Wedding Dress Storage Guide: Short & Long-Term Solutions

Wedding dresses symbolize love and commitment and represent the beginning of a new phase of life. However, they are prone to damage, especially if stored improperly. This is because they are made of delicate material susceptible to phenolic yellowing and discoloration.

That is why properly storing your wedding gown before and after the wedding day is crucial to maintain its pristine condition and preserve it as a keepsake that you and your future generations can cherish.

In addition to improper storage, one of the most critical factors that can lead to the yellowing of a wedding dress is whether you have cleaned it by a professional cleaner.

On your wedding day, your wedding dress can get both visible and invisible stains—be they from food, wine, dust, deodorant, sweat, or makeup. Storing your dress without cleaning these stains can lead to yellowing or fabric decay in the worst cases.

So, here is a guide where we will discuss how to store a wedding dress for both the short and long term to ensure it remains in its original condition even after 100 years.

How To Handle Your Wedding Dress Properly Before Storing It?

Whether you want to store your wedding dress for an upcoming wedding event or store it as a family heirloom for your future generation, preparation is the key. So, here are the steps you should follow when handling your wedding dress:

🧼🙌Wash your hands properly before removing your gown from the garment bag. Our skin has sebaceous glands that produce oil to keep it moisturized. However, this natural oil can transfer to your dress and damage it.

🧴💅Apply moisturizers and nail paint at least 8-10 hours before your wedding. This time will allow your body to absorb the moisturizer and dry the nail paint.

🛀Before you wear your wedding dress, take a shower, apply perfume or deodorant, and leave it for 5-10 min. All this can help prevent fabric staining that can otherwise occur if you apply moisturizer, nail paint, or perfume just before wearing your wedding gown.

👰Cover your dress when it comes to makeup. No bride wants to get makeup or any stain just a few hours before their wedding. Covering your dress with another fabric ensures that your dress doesn’t get any kind of makeup stain when you’re getting ready for your big day.

💍📿💎Remove your jewelry. Your necklace, ring, earrings, or any other jewelry can have sharp-pointed edges that can pull the threads of your wedding dress and tear it. So, when your wedding event is over, and you want to change your gown, remove all your jewelry first.

🧤Wear white cotton gloves before you touch your wedding dress to store it in a garment bag.

👗The hem is the most common part of the wedding gown that gets stained. So, no matter why you want to remove your dress from the garment bag, ensure the hem doesn’t touch the ground.

Wedding Dress Short-Term Storage – Up To 6 Months Before Wedding

Suppose you have recently accepted a marriage proposal and are planning for your engagement, but you already bought your wedding dress. You might want to store your dress properly. While a wedding dress made up of delicate fabrics like silk starts to turn yellow after 6-8 months, storing your gown properly helps you ensure it looks as brilliant as the day you see it at the bridal boutique.

The best way to store your wedding gown and keep it looking beautiful is to avoid handling it too much and keep it in its original garment bag till your wedding day.

If you have to take your gown out of the garment bag for some reason, like an additional fitting, ensure you take preventive measures to protect it from skin oil and sharp objects. This could include:

Wash your hands or wear gloves while handling your gown
Removing all jewelry before taking it off
Ensuring it doesn’t touch the ground
And so on…

Note: Storing your wedding dress in a plastic bag can lead to staining and yellowing as plastic emits colorless, odorless fumes that can accelerate the fabric yellowing process. So, if the bridal boutique has packed your dress in a plastic garment bag, ask them for a cotton, breathable fabric bag to store your gown.

Don’t have a cotton breathable storage bag? Don’t worry; all you need to do is machine wash a white cotton bedsheet and dry it without any fabric softener. Create a hole at the center of the bedsheet to feed the head of the hanger through the hole.

And there, you have your breathable cotton covering for your wedding dress storage.

Should You Hang Your Wedding Dress For Short Term Or Not?

Experts recommend that you should not hang your wedding gown as it includes heavy embellishments that can cause unnecessary stretch in the fabric, leading to distortion in shape.

However, hanging your dress in your closet for the short term is safe. Make sure you use padded hangers instead of traditional thin hangers. Not only will this prevent sharp pleats in the shoulders of your dress but also reduce stretch in the fabric.

In addition, if your wedding gown has hanging straps, use them to hang it. This will take the pressure off the shoulders of your gown and place it onto its internal seams.

Remember that the wedding dress can weigh due to the fabric used, decorative details, and train length. Typically, a wedding gown can weigh 7-11 pounds, out of which the only wedding dress train weighs three or more pounds. So, if you have a long train, use an additional hanger to drape your train and reduce the stress on your dress.

Another key point to remember while storing your wedding gown for the short term is to decide the area where you will store it. Keep your gown in a temperature and humidity controlled environment. Never store it in attics, basements, or garages. Keep it away from direct sunlight.

How To Store Wedding Dress For Medium Term – 6 Months To 1 Year Before Wedding?

If you have six months to 1 year between your engagement and wedding, you have to take more precautions to keep your wedding gown in brilliant condition. Even if you follow all the tips for short-term wedding gown storage, your dress can start to turn yellow.

So, at times, it is recommended to delay your wedding dress shopping or invest in wedding dress storage box to protect your dress until your wedding day.

So, What Is a Wedding Dress Storage Box?

A wedding dress storage box is made of sturdy cardboard. It has a layer of lignin-free and acid-free paper that helps prevent fabric discoloration. Traditional cardboard boxes contain chemicals that can leach into the delicate fabric of the gown, leading to fabric scorching and stains that will become more visible over time, especially if left untreated.

In addition, wedding dress storage boxes come in different sizes and can be customized according to your wedding dress. This allows your wedding dress to rest comfortably in the box, helping prevent fabric pleating and folds.

It also helps prevent fabric stretching that can otherwise occur if you hang your wedding dress.

Does Your Wedding Dress Need Cleaning After Storing It for Less than One Year?

Well, it depends on several factors, such as:

How much was your wedding dress handled before your wedding day?
Does it have any stains after a close inspection?
Are all embellishments in perfect condition?
And so on…

Note: When inspecting your dress, make sure you follow all the tips mentioned above, like washing your hands, wearing gloves, and removing jewelry.

While you have followed all the safety precautions, perform a paper towel test. This involves placing a paper towel on your wedding dress and looking for any yellow stains that may have occurred during storage. If your dress is not in the same condition as a new one, it is recommended that you go for wedding dress cleaning.

How To Store Your Wedding Dress For Long Term – 1-112 Years?

There are times when you are stuck in a situation where you have to store your wedding dress for over one year. Many brides found themselves in this unfortunate situation when their weddings were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At times, you have to consider some special factors.

The biggest factor that comes to mind when storing a wedding dress for the long term is fabric yellowing. Fabric discoloration starts within 6 months of storing a wedding dress, especially if stored without cleaning.

So, if you want to store your wedding dress for the long term, it is necessary to have your wedding dress professionally cleaned and get rid of all kinds of stains and dust particles.

And if you have taken your wedding dress out of a storage box and found a dulled and faded dress, don’t worry. At Trusted Wedding Gown Preservation, we have a wedding gown restoration kit that can fix all kinds of stains and brings its original beauty back.

Having your dress professionally cleaned before storage or a few weeks before your wedding day will ensure that your dress looks as brilliant as it was when you first fall in love with it at the bridal boutique.

Now, when it comes to long-term storage, it is time to store it in an acid-free and lignin-free wedding dress storage box instead of hanging it or keeping it in a plastic garment bag.

How to Store Your Wedding Dress After Your Wedding for a Lifetime?

Now that you know how to store your wedding dress before your wedding, what about after the wedding? Well, if you are not planning to sell or donate your wedding gown after your wedding and preserve it for a lifetime, you should think about wedding gown preservation.

At Trusted Wedding Gown Preservation, we have a range of preservation kits for different gowns. You can choose a preservation kit depending on the cost of your wedding gown or your budget.

We will clean your wedding gown and preserve it in an acid-free preservation kit that comes with a 100-year anti-yellowing guarantee. This will help you keep your wedding gown looking new even after 100 years.

To learn more about our kits, click here.

Wrap Up

Wedding gowns tend to be expensive. It holds significant sentimental value. So, it deserves to be treated well before and after your wedding. So, make sure you protect it and maintain its integrity for a lifetime.

The cost of wedding dress cleaning and preservation is an investment that will be beneficial even for future generations. So, what are you waiting for? Contact us and let us help you store your wedding dress for both short and long term. Place your order now!