Having your wedding dress professionally cleaned is the first and most important step in properly preserving the dress in its like-new state for the years to come. You can’t just put it in your washer and dryer and expect it to look like it did the day you first put it on in the store.
It’s important to find a wedding dress cleaner you can rely on, in order to get it sparkling clean. But pay close attention to who you hire for the job because one false move could ruin your entire gown.
Here are 4 things to look for that will tell you it’s time to look for a new dry cleaner:
1. No Inspection
When you send in your dress in to be cleaned, your wedding dress cleaner should complete a full inspection. At Affordable Preservation, each gown is carefully evaluated by an expert technician before cleaning and the best processes for that particular gown are used. Gowns are inspected under fluorescent light to identify stains not visible to the naked eye. All of the processes are safe, gentle, and environmentally safe. If your cleaner doesn’t offer proper inspection services, we recommend finding another available service provider.
2. Confusing Price Lists
The last thing you want to do is decipher how much you are going to need to pay to have your dress professionally cleaned because each piece of lace and every bead on the dress comes with a separate charge. If you can’t get upfront pricing, perhaps you have happened upon the wrong dry cleaning business. Look for companies with straight forward price lists that don’t nickel and dime you.
3. Unsupportive Customer Service
Get to know a potential wedding dress cleaner before bringing your dress into the shop by giving them a call. You can learn a lot about their customer service skills in this way by making sure that you ask plenty of questions during the call. If you don’t get the answers you need or you aren’t clear about things you’re told, it is in your best interest to steer clear of that company’s services overall.
4. Long Turn Around Times
Make sure to ask for an estimated turn around time for cleaning your dress before you drop it off. You should not have to wait months before you get to see it again after you drop it off. If the turn around time is more than 4-6 weeks, you might want to think about finding a new service provider to work with.
If you spot any of these four qualities in your wedding dress dry cleaner, it’s time to head for the hills until you run into the front door of a new shop that will give you the confidence and peace of mind you deserve.
