We restore quite a few wedding gowns, which is always exciting. But we don’t often get to restore the veils. The truth is, many vintage veils cannot be restored. The tulle from veils from the 40′s and 50′s is so fragile that it completely disintegrates when immersed in water or any chemicals.

Tulle from the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s holds up much better. We recently had the opportunity to restore this vintage veil for a M. Browne’s upcoming August wedding. The veil was made by the bride’s grandmother and worn by her aunt in the 1970′s and then a cousin in about 1980. So it truly is a family heirloom.

The upper portion of the veil was in excellent condition, but the lower portion had numerous brown spots. Upon close inspection we discovered that the lace on the upper portion was hand stitched but glued on the lower portion. We believe the oxidation of the glue may have caused the spotting.

Because the bride is wearing ivory, we decided to treat the brown spots separately instead of the entire veil together. This kept the veil from going too white with our whitening chemicals. We are thrilled with the final results. This bride’s “something old” will be a treasured vintage veil.

Vintage lace before restoration	Vintage lace after restoration
Full veil after restoration

A question we are often asked is how do we preserve strapless wedding gowns with Museum Method™ (hanging) wedding gown preservation? Or what about a gown with thin spaghetti straps, or straps made of delicate fabric? Are those small straps supposed to bare the weight of the whole wedding gown? Excellent questions…

Gravity – it’s very useful for keeping us all on the ground, but not very helpful for storing textiles. If you are like most people, you have probably had a sweater or two ruined by hanging on wire hangers. Which is why you now always hang sweaters from padded hangers. Padded hangers protect our sweaters by distributing the weight of the sweater on a broader, rounder, less angled surface.

We use this same principle by distributing the weight of your wedding gown with cotton twill tape straps that we sew into to your strapless gown. We generally utilize the original straps attached by the gown manufacturer to hang the dress (usually found on the sides of the dress.) But we add at least four more straps that we sew into your wedding gown bodice lining. Two straps are sewn in the front, and two in the back, making six points of weight distribution. Additional straps may be sewn into waistlines for exceptionally heavy dresses. The cotton straps can be easily removed with a seam ripper if the dress is to be worn again.

The extra straps distribute the weight of the wedding gown evenly around the gown so that no area is distorted. Also, wedding gown trains are rolled in acid-free tissue and rolled up and sit at the bottom of our preservation bag. This also helps to reduce the weight of the gown on the upper portion of the gown.

Cotton straps are stitched into lining of strapless gowns for support for Museum Method™ wedding gown preservation	Acid-free tissue covers the straps before the gown is placed in our preservation bag

One of our most popular services is wedding gown restoration. It is amazing that an old and yellowed (sometimes brown) wedding gown can be brought back to a white or ivory color and regain it’s former beauty. Often it can be worn again by a daughter or granddaughter for a new wedding. Some gowns have been worn by numerous brides, creating a tradition that ties history to the present and future. But how is it done? Is wedding gown restoration a science or an art?

Wedding gown restoration is a service that we have been perfecting for about 8 years. During those years, we have taken professional training classes and we have performed numerous wedding gown restorations and gained a tremendous knowledge with that experience. We have learned that successful wedding gown restoration is a combination of Art and Science.

The science part is the knowledge of the various chemicals we can use to whiten aged wedding gowns. For instance, we have learned whether to use an alkaline or an acidic chemical and what temperature the chemicals will work best.

While the science portion is critical, I believe the Art portion of wedding gown restoration may be more important. This Art is really the understanding of the chemicals and how specific fabrics, in different conditions, and at various ages will respond to those chemicals. With each wedding gown restoration, our knowledge continues to grow and gives us greater confidence as we work on individual gowns.

Our goal is to restore each wedding gown to the best condition possible. Some gowns can be made almost white again, while others a soft ivory may be the best possible outcome, without risking damage to the gown. The oldest gowns we have worked on have been over 100 years old. But it is not uncommon for us to restore wedding gowns that are only 30 years old. So the conditions of the wedding gowns really do vary tremendously.

With each gown, we analyze the fabric content and the condition of the gown and then make a determination of which chemical to use, what temperature to use it at, and how long to soak the gown. It is really exciting to see the transformation that can occur. Occasionally, we will utilize more than one chemical in hopes of achieving the best results.

We restored the wedding gown below this past week, and utilized two different chemicals to whiten the gown as well as possible. A third chemical was used on the veil. We are really excited about the end result and I am kicking myself because I forgot to take the “before” pictures! Nevertheless, please enjoy the “after” pictures.

Howard wedding gown after restoration	Howard wedding veils after restoration

Would you like to wear an heirloom wedding gown to your wedding?   Please take a moment to take our survey to give us your opinion and we will give you a $20 discount code that you can use for our services when you finish.

At Heritage Garment Preservation, we really take pride in our professional wedding gown care. Although our prices may be a bit higher than your neighborhood dry-cleaners, we really feel that our tender loving care is a bargain. Specialty wedding gown preservation companies (usually found on the east coast) who may compare to our quality usually charge between $400 – $700 to clean and preserve a wedding gown. So our prices of $250 – $370, for basic gown cleaning and preservation really are a great value.

Nevertheless, there are many brides whose budgets just don’t have a dollar to spare. We understand. That is why we also offer do-it-yourself kits. Our kits come complete with everything you need to preserve your clean gown. We offer both Museum Method and Heritage Box kits. Our Museum Method bag is made of 100% acid-free cotton, the hanger is padded with acid-free batting and covered with natural cotton. Our box is a top of the line, museum quality preservation box (you will not find this quality at your neighborhood dry-cleaners.)

If your wedding gown is polyester (look at the tag) you could even save even more by hand cleaning your gown yourself.

Museum Method preservation kit	Heritage Box preservation kit

But if it do-it-yourself gown care scares you too much, there are several ways to save money or make paying for our professional wedding gown care services easier.

1. Visit our Discounts page for current promotions
2. Join our Promotional Newsletter (for monthly updates on our discounts.)
3. Save $20 when you take our survey
4. Utilize our Payment Plan (think of it like a lay-away plan.)

Whatever you do, don’t procrastinate your wedding dress cleaning, as the perspiration, body oils, beverage spills, good stains, hemline dirt, etc.. become more difficult to remove as they get older. And above all else, you will want to store your gown in an acid-free environment to prevent yellowing.

The sooner spills or stains on your wedding gown are treated the more likely they will be removed. But occasionally it happens…life slips by and your gown including the stains may be temporarily forgotten. If enough time goes by some of the spills may oxidize into dark orange and brown spots.

Scary!

This real life nightmare can happen even when you have the best intentions. Recently one of our customers sent us her wedding gown with some “scary” stains on it. Five years slipped by and by the time she discovered the oxidized stains she worried that they were now set permanently. Fortunately for her, Jennifer, one of our talented staff was able to remove the stains.

Thank goodness this absolutely beautiful wedding gown is beautiful once more.

Hemline Before Cleaning	Hemline After Cleaning
Oxidized Stains on Gown	Gown After Cleaning

One question our customers frequently ask is “Which method of wedding gown preservation is best – hanging or box?” Our standard answer is “Hanging preservation” if you have closet space. This answer comes from understanding the goals of wedding dress preservation.

The word “preservation” can be confusing. For instance, one definition common in the English language is the term used for the preservation of food. To preserve a can of peaches the oxygen is removed allowing the fruit to be edible for much longer. But “preservation” is also the word used to describe the efforts of conservationists to protect the environment, a completely different process.

Some wedding gown preservation companies focus their efforts on the first definition. They may even attempt to remove the oxygen from the wedding gown preservation. Perhaps they do not understand that it is nearly impossible to make the preservation box air tight with cellophane wrap. And in their attempts to do so, they make the wedding gown inaccessible to inspection or maintenance, and increase its exposure to plastic (the cellophane and the plastic window of the boxes.) This is not helpful as most plastics are an enemy to textile preservation.

Museum conservators, and most of the higher end wedding gown preservation companies focus their wedding gown preservation efforts on the latter definition. Their desire is to keep the wedding gown in the very best possible condition overall. In fact, a better phrase for this type of “preservation” might be “optimal storage.”

This is why hanging preservation is our recommended gown preservation method whenever possible. We know that the folding and creasing of a wedding gown that is required for box preservation, is less than ideal for long term storage. We encourage our customers who do select box preservation to follow museum conservators’ recommendations to refold their boxed gowns every few years into a different position in order to minimize the risk of permanent creases from developing.

If you do not have the closet space and need to utilize box wedding gown preservation, be sure that your preservation box is acid and lignin free solid. Some boxes are acid-free on the outside only, but interior layers of the box are not acid-free. Others are acid-free, but not lignin free. Neither of these boxes will protect a wedding gown sufficiently. Our boxes at HGP are the finest available.

In summary, hanging your wedding gown or heirloom garment with acid-free materials will keep it in the best possible condition. Hanging preservation minimizes folds and creases, is easiest to inspect and requires no periodic refolding. Our bridal gown care experts can clean your wedding gown to perfection and preserve it to museum standards. And for those wishing to save some money, our Museum Method preservation kits have everything you need to preserve your wedding gown, formal dress, professor or pastoral robes, etc. in “optimal storage” conditions.

Metal rusts. Unfortunately many wedding gowns have metal backed or metal shank buttons. Consequently rust stains are a common challenge in wedding gown restoration.

We recently restored a beautiful 1940′s era wedding gown that had severe rust damage. All of the buttons down the back of the gown had rusted through and left severe rust stains on the back of the gown as well. I wasn’t sure that we would be able to remove the stains.

But to my surprise, with a little skill from our staff and the wonderful assistance of excellent chemicals, the stains did come out and this once beautiful gown is beautiful once again. Now we just need to find some buttons….

Rust stains on vintage wedding gown	Rust stains are gone!

We love the beautiful dresses that come into our shop each day. They are all different and each has a story and a unique bride behind it. We are often able to tell quite a bit about that wedding by the wear and tear of the dress itself. Outdoor wedding dresses are notorious for very dirty hemlines. It’s no real surprise, since wedding gown trains serve as an unofficial dust mops for the wedding or reception area. One of our greatest thrills is to watch the process of a soiled gown return to great condition.

We recently received a beautiful wedding gown from Linda Mumford of Salt Lake City. She had an outdoor wedding and her gown was definitely impacted. But fortunately her dress was made primarily of polyester fabrics which definitely helped us return her dress to it’s original beauty.

Polyester Fabrics have come a long way over the years. Some look so similar to silk gowns that an expert eye or lab testing is required to tell the difference. But polyester fabrics are less delicate than silk and we can be more aggressive with it while cleaning. This is why we heartily recommend polyester dresses for outdoor weddings.

Although Linda’s dress had serious hemline soiling, our skilled staff was able to clean it thoroughly. We were thrilled with the results and so was Linda. A wedding dress is just too valuable, both in costs as well as sentiment, to be disposable. Some young woman in the future will be able to wear her gown. If not, it will always be a treasured memento to Linda of her special day.

Hemline Before Cleaning	Hemline After Cleaning (click photo for a closer view

We found it definitely pays to persevere when it comes to removing tough stains. We recently received a plea for help from John Ardoin in Louisiana whose daughter had borrowed her cousin’s wedding gown for her wedding. Everything went beautifully, and the dress fit Tina perfectly, but after the wedding the gown had small brown rust colored stains all over it and no one had any idea what the stains were and where they came from. The last thing John wanted to do was buy a wedding gown AFTER his daughter’s wedding!

John and daughter had no idea what the stains were or how they got there. They were not the typical wedding day hemline, perspiration, or wine spill stains. They looked a lot staples had been randomly stapled to the gown and rusted through. A local dry-cleaner tried but was unable to get the mystery stains out. Although they looked like rust, they did not respond to rust remover.

We thought the stains looked like rust as well, and tried several rust removers with little success. We then tried a number of other stain removers, all in vain. We were nearly ready to throw in the towel, but luckily didn’t give up because the tannin remover (usually used for mustard, grass stains, etc.) was the last thing we thought would work, so of course it was the last spotter we tried.

Luckily for John the tannin remover worked and he did not have to replace the wedding gown. The dress looks beautiful without a trace of the mystery stains. Hurrah!

Mystery stains on gown
Hemline stains	Perseverance Pays – Stains are gone