A wedding gown is unlike any other garment in our wardrobe – at the very least, in the sense that for almost all of us, it’s a garment that we only wear once in our lives. But, either before or after our wedding, we may need to get it cleaned, in which case it’s incredibly important to know how to clean a wedding dress properly so as not to damage such an important and irreplaceable, not to mention valuable piece of clothing.
Can You Wash a Wedding Dress Yourself?
Here’s the thing: basically, every expert agrees that a wedding dress should never, ever be washed a home, and strictly left to the drycleaner you trust. That’s because no matter what, a wedding dress has too many intricate details and special construction that can’t handle a washing machine, or even hand-washing practices. Keep in mind that virtually all wedding dresses are fitted for the wearer, and the process of resizing a wedding dress relies on a lot of hand-stitching that will fall apart when washed using any non-dry-cleaning method.
Even with gentle products like natural laundry pods and eco friendly dryer sheets, washing a wedding dress at home can ruin it. Of course, the one exception is if you have a machine-washable, inexpensive dress as your wedding dress, which is not actually a typical “wedding dress”, in which case you’d watch it according to its care label as you would any garment.
Does the Material of Your Wedding Gown Make a Difference?
A wedding dress can be made of practically anything – satin, silk, lace, velvet, rayon, polyester, velvet – you name it. Regardless of the material, you should not wash it at home. Again, there are too many intricate details that are done by hand, and, stitching to refit the dress which can’t handle standard washing methods.
If You Stained Your Dress
In the event that you accidentally stained your dress and don’t have time to run it to the drycleaner just yet, you can minimize or potentially remove the stain using all-natural cleaning products that are in your home already. Grab Green Liquid Dish Soap is a non toxic dish soap that’s gentle, and also can lift stains away from virtually all materials. Take a small bowl and mix together cold water and a couple drops of the soap. Then, dip a clean, white cloth into the solution and dab the stain as much as you can to remedy its appearance.
