Your wedding day is the biggest day of your life, and you probably spent months looking for the perfect dress. After all, in many ways, the wedding gown is the star of the show. Because it’s such a big part of the entire event, you’ll want to protect it for your walk down the aisle. We’ve collected four, simple tips for keeping your wedding dress in picture perfect condition for your big debut.
#1: Wait Until the Last Minute to Put on Your Wedding Dress
While you might want to get your dress on as quickly as possible on your wedding day, resist the urge and wait until the last minute to put on your dress. This will minimize the time it has to wrinkle, and the physical time there is for something to spill or happen to it. When you get dressed, put on your undergarments and your shoes first, then have your bridesmaids lift the dress over your head, while your arms are held up, slightly bent, in a diving position. Allow the dress to drop to your waist, and then deal with fixing it from there.
#2: Keep an Emergency Kit on Hand
While you might do everything you can to avoid a wedding gown catastrophe before you make it down the aisle, accidents do happen, and damage does occur. To keep damage from becoming a catastrophe, pack an emergency kit and bring it with you to your ceremony location. It should include a needle and thread, a lint brush, dress tape, and anything else you think you might need for the day. This will help you in the event that something does go wrong. If nothing happens and your dress is perfect, well, it was only a tiny kit to carry with you and no damage is done.
#3: Deal with Your Bouquet Carefully
Your flowers are also an exciting part of your day, but in your excitement, they can actually damage your wedding dress. If you are using real flowers, the bouquet will likely arrive in water. Don’t touch it if you are wearing your dress. Ask your bridesmaid to slowly remove it from the water and to wrap it in a towel for a few minutes. This will remove excess moisture, and ensure nothing splashes on your dress.
If there are lilies in your bouquet, do not rest the bouquet on your dress. The stamen of lilies can stain your dress very easily, so be careful when handling them.
#4: Move Your Dress as Few Times As Possible
Seeing your wedding dress is exciting, and you’ll probably want to take it home right away, as soon as it is ready to go, but avoid that desire. Keeping your dress at the bridal shop, or the cleaners that is doing the pressing will keep it safe until your big day. Once you do pick it up, move it as few times as possible. If you can, take your dress directly from the shop, to where you will be getting dressed, and ensure it has enough space to breathe where people won’t be stepping on it, or moving past it. If you are getting dressed at a hotel, ask the hotel what time you can drop off your dress, and how long they can hold it for.
When you’ve made it down the aisle in your picture perfect dress, and said “I Do”, you’ll be happy you followed these simple rules to keeping your dress in perfect condition. Once the big day is done, you’ll also have an easier time having it cleaned and preserved if it’s relatively clean and undamaged.
Photo credit: Katsunojiri / Foter / CC BY
