Skip to main content

Choosing Professional Wedding Dress Cleaners

Most stains should be handled by a certified gown specialist - contact Shore's Fine Dry Cleaning for a free estimate.

Cleaning and Preserving Your Wedding Dress

How much did you spend for your bridal gown? $300? $500? As much as $10,000 for a fabulous designer wedding dress? Even more?

Now imagine that beautiful gown being aggitated in sudsy water in the washing machine in your basement. Frightening thought, isn't it, that lovely investment being twisted, sloshed and wrung out at G-force in the spin cycle? Now picture it hanging from a clothesline or flopping around in a laundromat dryer, sequins and pearls bouncing loosely off the metal drum inside. If that doesn't give you nightmares nothing will.

Just as bad is the fact that there may be stains on your wedding gown that you can't see: Perspiration stains (oh, go on. Admit it), invisible sugar-based or salt-based stains, little splashes of champagne and perhaps a little ground-in dirt along the edges of the hem. Whether you know it or not, left untreated, these stains become darker with time. Regardless of how much care you take to pack your treasure away safely, what you don't know about the damage that can be done to your gown by plastic storage bags, extreme heat and cold (attic storage) or the damp musties of the basement. Your expensive bridal treasure becomes an eternally spotted and faded yellow play dress for your granddaughters.

You could attempt bridal gown cleaning yourself - and live with the consequences - or you could protect your investment by choosing wedding gown cleaners that specialize in bridal gown cleaning and preservation. Isn't your wedding gown worth it? Most stains should be handled by a certified gown specialist - contact Shore's Fine Dry Cleaning for a free estimate.

Shore's Fine Dry Cleaning specializes in wedding gown cleaning and preservation. In fact, Shore's is the only facility in the Triad region that offers a written lifetime guarantee against yellowing or caramelized sugar stains on the gown, an International Guarantee honored by Wedding Gown Specialists Association members represented in more than 500 cities around the world. Let Shore's professional wedding dress cleaners handle the wedding gown cleaning and preservation for you. They're happy to answer your questions and they'll call you in for final inspection before placing your treasure in a museum-quality, archival chest for a lifetime of safekeeping.

What to Look For When Dry Cleaning & Preserving Your Wedding Dress

When entrusting your gown to a dry cleaner, it pays to take the time to do a little research! An experienced & certified wedding dress cleaner can mean the difference between a long-lasting, stain-resistant garment and one that may not stand the test of time.

  • Free gown evaluation - professional wedding dress cleaners take their work seriously, and you should expect a proper consultation and estimate for any cleaning or repair work.
  • Individual Hand Cleaning Process, done on-site - ask your cleaner about the process they have for formal gowns. Is your gown cleaned by hand individually, or in a group with other dresses and gowns? Proper cleaning of your dress should be a one-to-one process, with one dress and one gown specialist. Cleaning done off-site? Not a good sign.
  • Stain Treatment Process - common stains often dry clear on the fabric, especially those containing salt, sugar, or acids. Invisible at first, these stains are not removed in the typical dry cleaning process. Your gown specialist should be knowledgeable on anti-sugar stain treatment, and have a dedicated process to remove these stains; left untreated, they’ll gradually turn into a rather nasty brown over time.
  • Environmentally-sound, long-lasting protection - ask your cleaner how the garment will be returned to you. Our clients receive their gown layered in acid-free tissue, wrapped in freshly laundered muslin, then carefully preserved in a museum-quality archival wedding chest. Without this delicate preservation process, gowns face yellowing and “burns” from improper packaging – long dark streaks where the fabric touches the box.
  • Personal Inspection & Lifetime Guarantee - qualified wedding gown cleaners should provide you with a final inspection before the final stages of the preservation process. Additionally, Shores Cleaners offers an international lifetime guarantee, backed by our membership in the Association of Wedding Gown Specialists. Be cautious of cleaners who do not offer this guarantee – many times, the effects of improper preservation will not be noticed until several years after your wedding.