You have finally reached the part in planning for your wedding dress. It can be one of the most dreadful parts as you have to consider a lot of things - the style, the fabrics, and embellishments to be used. 

With all the options available, you decide on using a vintage wedding dress which was worn by either your grandmother or mother on their wedding day years ago. Isn't it sweet and memorable to walk the wedding dress that holds a lot of significant memories of the most important women of your life?

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Reusing a vintage wedding dress can be challenging for your part as you have to restore and go through a couple of alterations to fit your preference perfectly. However, it can greatly help you in saving costs compared to purchasing or creating a new wedding dress. Below are the things your vintage wedding dress will undergo if you decide to reuse and restore it.

Hello Inspector!

After "unearthing" your vintage wedding dress from the cabinet or box where it was stored for safekeeping, you need to inspect your dress. Check on the fabrics and embellishments of your wedding dress. Spot checks on the fabrics to see if there are parts that started to yellow. 

This is expected especially if the wedding dress did not undergo the proper and professional wedding dress preservation process. Go through the beadings and lace embellishments to see if there are loose parts to be noted for alterations. 

Besides, try smelling your wedding dress. Yes! This might be weird but smelling your wedding dress will help you inspect if it has acquired molds. Be careful about doing this especially if you have allergies to small particles. 

If you think your dress smells funky or has an unusual smell, molds have grown when it was stored. Molds contribute to the degradation of the fibers of the fabrics of your wedding dress. This results in the aging and evident yellowing of the white fabrics. 

First Things First- Clean Your Wedding Dress

After inspecting your wedding dress, you have to clean it. Research on the best cleaning company that specializes in cleaning wedding dresses. Professional cleaners will examine your wedding dress on the appropriate cleaning method to be applied in cleaning your vintage wedding dress. 

The kind of fabrics and embellishments used and the level of staining or dirt on your wedding dress are the things to be considered in the cleaning process. This will also help in determining the cost of the cleaning process of your wedding dress. 

Never clean the wedding dress on your own, especially if it is a vintage wedding dress. The fabrics on this kind of wedding dress are expected to be very delicate since it was stored for a long period. 

The cleaning agents, solvents, or bleach you will use in cleaning might destroy the fabrics of your vintage wedding dress. Hence, it is much better to bring it to professional wedding dress cleaners for it to be safely cleaned. 

Invest in Wedding Dress Preservation Kits

To help you in successfully restoring the vintage wedding dress you plan to use at your wedding, you will need to invest in wedding dress preservation kits. There are a lot of wedding dress preservation companies in New Jersey. 

Each company offers a wide range of services you can choose from that is best suited for the wedding dress. Some kits include complete packages such as cleaning, restoring, alterations, and storing. 

Preservation companies also have Restoration Kits wherein experts will assess and examine your wedding dress and apply the museum-quality method to restore your wedding dress and make it look the way it was before. 

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Store it Properly

After the restoration process, you will need to prepare a safe space to store your vintage wedding dress. Make sure that it is wrapped in an acid-free and uncolored tissue and store it inside a lignin-free and sturdy storage box. Fold the dress loosely to avoid creases. The box should be stored in a place that is free from changing temperatures, humidity, and light. 

Exposure to light can lead to textile degradation. Make sure that the storage place is cool and free from the infestation of pests and other elements that can subject your wedding dress to risks. If your vintage wedding dress is not properly stored before your wedding day, it can result in irreparable damages.

Choosing a vintage wedding dress to be worn on your wedding day is a unique idea. The restoration process for this can be a bit tricky and challenging as your wedding dress needs to undergo several delicate processes for it to be successfully restored. 

However, it is worth the try. Being able to recreate and add memories to the prized clothing makes it more special as you walk it down again on the aisle.