboard away from direct sunlight, leaving several feet of space on either side to prevent wrinkling.  You could also cover the dress in a white cotton sheet to protect it from dust.  Be sure the sheet has been washed in hot water without detergent or bleach.  Karen Lambert of Martels Bridal Boutique says “If you’re planning on storing for longer than this, get your dress out every so often for a ‘breath of fresh air’ and to give the sheet a quick wash, before packing it up again”.

Do not store the dress in a synthetic garment bag if it’s silk, linen, cotton, or wool.  It needs to “breathe”.  And, never store your dress in plastic because plastic emits gases over time that can cause deterioration.  It also can trap condensation which will cause mildew and mustiness on the dress.

If the dress has beading, seed pearls, sequins, rhinestones, or anything that might be heavy sewn to the dress, you are going to want to lay it flat.  Otherwise, the weight of the embellishments could tear the material from the weight of it hanging.  Also, if the dress has heavy fabric and teeny straps, you don’t want the weight of the dress hanging to damage or pull apart the seams. Wrap the dress in a cotton sheet and store it in a long flat acid-free cardboard box. This will protect it from dust and pets.  Rolling the dress will leave less wrinkles but you can also fold it if necessary, using acid-free tissue paper.  Try to slip the box under a bed in a cool dry place.  Be sure that your under the bed space is away from a heat source such as underfloor heating, a floorboard radiator, electronics and even an electric blanket.

Samantha Turner of Martels Bridal suggests that “An acid-free cardboard bust form can also useful to hold the shape of the bodice of your dress whilst it is being stored”.  These, acid-free storage boxes and acid-free tissue paper are available from such places as Amazon and frockbox.co.uk.

Unfortunately, we don’t have the storage space at Martels Bridal Boutique for all our bride’s lovely dresses but we hope this helps you with keeping your dress perfect for your wedding day.

Stay safe everyone – love Sam & Karen xx