How should I store my wedding dress before my wedding?

To make sure you look picture perfect on your wedding day, it’s important to take good care of your dress after you bring it home and before you walk down the aisle.  Following a few simple steps will help make sure your dress looks just as lovely on your wedding day as when you first fell in love with it at the store.

Protecting fabric color

Sunlight can fade colors or even “bleach” fabric and cause embellishments to discolor. While it may be tempting to keep the dress on display, to prevent fading and discoloration, store your dress in a dark place such as a closet or spare bedroom away from direct sunlight. 

Store dresses in an opaque, breathable fabric garment bag (not plastic for reasons we’ll talk about later).

Prevent water damage

Water exposure and even very humid air can damage a dress. The most common damage includes water spots & mildew stains.

The solution: store your dress in a cool, dry, temperature-controlled space. Keep your dress away from water sources or potential leaks such as open windows and remove any plastic covering from your dress to allow it to “breath”. 

Do not store your dress in a basement or attic! Attics are usually warm and sometimes do not have ample air circulation or ventilation, which can lead to humidity. Basements are notorious for surprise flooding and can also have air circulation and ventilation issues.

Protect your dress from stretching

Many wedding dresses use heavy fabrics and embellishments which if stored incorrectly can lead to stretching. 

Always hang dresses by the hanger loops on the inside of the dress.  This takes the pressure off the delicate fabrics of the sleeves and straps. When hanging, all the weight of the dress should be supported by these hanger loops and not the actual straps of your dress. Your dress may have up to 4 sets of these loops to allow the dress to hang properly. Use them!

Never hang dresses by elastic shoulder straps. These straps are not meant to support the weight of a dress but are merely meant to keep straps in place for certain off the shoulder style dresses.

If your dress is especially heavy (especially if it is a fully beaded style), storing your dress flat may be a better choice. In this case, leave your dress in the breathable fabric garment bag (or wrap your dress in a clean white cotton sheet or specially made non-acidic tissue paper) and gently fold your dress and store on a protected flat surface in a temperature controlled closet.

When in doubt, ask your dress shop about the best way to store your specific dress!

Prevent weird smells

Pets are curious and love to explore new smells and find places to hide. The last thing you want is to find your dress has a few new frills & lace, courtesy of some loving scratches, let alone other “furtastrophes” that may leave undesired scents in your dress.

Store your dress up off the floor in an area where it cannot be accessed by pets.  

Like any fabrics, dresses can absorb odors in their environment.  Keep dresses stored away from cigarette smoke, kitchen odors, and other household smells.

Remove wrinkles safely

If your dress was stored well, the only thing you’ll need to worry about the week before your wedding is removing any wrinkles.

For light-weight, simple dresses, hanging your dress high and using a hand-held steamer to remove wrinkles will often do the trick.

Never steam silk dresses! 

If your dress is silk, leave pressing to the experts (moisture will leave water spots and it’s easy to scorch a silk dress with an iron).

For larger, more elaborate dresses, schedule a final pressing with your seamstress, dress shop, or local dry cleaner for the week before your wedding to make sure your dress is picture perfect!

Store it with experts

Talk to the shop where you bought your dress, they may have a special storage solution for their customers. After your final fitting, ask your seamstress/tailor to package your dress in the best way for proper storage.

At Memories we offer free on-site dress storage for all our bridal customers up to their wedding date so you don’t need to stress about how to best store your dress (or worry about your fiance sneaking a peak ;) )

• A breathable fabric garment bag is provided with every bridal dress purchase

• A complimentary final pressing is available the week before your wedding upon request

After your wedding, we also offer gown preservation services which includes full dress cleaning and preservation in a wedding dress storage box perfect for long term storage (plus, all Memories Brides receive $50 off preservation packages).

Following these simple steps will ensure that your dress looks picture perfect on your wedding day!