You might have been longing for your big day in a perfect wedding dresses looking like a princess since you were a child. You might pay hundreds or thousands of pounds for your dream wedding dress. I bet you want to keep your favorite dress looking amazing after many years. Or you even would like to pass your cherished wedding gown to your daughter or granddaughter as an heirloom. Knowing how to clean your wedding dress is definitely important before you store it.

There are four common ways to clean your wedding dress and its accessories- dry cleaning, hand washing, machine washing and spot treatment. You need to pick the proper method to wash your wedding gown according to its fabrics and accessories.

Dry Cleaning

Dry cleaning is the most popular way to wash a complicated dress like a wedding gown. And sometimes you may find a "Dry Clean Only" tag on the care label. Especially when the gown is made by fabrics such as charmeuse, silk, crepe, taffeta, silk Shantung，lace, lame, brocade, silky crepe, georgette, etc. In this case, the safest way is taking your dress to a professional dry cleaner. Make sure that your dress is cleaned alone to avoid color mix or snags by the sharp beads. If there is no "Dry Clean Only" mark, you need to check if the dress carries any embellishments unsuitable for dry cleaning. For example, the colored beads are easy to be discolored by dry cleaning, as well as sequin and paillette.

Hand Washing

If dry cleaning is not the only advised way to wash your wedding gown, washing by yourself is a good choice for saving money and having fun perhaps. Before washing your wedding dress, check if the fabric can be hand washed without causing any damage. Some fabrics can be only washed gently and carefully to avoid shrunk or deformation, such as velvet, stretch jersey knit, organza, stretch mesh, linen, etc. Meanwhile, detach the embellishments that cannot be hand washed before cleaning. After the cleaning, do not squeeze or twist it to deform or rumple the shape of your dress. Just spread it out flatly and leave it dry naturally. Stay away from the strong sunshine as the luster of the fabric might be decreased or changed.

Machine Washing

As usual, machine washing is not recommended for a wedding dress, especially the full automatic way. The embellishments on the dress might scratch the dress fabric and the color fades under the high-speed running of the rotating cylinder of the washing machine. If you insist on washing your dress by the machine, make sure all the steps are under control. Take down all the accessories that might damage your dress, turn inside out and slow down the wash speed when washing. Do not dry the dress by the machine. Just take it out and dry it as the same way to the hand wash.

Spot Treatment

Spot treatment is popular in washing the ornaments on the dress. Generally, there are various decorations on the wedding dress, such as a bow, sashes, laces, beads, embroideries, rhinestones, glitters, applique, jewels, feather and so on. Most of them should be spot cleaned. Moreover, embroideries, glitters, and applique can only be spot treated but not washed.

After cleaning and drying the wedding gown, fold it with the tissue paper and preserve it in an acid-free, museum-quality, sealed box. Of course, don’t forget to take out the stuffs such as pads or tulle that might break down or dissolve as time flies and destroy your gown.

Take the above tips into account, you will find the most suitable way to wash your wedding gown.