Wedding Dress Cleaning and Preservation Service

There are a few things that you can choose to do with your wedding dress after the big day. And, like many brides, you may want to preserve it as a reminder of your wedding and perhaps one day show it to your children or even your grand-children.

Whether you keep it or decide to sell or even donate it, the first thing you need to do is to have it professionally cleaned. And you'd be wise not to leave it too long.

1. Why you really do need to have your wedding dress professionally cleaned?

Professional cleaning and proper storage are the only way to preserve the beauty of a dress in the long term. But why shouldn't you trust your local dry cleaners with such a treasured possession? The answer's in the question really. This is a special item.

They may give great service every other day of the year, but if your dry cleaners aren't specialists in wedding dress cleaning, you'd be better off seeking out the experts.

2. What if your dress doesn't look that dirty?

When it comes to stubborn stains, grass, mud, fake tan and red wine are of course serial offenders at weddings, but the less obvious culprits are the stains that you don't see straight away like champagne or sweat. These stains, if undetected and left to age, will set-in and darken over time and they'll be all the more difficult, if not impossible, to remove later on down the line.

3. You can trust Brides by Solo to take care of your dress after the wedding.

We don't just offer expertise backed by 40 year's experience, we understand how precious and valuable your dress is to you. At Brides by Solo we eat, sleep and breathe wedding dresses. It's what we do.

Thousands of dresses have passed through our hands over the decades and handle all styles, designs and fabrics. We also understand how to deal with dresses that are highly detailed and embellished with beads, sequins or crystals.

We regularly clean dresses by the following designers: Maggie Sottero, Allure Bridals, True Bride, Brighton Belle, Mark Lesley Bridal, Wilderly Bride, Mori Lee, Enzoni, Madi Lane, Wtoo, Lillian West, Rebecca Ingram, Pronovias and Justin Alexander.

There's no stain too small and no ballgown too big for us to handle.

4. Can we remove all stains?

We offer a meticulous and personal service and we are dedicated to the proper care of your wedding dress. While we make every effort to return your dress in pristine condition, we cannot guarantee the removal of every single mark from every fabric and we would advise you to be wary of any company making such claims.

5. How to store your dress and protect it from damage

If you want to protect it from damage and ageing, it is vital that you store it correctly.

After cleaning we fold your dress with acid-free tissue paper, to prevent yellowing, into a beautiful storage box, also acid-free. This offers protection from light and dust and prevents mildew damage by allowing the fabric to breathe.

We recommend that you never store your dress in plastic for longer than a few weeks and once stored safely in a box you should keep it somewhere at regular room temperature. Lofts, garages, and basements are not an ideal environment as they experience extremes of temperature and this will increase the likelihood of mildew occurring.

6. How we take care of your dress for you

Inspection - we closely examine your dress and identify the areas that need attention.

Pictures - we take before and after photos of each dress to show you the results, which we take great pride in.

Cleaning and finishing – using ecological cleaning agents we meticulously hand clean and press or steam your dress to a high professional standard.

Storage - we carefully fold your dress with acid free tissue paper into one of our beautiful preservation boxes and have it ready for you to store in a safe place at home.

Collection - because we take time and care over cleaning and finishing your dress it can take up to six weeks to have your dress finished and ready for collection. Please give us plenty of notice if you need a faster turn-around and we'll do our utmost to work to your schedule.

7. Prices

Fit and Flare, Floaty & Fishtail dresses £175.
Ball gown, extra long train dresses or particularly marked dresses £185 +.
Bridesmaids dresses from £60.
Cleaning of veils £40-£99.
Cleaning of Bridal petticoats £30-£60.
Bridal Jackets from £45.

Preservation boxes
Small £65
Medium £75
Large £89

Repairs

We offer an in-house wedding dress repair service, price on application. We are fully insured with Hine Bridal Insurance Ltd.

Please contact the shop for details on 01638 661648/ hello@bridesbysolo.co.uk