Wedding Wednesday: To Preserve or Not to Preserve?

So, I picked up my dress and veil today, and I am so excited that they are finally in my possession! The seamstress did a fabulous job with the alterations, and it came back flawlessly from the cleaners, where it was getting spot cleaned and pressed.

The boutique gave me a whole slew of paperwork to review when I brought my dress home, including a one-pager on wedding-dress preservation done by the dry-cleaners. It got me thinking – you always hear the horror stories about those girls who send their dresses away to be “preserved,” and they come back in the air-tight, light-proof box that gets stored under the bed. A few years later, the owner slyly opens the box (which of course they were not supposed to do), only to discover the $5,000 wedding dress has been replaced with a child’s christening gown. And of course, the preservation company claims no responsibility.

Anyway, I haven’t decided yet what to do with my dress. In reality, no one is ever going to wear it again, but it is worth it to spend all that money to have it cleaned and stored?

What have you all done? Any good stories?

I can’t promise a Wedding Wednesday next week, as we will be in the throes of preparation, but we will return soon with PLENTY of pictures from the nuptial weekend!
fls

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

i agree with you -- paying hundreds of dollars to have your gorgeous dress put in a box just seems silly!

Allie_in_Ga said...

My dress is haning in our guest bedroom's closet...I just celebrated my first year anniversary. ;)

Meg said...

I had mine preserved at our local dry cleaner. It wasn't terribly expensive since we use them for our actual dry cleaning...maybe $100. I hadn't planned to preserve it, because I'm not a keep-a-lot-of-junk-lying-around kind of girl, but these were my thoughts: First, it's packed neatly into a box (albeit a large one), not taking up room and dragging on the floor in one of our closets. Second, if you're going to keep it, it really should be cleaned or you'll have to get rid of it down the road anyway because the sweat and dirt and sugar that you'll get on it during the reception will do a number on it. I don't see the preservation so much as a way to preserve my memories for all time...I see it more as a practical storage plan, just like you'd do with any other item that you own that you were putting away for awhile. Whether it's dishes or winter clothes or whatever, if you're storing it, you should do it right. That may not mean a fancy box, but it definitely means cleaning, and that's the pricey part.

If your question isn't so much how to store it, but more whether you should keep it or not, that's all you. I don't think that anyone will ever wear my wedding gown again, but I'm pretty sure Man's grandma thought the same thing 60 years ago and, while I didn't wear her gown, we had our ringbearer pillow made out of it. If keeping my boxed dress around means I can do something neat like that for my children or grandchildren, I'll consider it worth it.

Off my soapbox now.

Anonymous said...

"Sweat, dirt, and sugar" are four words I never thought I'd read together in a sentence about wedding receptions. :) Probably true but still a giggle.